My name is ___ and I am attorney with Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing. First, I am going to get your contact info just in case we get cut off (depends on what we get on spreadsheet – maybe just confirm what we have gotten).

Most important, I am an attorney and everything we talk about is confidential. I will not tell the court or your landlord anything without your permission. I know this is a strange set-up, but it is completely confidential just like we were in my office. Also, this service is completely free. You should also know that I am not going to represent you in this case. Everything I do to help you today is limited to today. If I was going to represent you, I would need a separate agreement. Is that okay? I am going to ask you some questions to see what kind of help we can give you. Under normal times, I never interview clients by using a questionnaire and I am interested in what has been happening to you, but it will be very helpful if we can get through the questions on this checklist.

Do you have your court papers with you? I may need to ask you some questions about the case.

We aren't going to ask about conditions, but if the tenant brings them up, then...

I want to make sure that if you receive rental assistance, your landlord is required to accept it. I will ask a few questions to determine if you may exercise a "right to cure" under Cook County RLTO Sec. 42-805(F). (Right to cure means the landlord must accept all unpaid rent paid in lump sum, plus court costs if they ask for it but not attorneys' fees, and dismiss the case.)

Inform tenant that there is a strong chance they are not covered by the CCRLTO and thus cannot exercise cure as a right but may still offer to pay in exchange for dismissal (recommend getting a written agreement in advance). However, the owner is required to "make this exclusion known to prospective tenants in marketing materials and shall prominently state the exclusion on any application materials before the owner accepts any application fees, credit check fees, or holding fees." If the tenant was not so notified, that may be a defense to the exclusion but not necessarily a strong one.

My job is to try to help you get the result in this case that you want. Most cases settle. Can we talk about possible settlements in your case? Sometimes cases settle by renters paying back rent on a payment plan and sometimes cases settle when tenants move. When renters move, landlords sometimes agree to give up the money that the renter owes – maybe just for now or maybe forever. Sometimes LLs agree to seal the court file.

If you choose to settle that would mean that you are giving up the right to dispute the allegations of your landlord in a trial but you are not admitting to any of the allegations either. The reason it can be good to do this is because neither side really knows who will win at trial and having an agreement limits the worst-case possibilities of a trial like eviction with a money judgment. Sometimes it helps to have a mediator assist both sides to reach an agreement and that was offered to you earlier today. Are you interested in this service? You can ask to have one of our attorneys join you in that process today. You can also ask us to help you settle without a mediator by presenting your settlement offer to the other side today or this week. You have the 2 weeks to reach an agreement with the other side to either continue to case for further settlement discussions or to enter your agreement as an order to the court. This would mean the judge will have you return to court to show that you did everything you agreed to do and in exchange the court will dismiss the case. This is called a compliance hearing.

The following two questions are for data-collection purposes related to the ERP and overall CCLAHD project. Please answer the following if you can, but they are not mandatory.

Unfortunately, two weeks is not a lot of time, and LCBH is a non-profit with limited resources and staff. It is therefore critical that you respond as soon as you can to emails from us or phone calls from us, otherwise we will be forced to withdraw from assisting you. If we are unable to reach you after three days we will not be able to represent you. Do you understand your responsibilities in this case moving forward?