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Ten Tips for Vermont’s Advocates

Ten Tips for Vermont’s Advocates. September 11, 2007 www.lsntap.org. Ten Tips for Legal Aid Advocates. “ Efficiency is intelligent laziness." - Anonymous. Overview of 10 Tips. Tip 1: Statewide Website for Referrals & Brief Service Tip 2: Statewide Website for Advocates

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Ten Tips for Vermont’s Advocates

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  1. Ten Tips for Vermont’s Advocates September 11, 2007 www.lsntap.org

  2. Ten Tips for Legal Aid Advocates “Efficiency is intelligent laziness." - Anonymous

  3. Overview of 10 Tips Tip 1: Statewide Website for Referrals & Brief Service Tip 2: Statewide Website for Advocates Tip 3: Statewide Website for Pro Bono Tip 4: Statewide Website – Make it Work Tip 5: Wikis -- Instant Websites for Collaboration

  4. Overview of 10 Tips Tip 6: RSS to Manage Information Tip 7: LegalMeetings Web Conferencing Tip 8: Online Meeting Schedulers Tip 9: Poverty Law Survey Tool Tip 10: YouSendIt

  5. Tips 1 – 3: Develop Your Statewide Website to Be Strong Tools • How many of you use it now…Daily? Weekly? Monthly? • Review SWEB Speak: • “Client” or “Public” website • “Advocate” or “Private” website • Pro bono website (often ties into the advocate website)

  6. Statewide websites are simply tools to help us achieve the goals of our programs.

  7. Your Delivery Systems • Hotline • Intake System (Centralized, state-wide, program specific) • Brief Services • Client and Public Education • Direct Representation by Staff Attorneys • Direct Representation by Pro Bono Attorneys Where can the website improve your existing tools?

  8. Client Sites: Statewide Websites

  9. Tip 1: “Client Sites” for Hotlines & Intake • Use online content to: • Help some clients prepare for intake, interviews and answer questions. - How to Call - What documents to bring • Provide better explanations of the services you do and do not provide.

  10. Example: Website in Practice Georgia: http://www.legalaid-ga.org Lucille Wright has been with Georgia Legal Services Program for 25 years. She welcomes the website and the information it it provides tocallers the GLSP cannot serve. In the Augusta office Lucille uses the www.LegalAid-GA.org website everyday during client intake.

  11. Next Steps • Partner with hotline/intake staff to determine whether clients have Internet access, new legal issues for content and feedback about how people found the website. • Add detailed information to help people understand when and how to call. • Make sure referral organizations and your own organizations share website address with the public.

  12. Use Website for Brief Service • Website provides clients (and advocates) forms to download and complete when doing assisted pro se/brief service. • Use the website at clinics to print forms and packets as needed clinics. • Refer clients to the website for further research/understanding on issues.

  13. Statewide Website in Practice Washington www.washingtonlawhelp.org We download forms from the site and type onto them when doing brief service for clients. Access the website while at legal clinics and print packets or forms which are given to the clients and explain to them.

  14. Tip 2: Use Advocate WebsiteFrom This to This…

  15. The “Advocate” Web

  16. Advocate Site in Practice Minnesota: http://www.projusticemn.org Larry McDonough from Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance is the statewide expert of eviction defense. He has collected hundreds unreported eviction defenses cases as well as authored the statewide Eviction Defense manual. Before the launch of www.ProJusticeMN.org, attorneys from around the state called Larry to request fax copies of these cases as well as hard copies of his manual. Now legal services staff from all across the state search and download the cases and manual without needing to contact Larry directly, and Larry can make updates instantly available through the site.

  17. Examples of Online ToolsOn Statewide Advocate Web • Library (training manuals, sample briefs, motions letters) • Calendar (trainings, events) • News (substantive news feeds, statewide or program news ) • Statewide legal services attorney directory or roster • Email Lists • Various components to support work of taskforces

  18. The Advocate Library • Access to the knowledge of other attorneys • Research • Sample pleadings, motions, etc. • Manuals • Trainings materials • Organized into a updateable, searchable system (saved for all time) • Removes inefficiency of a paper-based system

  19. Calendar, Directories • Provides central locations for key information. • Content management system provides mechanism for continual updates and increased efficiency. • Helps to build community and collaboration between separate offices and programs.

  20. Advocate Site in Practice Wisconsin: http://www.badgerlaw.net/ Attorneys, law students and volunteers were frustrated by the complicated system they were using to set-up appointments with clients at a law school clinic. To solve the issue they developed a calendar and security system on the advocate website to schedule and share appointment information. With web-based access to the calendar, law students, pro bono attorneys and supervising attorneys can all see when are where appointments are scheduled and access certain information to prepare for meeting with clients. The response to this system has been very positive and many advocates became invested in other aspects of the advocate website because of this helpful feature.

  21. Tip 3: “Pro Bono” Website

  22. Benefits of Pro BonoWebsite • Allows for rapid communication with pro bono volunteers. • Allows attorneys to search for cases they are interested in • Connects volunteers and clients based on interests and needs. • Builds a community of volunteers • Helps to track program activities and outcomes.

  23. List case summaries by substantive area or location Provides organization and contact information Pro Bono Case Listings

  24. Pro Bono Site in Action California (San Francisco):http://www.probono.net/sf San Francisco Bar Association’s Volunteer Legal Services Program (VLSP) recruits 35% of their new volunteers through the Internet, including their probono.net/sf site. The VLSP Business Law pro bono program sends 5-12 case placement emails a month to volunteers through the probono.net Mailings tool, and reports a success rate of 95% - 99%. They now place almost all of their program’s cases through probono.net/sf/nonprofit. Only occasionally does it take more than one email to place a case.

  25. More Tips on Envisioning Your Site: Webcasts • Tool to provide technical support to pro bono advocates, particularly when they are supplemented by other training materials. • A “window” to new areas of practice to increase volunteer interest • Don’t require advocates to travel to trainings • Can be watched at any time or multiple times

  26. Build a sense of community among your pro bono advocates Include volunteer profiles to encourage participation Update advocates about upcoming trainings and new resources Email/E-Newsletters

  27. SWEB in Practice New York:http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/probono.jsp For the past 5 years, probono.net/ny has sent a monthly training e-calendar to over 7500 registered members. Now, through syndication of relevant advocate website content, pro bono organizations in New York City are reaching private bar attorneys that might otherwise have reached their doors. This partnership with American Lawyer Media resulted in the creation of a new Pro Bono area on a popular legal website for New York lawyers that incorporates the probono.net/ny training calendar (http://www.probono.net/ny/nylj_calendar.cfm) and Pro Bono Opportunities Guide (http://www.probono.net/ny/nylj_oppsguide.cfm)

  28. A Look to What’s Possible Illniois Legal Aid Online): http://www.illinoislegalaid.org Illinois’ pro bono site is “smart.” Like Amazon, it starts to recommend cases to the pro bono lawyer based on their clicks and noted interests.

  29. Tip 4: Make it Work for You • Example: Website integration with case management – website content and case management content available through 1 entry point. • Try new ways to gather content: • Example: Wikis

  30. Tip 5: Wikis for Collaboration • A wiki is a web site that is created and edited collaboratively. • (Wiki means “quick” in Hawaiian!)

  31. What is a wiki? • A website that you (or anyone) can add content to very easily. • Although it is web-based, no coding or “technical” knowledge is required.

  32. Arkansas Legal Services The Problem • The pro bono organizations mailed to every pro bono attorney a huge binder of a printed version of the poverty law manual ( a manual w/ 10 sections pretty much following the major categories we deal with nationally such as Landlord/Tenant and Family law....) • Cost for mailing and printing was enormous, plus it got out of date pretty quickly since it was focused on the advocate providing a lot of case law.

  33. Interim Solution • The manual was then converted to PDF and put on the website. But PDF is bulky and takes a while to load ... • Additionally, the website coordinator could not continue to keep it updated – ‘just too much in addition to my other jobs..’

  34. The Solution A wiki that will be limited to the pro bono and legal services community with the hopes that the community will edit and update.  https://povertylawmanual.wikispaces.com/

  35. Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania The Problem • Telephone Intake manual and Staff manual required constant changes to a printed manual. • Staff manual -- everyone throughout the program had different versions, depending on which updates they had actually kept.  

  36. Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania The Solution • “I checked out the NTAP info on wikis, and was drawn by the claim that creating a wiki could be as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich.  I figured I’d see if that was true, and it was.”

  37. Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania Now, a wiki with: • Organizational information • Help Line Manual • Staff Directory • Substantive Law resources • Other Resources

  38. Michigan Reentry Law Wiki The Problem • A printed manual that needed updating and additional information, cost of printing and mailing. Do you see a theme….?

  39. Michigan Reentry Law Wiki

  40. Michigan Reentry Law Wiki The Result • Extensive content, links to other websites, documents uploaded. • 20 editors, an editor training…3 contributors.

  41. Wiki Ideas for You • Co-authored manuals • Statewide planning or task force coordination and minutes-tracking • Dynamic content that is not finalized for the website

  42. Wiki Resources… http://lsntap.org/techlibrary | Click on Wikis! • What is a Wiki & Why Do I Care? • Selecting Wiki Hosting • Wikis for Poverty Law • Getting Started with Your Wiki -- Tips

  43. Tip 6: RSS Managing Information Overload

  44. MOZILLA FIREFOX INTERNET EXPLORER How Do You Get Online?

  45. www.Mozilla.com It takes 2 minutes to download.

  46. Why Mozilla?… Internet at your Fingers • Easy to use and improves your efficiency. • Tabbed browsing • Easy creation of folders for bookmarks • LiveFeeds: A folder the stores your RSS

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