Introduction to Legal Aid (for Newbies)

This Introduction to Legal Aid book was written by Steve Gray, LSSCM in 2003 and updated by Gabrielle Hammond, NTAP in 2007.

Welcome!

Welcome to legal aid, newbie! The legal aid community is filled with really good people doing really fulfilling and important work. However, this community can be a pretty mystical place if you've never worked in a nonprofit or legal setting before. You'll find there are acronyms galore and it is hard to keep track of who knows what.

Therefore we (NTAP and myself) thought it might be neighborly to put together some thoughts, tips and resources that would introduce the legal aid newcomer to doing technology in this environment. Kind of like the old Welcome Wagon (I suppose I'm dating myself). We don't have coupons and cookies but we do have email lists and free trainings. We hope this helps you get acclimated to your new virtual surroundings and headed toward a rewarding and productive career in legal aid.


What is Legal Aid All About?

What is Legal Aid All About?

Legal Aid is about bringing justice to the poor. The term "legal aid" usually refers to private non-profit law firms that provide free civil legal help to low-income persons. Representation is usually limited to prioritized types of "civil" (non-criminal cases) that have the most impact on low-income persons such as:

Programs with additional funding often represent clients in employment issues as well. Most programs also participate in outreach efforts that may try to reach an isolated population, such as those with limited English proficiency.

Most legal aid programs use a community priority setting process to determine what types of cases are the most important to accept given limited resources. For those of you unfamiliar with the factors of poverty, it is important to realize that there are many reasons why someone is in their financial predicament. Regardless of these factors, one thing is consistent: when critical legal issues cannot be resolved, their lives, families, and economic situation is - at best - unstable. Studies have shown that resolving legal problems for low-income persons is a key factor in determing their ability to pull themselves out of poverty.

Almost all legal aid studies agree that current funding for legal aid only meets about 20% of the legal needs of low-income persons. This means that for every low income person with a critical legal problem, legal aid programs can meet 2 out of 10 persons' needs. State studies suggest that of those persons who know about or use legal aid, only 15 - 35% will actually get a lawyer to represent them in court on their legal matter. The remaining will only receive advice or what is termed "brief services" (limited representation).

Funding for these nonprofit firms comes from a myriad of sources. The largest funder of legal aid is the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). LSC is a quasi-federal agency whose board is appointed by the President to oversee a federal program of about $3.3 billion. LSC distributes funds to approximately 140 private legal aid programs -- from Maine to Micronesia -- that provide services in every county, parish and territory in the U.S.. Programs also get funding from a number of other sources including state and local bar foundations, United Way and anyone else who cares to support them.


Who Is the Legal Aid Community

The Members of the Legal Aid Community

Primary members of the legal aid community are private non-profit law firms that provide free representation to the poor. These programs are usually divided into two groups: those that receive funding from the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) and those that don't. Programs that receive LSC funding must abide by certain advocacy restrictions (see A Timeline of the Legal Aid Phenomenon later for a explanation of the LSC restrictions).

Other primary funders include state and local bar foundations. Bar foundations are the charitable arm of state and local bar associations.

There are also a number of national or regional "back-up" centers that provide substantive support and training to legal aid programs. Here is a list of national support centers. In a number of states, there are also state based back-up centers. National support centers tend to focus on a particular area of poverty law practice and state support centers tend to be more broadly focused on all areas of poverty law practice in that state. None of these backup centers are LSC funded.

Recently some state bar associations (lawyer groups) have gotten more involved in the legal aid community by establishing Access to Justice centers. These ATJ programs take on many forms with some focusing on supporting technology in legal aid programs.


Timeline of the Legal Aid Phenomenon in the United States

Timeline of the Legal Aid Phenomenon in the United States

based on A Brief History of Civil Legal Assistance for Low-income People by Martha Bergmark

1876
German Society of New York, first civil legal assistance for poor people in United States, was founded to protect recent German immigrants from exploitation.

1888
Ethical Culture of Society of Chicago establishes Bureau of Justice, first agency to offer legal assistance to individuals regardless of nationality, race, or sex.

1890
German Society of New York becomes the Legal Aid Society of New York.

1919
Reginald Heber Smith publishes Justice and the Poor, which espouses and promotes concept of free legal assistance for poor. This publication has a major impact on legal profession.

1920s
American Bar Association creates Special Committee on Legal Aid Work.

1960s
Foundations, such as Ford Foundation, begin to fund legal services programs as part of an overall anti-poverty effort.

1964
Passage of the Economic Opportunity Act. Marks the first time that federal funds are available for legal services to the poor. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) formed.

1966
OEO makes 130 legal services program grants.

1968
OEO makes 260 legal services program grants.

1974
Legal Services Corporation Act is enacted on July 25, 1974. This act, supported by the Nixon administration, was introduced to make legal services “immune to political pressures . . . and a permanent part of our system of justice” by the creation of a Legal Services Corporation (LSC) that would receive funds from Congress and distribute them to local legal services programs.

1977
LSC is re-authorized for another three years.

1981
LSC is funding 325 separate grantees, covering every county in the United States, as well as Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Micronesia.

1982
LSC funding is slashed from FY 1981 appropriation of $321 million to FY 1982 appropriation of $241 million.

1980s
Growth of non-LSC funding for legal services.

1992
LSC funding improvement from FY 1991 of $328 million to FY 1992 of $350 million.

1996
New Congressional restrictions imposed on LSC that prevented participation in class actions, direct or grassroots lobbying, representation of certain clients, collection of statutory attorneys’ fees, and challenge of welfare reform measures. As a result, state-level planning and coordination of services become increasingly important.

2001
LSC forms Technology Initiative Grant Program (TIG) to support and fund projects that use technology to provide and expand legal services to low-income people.

For a more indepth history see Securing Equal Justice for All: A Brief History of Civil Legal Assistance in the United States
by Alan Houseman and Linda Perle


Technology and Legal Aid

Technology in a "Typical" Legal Aid Program
Legal Aid programs are a combination of law office and nonprofit organization and their technology generally reflects that. The software is more akin to a typical small multi-office law firm and the hardware more inline with a nonprofit budget.

Typical software in a legal aid office includes:

 

-- Office Suite. Usually Word or WordPerfect. (This is because historically WordPerfect catered to the legal community.)

-- Email and Internet Browser Client. Many legal aid advocates belong to substantive legal email lists related to a legal practice area of their interest.

-- Case Management System (CMS). This is the bread and butter of a law office and the poverty law office is no exception. A CMS is a glorified database of current and past cases (clients) that allows a program to track client data and all reporting needs associated with cases. Ideally, the CMS should also be a software that facilitates the work of advocates by managing all data and communication related to the case, performing necessary conflict checks, tracking necessary court or case-related deadlines, and assisting with mandatory timekeeping procedures. Many options exist in the private section for robust case management systems. These options can be expensive. Additionally, legal aid advocates typically underuse the full functionality of the case management software because training budgets are generally thin in legal aid programs. Also, because legal aid programs have some unique case management needs such as client income eligibility screening and case statistical reporting for funders, a niche market has developed for CMS designed for the poverty law community. Check out the Case Management section of the LStech Resource Center on LSNTAP.org for more info.

-- Online Legal Research. For decades there have been a few legal publishing houses that have captured legal precedent in the form of published case decisions from state and federal courts and state and federal statutes and regulations. They had published these precedents in volume upon volume of books called case reporters and statute books. Over the past few years most if not all of these precedents and statutes have been digitized and are now made available online (via the web) by these same publishers to subscribers. The major competitors in this area are Westlaw and LexisNexis. Most case handlers have access to one of these services on their desktop. There are also a number of free resources available on the web but most programs subscribe to one of the services because they have it all in one place.

Please see: Summary of 2002 LSC K-Form Data for more info on software and hardware in use in poverty law programs.

 

 


A Word (or Two) about Technology Budgets

A Word (or two) about Legal Aid Budgets and Salaries
It won't take long to figure out that budgets and salaries in poverty law programs lag behind most of the private sector as well as other public sectors. This applies to all staff and management positions across the board. Most people are working in a legal aid office because they believe in justice for the poor so much so that they are willing to make it their vocation.

Salaries are low because demand for services is high and funding is scarce. Traditionally programs have used every spare penny in the budget to staff their program with advocates. Money spent elsewhere must be justified to watchful Boards and constituent advisory committees. This means that programs usually under spend on technology. Hardware is kept in circulation longer than recommended and software upgrades come at a slower pace. You'll find that you'll have to make a compelling case for almost every technology expenditure.

To help you stretch your poverty law tech dollars, we have compiled information on software and hardware discounts available to nonprofit poverty law programs in the Discounts section of the LStech Resource Center on LSNTAP.Org.


Staffing

Staffing for Technology in Legal Services.

Many legal aid program still rely on an office Computer Responsible Person (CRP) as the first line of tech support in their program. A CRP is usually someone who is not afraid of technology and therefore given office-wide tech responsibilities in addition to their full-time job. Also known as "accidental techies", they are the first-line of defense on tech problems in the office. They are under trained and underpaid.

This dependence on CRPs is gradually diminishing as programs replace CRPs with trained tech staff. This is in part because programs have consolidated in recent history into larger and larger programs, which makes it more cost effective to hire in house tech support staff. Additionally, the recent influx of technology money into programs from LSC Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) has increased the numbers of internal tech support staff.


Technology Funding & Projects

 

Technology and the Legal Assistance Gap
As mentioned earlier, legal aid programs have only been able to meet about 20% of the legal needs of the poor with current funding. This has caused a recent trend in the community to look to technology to help reach the remaining 80%. These efforts usually fall into two camps: either using technology to help empower clients to help themselves (also known as pro se or self-help) or using technology to make service delivery more efficient and therefore doing more with less.

Over the past few years, the Legal Services Corporation has received money earmarked for distribution to legal aid programs for technology projects. Called Technology Initiative Grants (or "TIG"), this funding has focused on bringing money in for technology innovations that make legal help more readily available to clients (such as statewide web site projects) and also assist clients in representing themselves (such as the HotDocs Document Assembly and the ICAN!-Earned Income Tax Credit Project).

It has also funded technology projects that improve phone systems for hotlines, case management systems for legal aid programs, web conferencing (LegalMeetings) and other solutions that improve efficiencies of staff.

Lastly, funding has gone to projects that revolutionize how legal aid programs interact with data or provide service. GIS Mapping National Server, the Survey Tool, the Research Request Tool are examples of these.

You can find information about all TIG projects on the LSC TIG website.


A Very Short History of the Poverty Law Technology Phenomenon

A Very Short History of the Poverty Law Technology Phenomenon

 

We don't need to recreate the history of the technology phenomenon because it is already written. We recommend the following reads:

Since 2000 the Legal Services Corporation Technology Initiative Grant program (TIG) has pumped more than $20 million into technology initiatives in the legal aid community. Although these funds are only available to LSC funded entities, the focus and direction of TIG funding has dramatically influenced the entire poverty law sector. You can find out more about the TIG program at http://tig.lsc.gov.


Getting Support & Training

Getting Support & Training

We have several mechanisms for supporting you as a techie, your program in its planning for technology, your state, or your efforts on specific technologies. There are several organizations that help provide these services. Here's the run-down:

Email Lists. NTAP has partnered with the Shriver Center to manage email lists that help you get your questions answered. We recommend signing up for at least LStech email list.

Online Information -- LSNTAP.Org (fka LStech.Org) LSNTAP.Org is a web portal to technology services and information tailored to a legal aid audience. The site has the lofty goal of providing information on every aspect of doing technology in a poverty law setting. The LStech Resource Center is a library of information that affects the intersection of technology and legal services.

Trainings & Conferences

Online Webinars  NTAP offers online webinars for techies, non-techies, directors, and advocates about how to implement, use, manage, or explore technology solutions that improve client services. They are free. Check them out. You only need internet access and a phone to attend.

Conferences  While NTAP coordinates technology sessions at most national conferences, there are major conferences that offer sessions beyond the scope of technology which you may consider attending. We recommend you try to attend the LSC TIG Conference (every January in Austin, pre-registration required as it does fill up). This is the only conference in the community focused on technology and legal aid.  Other conferences you can check out which have technology sessions are the American Bar Association's Equal Justice Conference or the National Legal Aid and Defender Association Annual Conference.   

Circuit Riding NTAP and Pro Bono Net offer "circuit riding" assistance for any state or program involved in creating or sustaining a statewide legal website for clients, advocates, or pro bono lawyers. (Circuit riding is a term of art in the private sector and refers to technology support that is delivered in-person via a travel circuit.) Our circuit riders help statewide website efforts succeed and give you lessons learned. Circuit riders provide resources, training, support, and site visits.

Document Assembly (NPADO | HotDocs) Pro Bono Net offers a circuit rider for programs who have staff developing "templates" of automated forms that improve the ability of clients or advocates in completing standard legal documents, easily.

Project Related Support Several projects have their own mechanisms for support via NTAP staff. Please contact info[at]LSNTAP.org for more information.

 

Individual Support. While no project is funded to provide your program with individual support, NTAP can be your first point of contact to find out if we know of someone who can. Several bar associations have also contracted with NTAP to help develop planning or conference agendas for technology planning in their state.

 


Getting to Know the Players and Acronym Soup

Acronym Soup (Places to Deepen Your Knowledge of Legal Aid)

NTAP is acting as the legal aid community's clearinghouse on all technology training, and helps coordinate tech trainings at national conferences held by two major support centers: National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), Legal Services Corporation (LSC), and American Bar Association's Equal Justice Conference sessions.  However, it is important to know who these other entities are as they play a bigger role in the support of the delivery of legal services. Here is some information on these other resources and entities to whom you can look to for information that will deepen your understanding of the issues facing legal aid programs today (not necessarily technology related, but can include them):

National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA)
NLADA is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership association that provides resources for legal aid and defender programs, as well as individual advocates. They usally sponsor two national conferences (ABA Equal Justice and NLADA Annual) that include (among many other things) training and workshops on poverty law technology issues. They maintain a calendar of national events.

Management Information Exchange (MIE) 

MIE is a nonprofit organization that provides support to poverty law managers. They offer a training schedule of educational opportunities for the legal aid community.

Legal Services Corporation TIG Conference

The annual Technology Initiative Grant (TIG) Conference, sponsored by the LSC, provides valuable resources targeted to the technology needs of the poverty law community. This is the only national in person event dedicated soley to poverty law technology issues. It has been directed to recipients of TIG awards but is open to non-TIG recipients as well.

 

Note:  A few regions (CORT and New England Regional Training Consortium) and more states offer poverty law tech training and conferences. Be sure to check with the legal aid state support organization in your state for details on the poverty law tech trainings available in your area.


Getting Involved

Getting Involved

In case you haven't notice yet the legal aid community is a cooperative effort. We don't have the resources to hire a lot of support so we tend to rely heavily on peer support. The tech segment of our community is no different. Let me encourage to lend a hand and get involved. You will certainly get more than you give. Here are some ways to get involved:

Email List Participation
Discussed earlier there are several poverty law tech related email lists to join. Jump in, introduce yourself and be sure to share.

Join LSNTAP.Org
You can join our website to post your own content, receive updates, and view content that is "protected." It is free.

NLADA Tech Section
The National Legal Aid and Defender Association recently formed a technology section to be a voice on national technology issues. You can check out what is going on with the section here and find out how to become involved.