Prairie state legal services, inc. (PSLS) began serving clients on October 1, 1977.

They started with five Illinois offices located in Bloomington (McLean County), Geneva (Kane County), Peoria (Peoria County) Rockford (Winnebago County), and Waukegan (Lake County).

Their staff consisted of 15 attorneys, three paralegals, and one or two support persons in each office.

About 80% of their funding was from the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) through an appropriation by the U.S. Congress.

As a fledgling legal services organization they handled a wide variety of cases for their clients including divorces, evictions, welfare, social security, unemployment insurance, defense in civil tort cases such as assault and battery, and negligent driving defenses.

In their early years, there was little prioritization of the types of cases for which they would provide representation and they generally handled “whatever came in the door” for their low income clients.

Services:

• Public Benefits (Needs-based government assistance)
• Family Law Housing
• Law Health
• CareGuardianships and Powers of Attorney
• Other income benefits where alternative representation is unavailable
• Tax Law
• Education Issues