While the internet continues to burn with dozens–if not hundreds– of websites dedicated full to fighting corruption and the probate blogs report daily on all sorts of nefarious activities by judges and attorneys acting badly, and I am completely stressed out and worn out fighting this from both fronts–the ARDC and those who want relief from me and assistance because they were clearly, patently and obviously burned in probate court, someone has a great idea–get some funding. Get me and the other lawyers fighting this some assistance.
I have to pay bills and rent, I have to pay my associates, I run so low so many months, I wonder how I can do it, but I keep on plugging along. Why? Because I think the courts should be fair and just. I think seniors and the disabled should be protected and I think the internet should be free and everyone can speak out. That’s why.
Please help support this effort and see if you can’t get us do-gooder attorneys the help we need.
Read on below.
Thank you for the information.
The corruption issue in Illinois has risen to extreme levels in reference to court sanctioned elder abuse/financial exploitation of the elderly. The blatant attempt to silence attorneys so that they do not complain about the illegal deprivation of senior citizen’s liberty and property rights is disingenuous and per se corrupt. How can any intelligent person justify the facts that are disclosed in the Sykes case and the attornment thereto of Farenga, Stern, Schmiedel and the judges who rubber stamped the orders presented by the three. The conduct reported to have been demonstrated by Miriam Solo is so outrageous that ****.
How does this occur in the United States of America.
Ken Ditkowsky
From: (email addresses redacted)
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 12:14 PM
Subject: Shelton – partial action plan
Please feel free to forward this to anyone not on above email list that I missed or you think it should go to.
I sent the following letter the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation asking them to fund investigations of and exposure of corruption in the court system.
You all may want to start writing such letters. I have included a list of the foundations with the most funds that you may want to write and all sorts of civil rights organizations that I have not finished investigating.
I am also writing law school Deans, law school professors with specific expertise and I am trying to find the address to law school student organization presidents to write them to see if we can make presentations at their schools and ask for their assistance in our activism and to inform them of the issues.
I don’t think anything will change until the justice department is under pressure from class action suits asking for prospective injunctions to correct constitutional and statutory violations. This won’t happen until foundations, the press, pro bono sections of huge well-known law firms and legislators, are flooded with letters from the public asking them to act and publicize these problems. This won’t happen until we have a grass roots base of students and activists helping us put on this pressure.
Anyone who wishes to help me produce a master list of the above contacts please contact me.
Linda Shelton
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9905 S. Kilbourn Ave.
Oak Lawn, IL 60453-3539 U.S.A.
Home phone/fax (call first) 708 952-9040
Cell phone 708 952-0040
February 16, 2013
Board of Directors
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
500 Fifth Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
Seattle, WA 98109
Dear Board of Directors:
I am writing to suggest that you consider a very important new area of philanthropy that has been sorely neglected. I am also asking for your help in disseminating this information to other foundations who might be interested in these issues. I am a disabled individual, with no talent in business, financial issues, or advertising who has provided pro bono assistance to others despite my inability to assure my needs as I age. I am hoping that some group of philanthropists will consider the following and I will see the fruits of their efforts before I die.
As a physician, civil rights activists, paralegal, and victim of government corruption, I believe I have some insight in the areas that I would appreciate your considering for philanthropic endeavors. I have assisted people in family courts, probate courts, criminal courts, and civil rights courts. In the U.S., we have 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s prisoners. We have become an incarceration nation and this is negatively affecting our productivity and economy, our children and their future, as well as our morality and priorities. When non-violent persons who have made minor mistakes, are innocent, or have made poor choices are penalized with excessive pretrial detention, wrongful or rightful excessive sentences, outrageous post-conviction and post-incarceration social penalties, our whole society suffers. I believe our prison/jail/industrial complex has a much larger negative effect on our economy and social fabric than people realize.
Presently in the U.S., prosecutors have 10 times the budget that defense attorneys receive. Pro bono services provide less than 20% of the need for legal services for the poor, according to the Legal Service Corporation, headed by John Levi, son of Attorney General Levi, under President Ford. This leads to the majority of persons charged with misdemeanors to plea bargain under pressure even if innocent and at least 7 % of defendants are known to be innocent. It leads to huge numbers of wrongful incarcerations, large need for social services for families that are broken up by excessive or wrongful incarceration, failure to provide rehabilitation, children losing their parents, resolving door incarceration, increase in crime, and general moral degradation of our society.
The legal system should be a foundation for society, encouraging mediation, encouraging charity and moral human relationships, paving a way for cooperation and community involvement, and providing a path for self-redemption and then useful contributions to society by a higher proportion of our society. However, presently American Justice is a MYTH!
Please speak with John Levi of the Legal Service Corporation and you will find that the situation is deteriorating and is a crisis in America. If we cannot be leaders in terms of justice in the world, then how can we lead the way in developing countries and in the Arab Spring for others to develop their legal systems to benefit society? China and many expanding and developing countries have very poor legal systems and need to be able to look at our legal system as a shining example to emulate.
I would very much like to talk to you about all this, especially about how our family courts are through felony funding fraud misusing billions of dollars of government funds to line the pockets of corrupt officials, divert family funds to court-appointed attorneys and counselors or evaluators, and actually steal children’s’ college funds and elderly estates causing the elderly, who have funds, to be placed in very poor nursing home facilities while non-relative court-appointed guardians steal their estates through unnecessary fees, and teaching children that families don’t matter and that they should feel entitled.
Please help be a leader in this area. I am available with a group of others I am networking with to speak to you about these matters and share some of the information we have found through diligent use of 100s of FOIA requests and pro bono investigations, paralegal work, and empathy with the many who are suffering from this Myth of American Justice.
I thank you for consideration of my letter. I am asking that you consider ways to:
1) increase the parity between defense attorneys and prosecutors, as well as increase access to our courts for the poor and for all those who wish to exercise their right to remedy under the First Amendment,
2) require judges and lawyers to have greater education similar to doctors who must be certified in specialties after completing residencies,
3) to increase training requirements for officers and prison/jail guards and probation/parole officers,
4) to reduce excessive sentencing and promote restorative justice,
5) to take the profit motive out of the prison/industrial complex and convert it to a professional organization,
6) to root out corruption in the courts among judges and lawyers as well as develop more non-lawyer oversight in our legal system,
7) to educate the public about our prison/industrial complex and its negative effect on our economy and morality,
8) to take the profiteering out of the family and probate court system and make sure decisions on custody and guardianship are made not based on hearsay, but based on facts obtained in due process hearings, and
9) to promote a high level government review of our justice system and reforms to make it transparent, fair, and family oriented.
Most Sincerely and Prayerfully,
Linda Lorincz Shelton, PhD, MD
_______________________
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
8 Bridge Street, Suite A, Northampton, MA 01060
www.bordc.org
info@bordc.org
Telephone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116
8 Bridge Street, Suite A, Northampton, MA 01060
www.bordc.org
info@bordc.org
Telephone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116
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Civil Rights Organizations
Links to advocacy and civil rights organizations.
The Alliance for Justice is a national association of environmental, civil rights, mental health, women’s, children’s and consumer advocacy organizations.
ADC, the national association of Arab Americans, is a grassroots civil rights organization that works in every sphere of public life to promote and defend the rights of the Arab American community.
The Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights is committed to the revitalization of a progressive civil rights agenda at the national level. Its work is grounded in the belief that such an agenda benefits the entire country, not just particular interest groups.
CAIR is dedicated to presenting an Islamic perspective on issues of importance to the American public. In offering that perspective, we seek to empower the Muslim community in America through political and social activism.
Its mission is to strengthen and expand the provision of civil legal assistance to low-income people through the collaborative efforts of a community of advocates that includes legal services programs, the private bar, social service and community organizations, law schools, courts, advocacy groups at the state and national levels, and poor people as advocates for themselves.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The Committee’s major objective is to use the skills and resources of the bar to obtain equal opportunity for minorities by addressing factors that contribute to racial justice and economic opportunity. Given our nation’s history of racial discrimination, de jure segregation, and the de facto inequities that persist, the Lawyers’ Committee’s primary focus is to represent the interest of African Americans in particular, other racial and ethnic minorities, and other victims of discrimination, where doing so can help to secure justice for all racial and ethnic minorities.
Civilrights.org’s mission is to empower the civil rights community to lead the fight for equality and social justice in the emerging digital society through the establishment of an online social justice network. Civilrights.org leverages communications technologies to create an online society committed to the continued pursuit of equality and fostering greater understanding and mutual respect for difference.
MALDEF’s mission is to foster sound public policies, laws and programs to safeguard the civil rights of the 35 million Latinos living in the United States and to empower the Latino community to fully participate in our society.
The primary focus of the NAACP continues to be the protection and enhancement of the civil rights of African Americans and other minorities. Membership, the lifeblood of the Association, is open to anyone believing in the basic tenets of the NAACP.
For more than half a century, LDF has used the law as a powerful tool to pry open doors of opportunity long closed to African Americans, other people of color, women, and the poor.
The National Action Network (NAN), founded in 1991 by Rev. Al Sharpton, is a civil rights organization whose mission is to be the voice of empowerment for the disenfranchised throughout America. NAN offers a committed national advocacy network of activists, volunteers and religious leaders guided by the non-violent civil protest doctrines of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that speak against racism, bigotry and bias.
NAPALC works to advance the legal and civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans through litigation, public education and public policy.
NAPAS, the voluntary national membership association of protection and advocacy systems and client assistance programs, assumes leadership in promoting and strengthening the role and performance of its members in providing quality legally based advocacy services.
The National Civic League (NCL) is a 107-year-old non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to strengthening citizen democracy by transforming democratic institutions.
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization established in 1968 to reduce poverty and discrimination, and improve life opportunities for Hispanic Americans.
The National Women’s Law Center has worked since its inception in 1972 to protect and advance the progress of women and girls at work, in school, and in virtually every aspect of their lives. The Center brings to its work extensive subject expertise in the major areas of family economic security, health, employment and education. The Center uses a variety of tools to maximize its impact in bringing women’s concerns to public policy makers, advocates and the public, including public policy research, monitoring and analysis; litigation, advocacy and coalition-building; and public education.
The Native American Rights Fund mission is the preservation of tribal existence, the protection of tribal natural resources, the promotion of human rights, the accountability of governments, the development of Indian law and educating the public about Indian rights, laws, and issues.
The National Rainbow/PUSH Coalition (RPC) is a multiracial, multi-issue, international membership organization founded by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. We’re working to move the nation and the world toward social, racial and economic justice. From our national headquarters in Chicago and a bureau in Washington, D.C., we’re uniting people of diverse ethnic, religious, economic and political backgrounds to make America’s promise of “liberty and justice for all” a reality.
The Urban Institute is a non-profit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization established to examine the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation.
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History
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and its Equal Protection Clause provides Equal justice under law. Beginning in the late 1800s and throughout the early years of the 20th century, the American legal profession expressed its commitment to the concept of free legal assistance for poor people in the form of legal aid societies and bar association legal aid committees.
The first legal aid society, The German Society of New York, was founded in 1876 to protect German immigrants from exploitation. Subsequently, the agency’s protection was extended to others and in 1890 it became the Legal Aid Society of New York.[4] In 1888, the Ethical Culture Society of Chicago established by the Bureau of Justice was the first agency to offer legal assistance to individuals regardless of nationality, race or gender. Other municipalities followed suit, and in the first decades of the 20th century most major cities had opened legal aid societies.[5]
In 1911, legal aid societies joined together to form the National Alliance of Legal Aid Societies. Arthur von Briesen of the Legal Aid Society of New York was the first president of the organization that became the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) in 1949.[6]
The concept of free legal assistance for the poor was promoted by the publication of Reginald Heber Smith’s Justice and the Poor in 1919. Smith challenged the legal profession to consider it an obligation to see that access to justice was available to all, without regard to ability to pay. “Without equal access to the law,” he wrote, “the system not only robs the poor of their only protection, but places in the hands of their oppressors the most powerful and ruthless weapon ever invented.[7]
As a result of Smith’s book, the American Bar Association created the Special Committee on Legal Aid Work. By the middle of the 20th century, virtually every major metropolitan area had some kind of legal aid program. However, the system established was not suffice in meeting the needs of the poor and in the early 1960s a new model for legal services programs emerged. This new model was based on the philosophy that legal services should be a component of an overall anti-poverty effort. The Ford Foundation was one of the original supporters of this model.
Subsequently, in 1964 came the passage of the Economic Opportunity Act, which launched the war on poverty and mandated federal funds to be allocated for the first time to fund legal services to the poor. However, this law did not specifically provide for legal services and it took many years and attempts to finally devise a federal construct to support legal aid for the low-income community. After years of research and advocacy, the Legal Services Corporation Act was enacted in 1974 by President Richard Nixon. This program flourished and has evolved over the years to become the organization nationally recognized as the Legal Services Corporation.
Over the years legal aid has evolved into a comprehensive program that provides legal assistance to low-income people regardless of race, ethnicity or gender. NLADA is the only national membership organization devoted exclusively to ensuring legal representation for individuals who cannot afford an attorney.
NLADA serves the equal justice community in two major ways: providing products and services and as a national voice in public policy and legislative debates on the many issues affecting the equal justice community. NLADA also serves as a resource for those seeking more information on equal justice in the United States.
[edit] Civil legal aid
- Civil legal aid refers to the free legal services provided by thousands of attorneys who work through local legal aid offices to help millions of low-income people gain access to justice.
- Civil legal aid helps low-income people resolve urgent, non-criminal legal problems that make a difference in their everyday lives, such as protecting the elderly from unlawful evictions, making sure women and children are protected from violence in their homes, and helping veterans receive the financial benefits they have earned and need.
[edit] Funding of civil legal aid
- Civil legal aid programs are state-based or community-based organizations funded in a variety of ways. Some receive grants from the United States Congress each year through the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). The LSC is a private, nonprofit organization established by Congress to ensure equal access to justice under the law by providing legal assistance in civil (non-criminal) matters to low-income individuals.
- Most federally funded civil legal aid programs also receive support from other sources, including individual donors, foundations, businesses, United Way contributions, state bar foundations and state and local governments.
- Many civil legal aid programs do not receive any federal funds and are completely reliant on private donations and state and local government funding.
- Many programs now rely on funds provided through Interest on lawyer trust accounts (IOLTA). These accounts are funded through interest accrued on legal trust accounts, which consist of legal fees placed in escrow.
- Even IOLTA funds are not safe from legal aid opponents, who have argued that the accounts are not voluntary, opt-in programs for legal clients. They have used this argument as the basis of legal challenges to IOLTA. If these challenges are successful, millions of dollars in funding will be taken away from legal aid programs across the country.
[edit] Client group
- Clients of civil legal aid represent the diversity that is America — encompassing all races, ethnic groups and ages, ranging from veterans and family farmers to the urban low-wage workers and victims of natural disasters.
- Civil legal aid attorneys handle millions of cases each year, helping the more than 40 million people in this country living at or below the poverty level. Federal funds are used in approximately 1.5 million of these cases.
- More than two-thirds of civil legal aid clients are women, and most of them are mothers. Because of this, the legal problems of people living in poverty can have serious implications for children.
- In 1996, civil legal aid programs across the country handled more than 50,000 cases in which the primary issue was protection from domestic abuse and violence.
[edit] Need
- Despite relatively prosperous times, more than 35 million Americans are still living below the poverty level, and another 10 million have incomes that are less than 25 percent higher than that level. As a result, roughly one in five U.S. citizens is eligible for federally funded legal services.
- The need for legal services among the poor is overwhelming. According to a 1994 study conducted by the American Bar Association, at least 40 percent of low- and moderate-income households experience a legal problem each year.
- Most low- and moderate-income people feel shut out from the legal system. They do not turn to the courts for solutions because they believe the system will not help them.
- Civil legal aid ensures justice for all Americans, regardless of their income. Many people would otherwise not be able to afford access to the courts to resolve their legal troubles.
- The American Bar Association has estimated that despite serving 1.9 million clients in 1997, the collective civil legal aid effort is meeting only about 20 percent of the legal needs of low-income people.
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Fact Sheet on the Legal Services Corporation
What is the Legal Services Corporation?
LSC is the single largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans in the nation. Established in 1974, LSC operates as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that promotes equal access to justice and provides grants for high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income Americans. LSC distributes more than 90 percent of its total funding to 134 independent nonprofit legal aid programs with more than 800 offices.
LSC promotes equal access to justice by awarding grants to legal services providers through a competitive grants process; conducting compliance reviews and program visits to oversee program quality and compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements as well as restrictions that accompany LSC funding, and by providing training and technical assistance to programs. LSC encourages programs to leverage limited resources by partnering and collaborating with other funders of civil legal aid, including state and local governments, Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA), access to justice commissions, the private bar, philanthropic foundations, and the business community.
The Corporation is headed by a bipartisan board of directors whose 11 members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Who is helped by LSC-funded programs?
LSC-funded programs help people who live in households with annual incomes at or below 125% of the federal poverty guidelines – in 2012, $13,963 for an individual, $28,813 for a family of four. Clients come from every ethnic group and every age group and live in rural, suburban, and urban areas. They are the working poor, veterans, homeowners and renters, families with children, farmers, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Women—many of whom are struggling to keep their children safe and their families together—comprise 70 percent of clients.
What kinds of legal issues do low-income people need help with?
Legal assistance is necessary to address many issues that affect low-income individuals and families. The most frequent cases involve:
- Family law: LSC grantees help victims of domestic violence by obtaining protective and restraining orders, help parents obtain and keep custody of their children, assist family members in obtaining guardianship for children without parents, and other family law matters. More than a third of all cases closed by local LSC programs are family law cases.
- Housing and Foreclosure Cases: As the second largest category of all cases closed, these matters involve helping to resolve landlord-tenant disputes, helping homeowners prevent foreclosures or renegotiate their loans, assisting renters with eviction notices whose landlords are being foreclosed on, and helping people maintain federal housing subsidies when appropriate.
- Consumer Issues: Nearly twelve percent of cases involve protecting the elderly and other vulnerable groups from being victimized by unscrupulous lenders, helping people file for bankruptcy when appropriate and helping people manage their debts.
- Income Maintenance: More than 12 percent of cases involve helping working Americans obtain promised compensation from private employers, helping people obtain and retain government benefits such as disability benefits to which they are entitled.
- Helping Military Families: StatesideLegal.org—the first website in the nation to focus exclusively on federal legal rights and legal resources important to veterans – is funded by an LSC Technology Initiatives Grant. This free service enables military families and veterans to access a wide array of legal information and assistance. The Department of Veterans Affairs, in a directive, encourages use of the website in connection with service to homeless veterans.
- Responding to Disasters: LSC has a long history with helping victims of natural disasters. LSC has built a national network of experience and expertise—including legal services providers and national organizations such as the American Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)—to help programs better serve victims when disasters strike.
How is assistance provided?
Legal aid programs provide extensive representation in individual cases when required, but they also provide:
- Clinics, often staffed by pro bono attorneys, where legal problems can be identified and addressed on-site or scheduled for additional assistance if needed;
- Advice and self-help materials (delivered via workshops, telephone help lines, online chat tools, downloadable court forms, etc.) that help people understand their rights and responsibilities, when legal assistance may be needed and where to find it, and get assistance with self-representation when necessary; and
- Referrals to other social services as appropriate.
How many are helped?
LSC-funded programs helped approximately 2.3 million people in 2011. However, demand for legal aid far outstrips the resources available. This is known as the “justice gap.” Recent studies indicate that legal aid offices turn away 50 percent or more of those seeking help. The size of the population eligible for legal assistance has increased dramatically from 2007. The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 statistics on poverty show that nearly one in five—60 million Americans—qualified for civil legal assistance funded by LSC.
ILLINOIS RESOURCES FUNDED BY LSC
Illinois
LAF (Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago)
Program Phone: (312) 341-1070
Legal Assistance: (312) 341-1070
http://www.lafchicago.org/
They are so overwhelmed by numbers that you should call between 8-10 am to have a chance to get a call back – so many people call that they fail to return 80 % or more of the calls.
Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc.
Program Phone: (618) 398-0574
Legal Assistance: (618) 462-0036
http://www.lollaf.org/
Prairie State Legal Services, Inc.
Program Phone: (815) 965-2134
Legal Assistance: (815) 965-2134
http://www.pslegal.org/
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MaryGSykes.com 