Achievements
Individual Achievements
Marcy Heston, Volunteer Lawyer Coordinator for our St. Charles office, was awarded the 2009 Kane County Bar Association Liberty Bell Award. The award is bestowed on a non-attorney community organization or individual who has promoted a better understanding of the law, encouraged a greater respect for the law and the courts, who stimulates a sense of civic responsibility, and who contributes to good government within the community.
Vijay Raghavan, a staff attorney who works in our Waukegan office providing tax-specific legal assistance to low income taxpayers, received one of the 2009 Public Service Fellowships from the ABA Section of Taxation. Before applying for the Fellowship, Vijay was in private practice with a major Chicago law firm representing clients in tax matters. Vijay applied for the Fellowship because “it seemed like the perfect opportunity to transition to legal aid without sacrificing my background in tax.”
Jeremy Bergstrom, staff attorney in the Rockford Office, was named one of Rockford’s “40 Leaders under 40,” presented by the Rockford Chamber of Commerce. One of his most significant achievements was successfully representing clients in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Rockford Housing Authority over the demolition of a public housing development known as Jane Addams Village. The resulting settlement helped tenants resettle, allowed the city to proceed with demolition and ensured that the development of affordable housing would be part of Rockford’s economic development agenda. For this advocacy the National Center on Poverty Law awarded Mr. Bergstrom and Prairie State the 2008 Housing Justice Award.
2009 Prairie State Staff Excellence Awards
In November, Prairie State Legal Services staff gathered for a Staff Retreat in Rockford, IL. Executive Director Mike O’Connor brought back a tradition of handing out awards at the retreat, and recognized the following people and offices:
Denise Conklin – Managing Attorney, Peoria. Mike recognized Denise for her work with the Street Law Project in Peoria, which educates local teens regarding practical issues involving the law.
Amy Weiss – Staff Attorney, Waukegan. Mike recognized Amy for her work with the Miller Foundation, which assists clients financially for everyday problems. The program prevented 16 families from becoming homeless.
Tiffany Harvey - Telephone Counselor, Waukegan. Mike recognized Tiffany for her outstanding work with the telephone counseling program over many years.
Will Detrick – Staff Attorney, Rock Island. Mike recognized Will for advancing justice outside of Prairie State Legal Services while serving in the military.
Gretchen Farwell - Managing Attorney and the Rock Island Office – Mike recognized Gretchen and the Rock Island Office for outstanding client service during an extended period of time when the office faced staffing shortages.
Prairie State Legal Services Kankakee Office. Mike recognized the Kankakee Office for outstanding client service and work ethic while the firm sought a new managing attorney for the office.
Jim Chancellor - Finance Director, Administrative Office. Mike recognized Jim for coordinating the most chaos in one year to assure effective management of the financial operations of PSLS. Among many other achievements during the past year, he was responsible for obtaining funds for a new phone system, bringing in new financial software, and coordinating moves for three offices.
Charlene Riefler & Kathleen Finn – Staff Attorneys, Fox Valley Office. Mike recognized Charlene and Kathleen for their dedication to clients. Both go out of their way to provide clients access by traveling to their homes, visiting them on weekends, and much more.
Sarena Ayala - Receptionist / Secretary, Fox Valley Office. Mike recognized Sarena for her outstanding customer service and being a positive influence in a busy office.
Lori Luncsford – Staff Attorney, Peoria Office. Mike recognized Lori for her efficiency and effectiveness in serving a large number of cases.
Achievements in Advocacy
Prairie State provides high quality, effective and innovative services in an efficient manner. Among some recent developments:
La Salle Bank v. Ferone, 384 Ill.App. 3d 239 (2d Dist. 2008). Prairie State attorneys successfully represented a victim of a mortgage rescue scam. The Appellate Court issued a key decision that will help advocates fight mortgage rescue scams and in other foreclosure-related litigation.
Radaszewski v Maram 2008WL2097382. The Northern District of Illinois ruled in favor of our severely disabled, medically fragile client after 8 years of litigation. We conducted the trial after remand of the case by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (383 F. 3d 599) in a precedential decision interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act. The relief ultimately ordered makes it possible for our client to live at home with life-saving nursing services, instead of being forced into an institution where his chance of survival was slim.
Jones v HUD ( N.D. Ill. 2008), Prairie State and the Shriver National Center on Poverty Law filed a federal court challenge to the demolition of a public housing complex, based in part on HUD’s misapplication of federal law. Ultimately the Court entered a consent decree which ensures that the local housing authority will create 84 new units of affordable housing to replace the complex it had allowed to become uninhabitable in anticipation of demolition
N.B. v. R.K., Enterprise Investment Corp., Rose Mortgage Corp., et. al. (Circuit Court of DuPage County). We successfully represented a homeowner victim of a “mortgage rescue scam” case in which the scammer fraudulently obtained a quitclaim deed from our client. The client’s house was in foreclosure and the client believed the scammer was going to save her from foreclosure by refinancing her mortgage. While the scammer did pay off the mortgage and rescue the house from foreclosure, the scammer did not pay the client any of her built up equity in the home – approximately $75,000. Thus, the “rescue” was for the benefit of the scammer, who obtained the deed and took out a larger mortgage loan from another company, keeping the proceeds for himself, and taking monthly payments from the client, who believed those payments were her mortgage payments. When the client fell behind in those payments, the scammers tried to evict her. We litigated the case for 40 months before it was settled as the trial date neared. We kept the client in her home for the duration of the litigation. All defendants settled, with the settlement value worth nearly our client’s entire lost equity - $75,000.
Re Application of Lake County Collector (Property Group v. Haley). Following a tax sale, one of our clients lost her home for falling behind in her real estate taxes. An attorney from the Waukegan Office recently overturned the sale. The tax buyer had not complied with Illinois statues that require that the homeowner receive proper notice before the sale is approved by the court. Our client had the money to pay the back taxes but had never received notice of the sale. The court found that the efforts made to contact our client did not meet the diligent effort requirement in the law and that notice of the sale had not been properly provided. The client was able to pay the back taxes and kept her house.