Illinois veterans need access to legal services and in response, the ISBA Board has adopted a Resolution Encouraging Law Schools to create Veterans’ Legal Clinics

By Alice Kush, Ex-Officio, ISBA Health Care Law Section

In an October 2014 survey performed by the prestigious Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, half of respondents in military households in southern Illinois identified access to VA healthcare benefits and the wait times for care at VA facilities as a veteran’s greatest challenge. The ISBA Healthcare Section Council began researching this problem last year and soon realized that many of these veterans really needed access to lawyers to help them with problems that they have developed as a result of their service.  We found three lawyers, working for Land of Lincoln, who work very hard to provide legal services to veterans.  However, significant legal services are provided by the Veterans’ Legal Clinic at John Marshall Law School in Chicago. That clinic fielded over 1,000 calls from veterans in 2014 with their staff of law students and faculty as well as the assistance of 350 attorneys who volunteer their services.  Veterans have come to John Marshall’s legal clinic from all of the state.