Free Legal Help: Another Perk Of Aging

I acknowledge the fact that I am rapidly aging (as many of you can attest) so I make a concentrated effort to remind myself of the benefits of this process. Actually, that’s not incredibly hard and I meet and work with plenty of people who are aging quite nicely in my role as community representative at Health Alliance Medicare. Still, I recently discovered another benefit of aging that makes me look forward to reaching my maturity.

Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation offers services at no cost to folks 60 and over. Land of Lincoln acts as an independent advocate for its clients and provides professional legal advice for people involved in the civil justice system. The funding is provided by a number of sources, but mainly a congressional appropriation called the Legal Services Corporation. Other funding comes from the Illinois Department on Aging, local United Ways and Area Agencies on Aging, among others.

Land of Lincoln supports a special program called the Legal Services for Seniors Project, which focuses on the special needs of our aging population. The number of resources offered is mind-boggling, but I will list a few:

—Assistance with cases involving victims of domestic violence and orders of protection, as well as self-help clinics on divorce and custody cases.
—Help with debt collection, repossessions, garnishments and consumer fraud. Amazing, isn’t it?
—Issues involving wills, powers of attorney, food stamps or Medicaid? Believe it or not, Land of Lincoln covers that.
—What about evictions, foreclosures, lock-outs, deed problems, utility shut-offs or conflicts with your landlord? Yep. Land of Lincoln helps with that, too.

Attorney Karen Hsu says, “The increasing number of foreclosures has been especially hard on our seniors. For some seniors, it can be difficult to sustain a mortgage payment on a fixed income in light of rising monthly living expenses. Land of Lincoln provides foreclosure mitigation counseling to help clients understand the foreclosure process and help them seek alternatives.”

Land of Lincoln, however, cannot help with cases involving criminal justice, traffic cases, personal injury or probate matters. (If gunplay and grand theft auto have been on your list of activities, staff will direct you to the Illinois State Bar Association’s referral service.)

Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance is available in 14 counties in and around its main office here in the Champaign-Urbana area. Just call 217-356-1351. The website at http://www.lollaf.org/ offers a bounty of information. Staff are happy to provide referrals for similar services outside the region, so please don’t feel left out.

If you would like help connecting with resources like this, remember you are always welcome to call us at Health Alliance Medicare (1-800-965-4022). I’m glad to know services like this exist. And I’m glad to share the information with you.

If anyone can think of other reasons that will encourage me to look forward to my maturity, please let me know. For obvious reasons, I recently removed grand theft auto from my to-do list.