First Defense Legal Aid mobilizes lawyers and overpoliced community members to fill gaps in public defense and create, protect and engage replicable alternatives to the criminal system starting with its entry points.

FDLA’s Values

DIGNITY We celebrate diversity with an understanding of Ubuntu: my humanity is tied to yours. We believe in a world where everyone is respected, safe, and able to flourish in every way.

LIBERATION We work together to fight for human rights and racial justice by committing ourselves to building anti-oppressive spaces and systems.

ACCOUNTABILITY We believe our integrity lies in how well we hold ourselves and each other accountable to our mission and the communities we exist to serve and protect.

FDLA began in 1995 as a program under the Chicago Commons Association. FDLA’s core purpose was the maintenance of a 24-hour Chicago Police Custody Hotline, through which all Chicago residents could be connected with an on-call attorney who would provide general legal advice and actual police station representation, free of cost. FDLA became an independent corporation in 2002, and a 501(c)(3) organization in 2003. FDLA’s main focus is still the hotline system, upon which Chicagoans have grown to depend. Today, FDLA also provides educational outreach, participates in community organizing, and engages in systemic reform activities.

In Illinois, as in most states, people generally do not have an attorney within the 48 hours after an arrest. The first 48 hours a person is in custody is critical, as it is during this time that they are most susceptible to having their constitutional rights violated. It is also the time during which police officers employ a variety of tactics to obtain confessions, many of which have proven to result in false confessions. While the police have unlimited access to prosecution attorneys (some of whom play a role in the interrogations) during this time, a suspect does not have similar access to an attorney. FDLA helps level the playing field for anyone in custody while protecting their legal rights.

In an effort to promote the Chicago Police Custody Hotline and educate Chicagoans on the power of their Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment rights, FDLA presents Street Law in schools and community groups. The Street Law presentations focus on what to do if you are stopped, searched, or arrested by the police, how to assert your rights at home, on the street, and at the police station, and what you can do if you feel that the police have violated your civil rights.

Through the Chicago Police Custody Hotline, FDLA partners with the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender for direct legal representation. The Public Defender’s office operates a 24-hour unit that is staffed with attorneys who are trained in effective defense strategies at police stations. The unit sends attorneys to police stations throughout Chicago and Cook County 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.

FDLA’s program is unique. Because of FDLA’s history of direct legal representation, educational programming, community organizing and political advocacy, FDLA’s staff has a holistic understanding of the problems within the various communities in Chicago. Additionally, FDLA is the beneficiary of insights from the myriad of community organization partners that address varying needs of their constituencies.