A grant of $7,500 from the Illinois Bar Foundation will seed funding for the Chicago Legal Clinic's new paternity and child support advice desk at 32 W. Randolph St..

Staff and volunteer attorneys help alleviate “a tremendous crush of cases in the Expedited Child Support Division,” said executive director Edward Grossman, where most of the litigants appear pro se.

Lawyers provide pro bono assistance in filling out forms and giving brief on-site legal advice about court procedures in child support, parentage, visitation, custody and orders of protection.

The initiative enhances access to justice by reducing backlogs, continuances and the time between filings and hearing dates, Grossman said. It also frees judges to hear contested visitation and custody matters.

The Chicago Legal Clinic anticipates assisting about 1,800 low-income clients in the first year of the advice desk operation. Most of them are women and minorities.

This grant marks the 18th time the Bar Foundation has supported the clinic, which has received a total of $90,500 since 1988.

Grossman and Rev. Thomas J. Paprocki, an attorney who is now auxiliary bishop of the Chicago Archdiocese, founded Chicago Legal Clinic in 1981 to help workers who lost jobs when operations at a South Chicago steel mill were cut back.