The job of Garrett Forrest, an AmeriCorps-sponsored assistant at the Peoria County Courthouse, will be eliminated as part of the DOGE cancelation of around $400 million in grants across a broad spectrum of organizations. Along with Forrest’s, law student volunteer positions will be eliminated at a total of 17 Illinois circuit courthouses. (Photo by Tim Alexander/for Chronicle Media)

Federal budget cuts directed by President Donald Trump’s Department of Governmental Efficiency means that residents will soon lose the services of the Peoria County 10th Judicial Circuit Courthouse Law Library and Self-Help Center’s public assistant, who is provided free to taxpayers by AmeriCorps.

The cut is part of DOGE’s reported cancellation of nearly $400 million in AmeriCorps grants, affecting thousands of volunteers and organizations.

Available to assist patrons in person, over the phone, online or via email, Peoria County’s Law Library assistant, Garrett Forrest, has helped provide legal information (not advice), assist patrons in locating and filling out court documents and refer patrons to legal resources since August of last year. The Deer Creek Mackinaw High School and University of Illinois-Urbana graduate, who will be attending Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in August, said he was notified by AmeriCorps in April that his position would be eliminated as part of DOGE’s federal deficit reduction plan.

“I was selected for this position through a program called Illinois JusticeCorps, a subsidiary of AmeriCorps that receives a significant portion of its funding through AmeriCorps and is designated as an AmeriCorps program,” said Forrest, who staffs the courthouse’s law library, tucked away in the southwest corner of the building’s second level, five days per week. Illinois JusticeCorps currently staffs 17 circuit courthouses representing 28 counties throughout Illinois with law student volunteers such as Forrest whose positions will be cut.

“The leadership of the program would love to expand to where we have someone in every county courthouse in the state, but about a month ago I received an email on a Monday telling me not to go back into work because funding for the program had been cut by DOGE,” Forrest said on May 27. “A day or so later another email advised me I could go back to work on a volunteer basis, but my hours would not count towards the AmeriCorps hours that we need to (meet). Before all this happened with DOGE, I was supposed to be working 1,700 hours over my one-year course of service. Had I reached that goal, I would have received a scholarship or a grant for $7,000 from AmeriCorps for my future education at Northwestern Law School.”

The AmeriCorps grant resulting from the work Forrest accumulates at the Peoria County Courthouse will now be issued for a lesser amount than the $7,000 he would have received for a full year, or 1,700 hours, of work. “The grant is not a huge amount, but still considerable,” he said.

According to their website, Illinois JusticeCorps places volunteers in courthouses around Illinois to help people without lawyers navigate the civil justice system. Like Garrett, the volunteers are trained and supported to provide legal information and procedural guidance, as well as connect self-represented litigants with legal aid services and self-help resources.

A glimpse of the self-help forms library located within the Peoria County Law Library and Self Help Center at the Peoria County Courthouse. (Photo by Tim Alexander/for Chronicle Media)

The program provides its participants, all of whom are law students, a unique opportunity to gain exposure to the court system, build professional skills and give back to the community. In August 2023, Illinois JusticeCorps expanded funding from both AmeriCorps and the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice to expand the program to five additional Circuit Courts.

In order to finish out his term at the Peoria County Courthouse, the Illinois Bar Association and others are stepping up to pay Forrest and his statewide colleagues a regular hourly wage for the remainder of his work hours as he completes them. He currently has around 500 work hours or less remaining on his contract, which expires on Aug. 1. After that, the future of such free public assistance in Illinois courthouses through the AmeriCorps program is as unclear as the justice system, and how to navigate it, can be to those who seek such help.

“I help approximately 20 people every day,” Forrest said. “They are self-represented litigants who don’t have much more access to legal information than Google, except for my being here. They come in and I listen to what their situation is, and I can give them helpful options. I can show them our forms library that has been created and approved by the state court system, and I can explain those forms to people.”

After helping residents identify and complete the proper legal forms, Forrest can assist them in scanning, uploading and e-filing their documents. He can also help them access online methods to pay certain court fees. He sees the work he and the other Illinois JusticeCorps volunteer law students perform as part of the very foundation of the American justice system.

“It’s a matter of access to justice for all. People of low income, people who have been scammed, people with custody issues, disabled adults … all of these (residents) are very important and it’s going to make it a lot harder for these people to get the legal outcomes they look for,” said Forrest.

“I think our country prides itself on the idea that everyone deserves their day in court, and everyone deserves that their issues be heard. Lawyers are very expensive, even for a consultation. We are an alternative option for them, and even though we can’t give them legal advice we can get them started down the path of justice.”

A regular fulltime, taxpayer-supported county employee who, like Forrest, began their association with the courthouse through the AmeriCorps-Illinois JusticeCorps program will be staffed within the Peoria Courthouse Law Library and Self Help Center to assist visitors following his departure in August. However, “When August comes around and all of us (volunteers) are out of the courthouses, there are going to be a lot of people who will not be getting the same level of support as they had,” Forrest said.