"...Robert Glaves, the executive director of The Chicago Bar Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the Chicago Bar Association, wants CARPLS to be a model for others. “My number one recommendation [for improving access to legal services] is that everybody have access to that kind of hotline at the early stage of an issue,” he said. “It won’t solve every problem, but they’re solving 85 percent of calls by brief advice. That would take a lot of people out of the system.”

A handful of other communities have legal hotlines, including Hawaii and Washington State, but CARPLS serves the most people using the most sophisticated knowledge management technology. In other cities, individual legal aid groups may run their own hotlines, but it can be hard for a person with a legal problem to find the right provider amid a range of options. Unlike most legal aid groups. CARPLS will field questions on criminal matters, as well as every civil topic under the sun..."

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