Pioneer Press Newspapers, Suburban Chicago, column

June 07--Ross H. Briggs, attorney at law, has hung out his shingle. His "office," is a kiosk located toward the far south end of the Harlem Irving Plaza mall, across from an Express Factory Outlet store, which was running a sale on T-shirts, tank tops and shorts.

Brigg's business, Firm 13, specializes in employment discrimination, Social Security disability and bankruptcy, including driver's license reinstatement for parking tickets. The kiosk's sign invites those passing by to ask their legal questions for free, with no obligations beyond that.

Briggs, wearing a sports jacket, checkered dress shirt and tie, a thatch of white hair falling fashionably across his forehead, sat behind a small table at the stand as shoppers hustled by on June 5.

Originally from Minnesota, Briggs has had an office in Hyde Park for about four years and another one in St. Louis for a longer time, he said. He opened what he calls, his "sidebar" office at the Harlem Irving Plaza in Norridge on June 4.

Q: Why did he establish the kiosk?

A: A lot of people have the need to ask questions. It's hard to find a lawyer -- they can't find parking. They (those looking for legal help) have to go up 40 floors to an office, where they worry about whether they are dressed appropriately. All of that is bad news. It's hard. It's how lawyers don't get business -- it's how lawyers don't help people. So I decided, why make it hard, why not make it easy?

I practice employment discrimination, Social Security, bankruptcy. I work in the federal court. Not everybody, of course, asks questions about those practice areas, so I've got some referrals here. I've got the bar association number, so if they are asking about something I don't know about, I give them a card, recommend they call someone who has some expertise. But if they ask questions about Social Security, bankruptcy or discrimination, I use my 38 years of experience to try to give them an answer.

Q: How did he come up with the idea?

A: I've had this idea for 10 years, just sort of this weird idea for 10 years, and I decided to act on it the last six months. I looked at a few different shopping centers. Some of the shopping centers -- like downtown -- would have a lot of tourists. Well, if you're from New York or London, you're not going to hire a lawyer in Illinois. So I decided, a shopping center that might help out the residents would be a more logical place for me. I contacted this shopping center. They were interested, and here we are.

Q. Has this been tried other places?

A. I did see that one effort was made a few years ago in a Florida shopping center. The people charged money to have consultation, which is not what I'm doing. It kind of undermines the purpose because the whole purpose is to make it easy and accessible and not have to pay money before you find out if you could use a lawyer.

Q. What about cost?

A. There's no fee to answer any questions. If they call my office and want to come in because they want to do those kinds of cases that I talked about, the fee is dependent on the law in the area. If you represent someone in discrimination, it's typically a contingent fee. Social Security, it's a contingent fee, and bankruptcy is a filing fee.

Q. And there continues to be need in those areas?

A. As people get older, they find that they're unable to work and they may qualify for disability. Unfortunately, there's still discrimination. I would say it's better today than it was 25 years ago, but it's not perfect. Working-class people, they're getting jobs, but they're getting jobs at minimum wage. You can't really live on minimum wage, so what happens if you fall behind and you're a working-class person? No one wants to file bankruptcy, but if you're going to be garnished the rest of your life and you can't feed your kids, you've got no choice. Bankruptcy is a fresh start, as they say, and I think everybody deserves a fresh start.

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