A couple of weeks ago I wrote of the new federal and state laws being passed that would lean even more heavily on the practicing Illinois attorney.

Now there is one possible solution to this lack of lawyers and overworked lawyer problem being considered that has many concerned.

Coincidentally, I read this week of McHenry County Public Defender, Mark Cook, retiring after almost 40 years of providing that needed service. He will be missed.

The need for public defenders has risen dramatically with the FAIR Act followed by the SAFE-T act eliminating bail in many cases. The need for lawyers grows as the number of young people considering becoming a lawyer is on the decline, let alone becoming a public defender.

The Illinois Supreme Court has greenlit this issue to create a commission to develop a program that would allow people who are not lawyers to offer limited legal advice.

Kankakee has joined with other counties in providing free legal services for years. When I first practiced law here, we had a plan in which almost all the local lawyers took part in. It was called the Kankakee Legal Aid Society. One week a year, a lawyer would sit in an office in the Volkman Building and talk with potential people with serious civil problems. If the case could not be worked out with advice at the time, that lawyer would make those dreaded phone calls to lawyers on a list who would accept such indigent cases.

The week was a tough week, and many feared receiving the call that the sitting lawyer might make. But it worked and the referred cases were directed to lawyers that the referrer knew did those kinds of issues.

But then an office of civil legal aid came into being, formed by paid lawyers who took these cases as they came in. There are now over 70 of these civil legal aid offices in Illinois, but the need for such free services far outpaces the available services.

This not yet approved proposal will put “position-trained and certified community justice workers” in legal aid to offer assistance under the supervision of an Illinois-licensed attorney.

Clearly, the idea is to provide help for struggling attorneys who are overwhelmed with caseloads, and will help more of those who cannot afford an attorney in the first place. The areas most often giving rise to such cases with limited funds available are custody of children, divorce, housing issues, debt problems, and issues of probate.

I have read that there is one Illinois county that has but one lawyer living there, and he is the elected State’s Attorney. Where does one go in those conditions?

But issues could arise with the ARDC, Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, the regulatory part of the Illinois Bar Association dealing with issues of attorney abuse, mismanagement, behavior, and ethics.

If a lawyer steals money from a client, acts improperly, or fails to do what he or she has been paid to do, this commission steps in to address the problem and applies certain sanctions against the attorney. Such sanctions can range from warnings to suspension and even disbarment.

What happens if one of these new non-lawyer assistants makes a mistake that damages the client or they commit one of these acts? There will be the need to create rules for those acting without the needed license. Also, we must consider one more issue. Liability.

Virtually every lawyer in our state has malpractice insurance. What about this potential issue?

Recent statistics reveal that there was a 0.4% increase in Illinois lawyers with the number of registered lawyers being around 96,000 with 1,949 new lawyers being admitted. But here is the scary part: 86% of those lawyers in private practice worked in but six counties: Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane, Will, and McHenry.

So, who can these non-lawyers be? Some of these people already exist in my opinion. My first choice would be trained paralegals who have the paralegal degree. Then there are those legal assistants who have spent years working with attorneys and developing all the knowledge without any degree.

How about those retired judges and prior practicing attorneys who have the time and knowledge but just don’t want those full-time jobs? But then most have suspended their malpractice coverage.

The bottom line is that the idea is a possible solution to an ongoing problem, but it needs a lot of work.

I would think many clients would not like to rely only on the opinions of a non-lawyer. When we were in law school we were required to meet with indigent clients and hear their problems in a Chicago clinic.

But when all the facts were done and the young lawyer had an opinion, he or she had to leave the room, go meet with a licensed attorney in another room, and get his or her opinion approved before returning to the client with actual advice. That way, at least the student was covered.

Work on commissioners. There is a need, but it must be more carefully outlined for the sake of the client.