Report: attys, especially legal aid attys, reduce Chicago evictions

06/01/2019, Report, Housing - Evictions

The Lawyers Committee for Better Housing (Chicago) has released a data portal and report on evictions.  The latter’s key finding: "79% of landlords had attorneys, while only 11% of tenants did.  Without an attorney, the likelihood that an eviction order will be entered against a tenant is about 62%; with an attorney, it’s about 45%. In other words, by having an attorney, tenants decreased their odds of getting an eviction order by about 25%.  The benefits of having an attorney are even greater when the tenant is represented by a civil legal aid provider, a non-profit organization that offers free legal help with non-criminal legal issues. 50% of cases where tenants were represented by private attorneys resulted in eviction orders. Legal aid representation resulted in eviction orders only 22% of the time, less than half the rate of their private attorney counterparts.”  

 

The release of this information was covered by the Chicago Tribune.