Pro-Bono Network
Tenant Advocacy & Emergency Motions
with Lawyers Committee for Better Housing (LCBH)
PBN attorneys resolve landlord-tenant disputes before they escalate, with the goal of keeping tenants in their homes and out of court through LCBH's Tenant Advocacy Project (TAP). Attorneys also draft emergency motions for LCBH's attorneys to argue.
Keeping the parties out of litigation frees up the LCBH attorneys to handle more complex cases and allows the agency to serve a higher volume of tenants. Also, because volunteers are often able to devote more time to each case, each client gets a higher level of service.
The outcomes include having:
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helped a survivor of domestic violence breake her lease under the Illinois Safe Homes Act allowing her to move out from the apartment she shared with her abuser;
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helped a disable tenant request a reasonable accommodation so she could keep her support animal; and
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helped a family of six legally withhold part of their rent due to maintenance problems that management refused to address.
The beauty of this program is that PBN attorneys never have to leave the house. Each week, attorneys agree to be on call. When LCBH has a client in need, it is assigned via email and the attorney tries to resolve the matter within several days. The emergency motion project operates the same way.
LCBH is an agency who, when learning about the resource of PBN, was committed to finding a way to work together to benefit more of their clients. Before TAP, LCBH was forced to reject many of these matters due to lack of resources. It worked creatively to deepen its impact and increase the courts' efficiency by keeping these clients out of needless litigation.
We are proud to have been honored as LCBH's volunteer of 2013.