ED151: Creative Uses of Technology in Legal Aid

1. ED151: Creative Uses of Technology in Legal Aid November 6, 2009 Gwen Daniels, Illinois Legal Aid Online Leah Margulies, Law Help New York Kristin Verrill, Atlanta Legal Aid

2. Illinois Legal Aid Online Pro Se Guide Me Player Pro Se Guide Me Builder Pro Bono Case Pairing and Mentor Matching System NPADO / CMS Project

3. Illinois Legal Aid Online’sPro Se Guide Me Player Single, above the fold module that encapsulates all the information someone needs to solve a legal problem Currently supports both English and Spanish; additional languages can be added by changing a file Forms, Instructions, and Find Legal Help are tailored to the user’s zip code

4. Illinois Legal Aid Online’sPro Se Guide Me Player Built on Adobe’s open source Flex framework with a ColdFusion back-end and runs on the Flash player; back-end can be altered to run on any platform HTML version is available for anyone who can’t use Flash, including search engines and people using screen readers Soon to include a video tab, with embedded video player and attorney versions

5. Illinois Legal Aid Online’sPro Se Guide Me Player

6. Back-end tool to build Guide Me’s that run in the Guide Me Players Easy-to-use: No tech skills required Rich-internet platform allows us to use things like drag and drop to reorder lists Fully integrated with ILAO’s content management system Front-end is Flex; back-end uses ColdFusion with MSSQL for storing the Guide Me’s content. Back-end can be altered to work on other platforms. About 500 developer hours, plus a few hundred hours for usability and system testing Illinois Legal Aid Online’sGuide Me Builder

7. Recommendations for implementation: Do user testing on a prototype with your target users, especially if it is on the public website or is in anyway a “different” interface Get the people who are going to have to use the application involved from the start. Illinois Legal Aid Online’sGuide Me Builder

8. Illinois Legal Aid Online’sGuide Me Builder

9. Joint project with the Public Interest Law Initiative Allows lawyers, paralegals, and law students to find mentors Allows lawyers to find case partners to act as co-counsel/lead counsel on cases or to help with research, translation, or witness interviewing IllinoisProBono.org: Pro Bono Case Pairing and Mentor Matching System

11. Upon submitting the request, matches are displayed immediately, and the user can contact one via the system. The system sends an email to the match, who can then either accept or decline the match. IllinoisProBono.org: Pro Bono Case Pairing and Mentor Matching System

14. Project started: August 1, 2009 Target launch date: May 1, 2010 Estimated costs: 20K-30K including both in-house and outside developers IllinoisProBono.org: Pro Bono Case Pairing and Mentor Matching System

15. IllinoisProBono.org: Pro Bono Case Pairing and Mentor Matching System • Recommendations for similar projects: • Create mockups and run through them with anyone who’s buy-in is important • User-test a prototype before building • Have a marketing plan to promote the tool; this system is going to be largely dependent on how many mentors and case partners we can get signed up

16. Populating HotDocs on NPADO with data from a CMS • Who? • ILAO and Pro Bono Net • What? • TIG Grant to populate forms on NPADO with data from LegalServer, as implemented in the 3 Illinois LSC-funded programs • When? • Target launch date: June 2010

17. Populating HotDocs on NPADO with data from a CMS • How it works: • Legal Server will pull in… • a feed of available templates • feeds of individual fields in specific templates, • THEN…match the fields to their internal fields (one time mapping). • Users then will be able to… • select a template from within LegalServer • pre-fill the interview on NPADO with any data that exists in LegalServer that has been mapped to the template.

18. LawHelp.org/NY www.LawHelp.org/NY www.ayudalegalny.org

19. Multilingual LiveHelp • Real time “chat” facility to lead low-income users to legal help they need. • TIG grant – 18 month time frame • Recruited Equal Justice Work – Americorps Legal Fellow to lead effort • Will be online in mid-late December 2009 • Staffed by pro bono law students and other volunteers (English) and LawHelp/PBN staff for Spanish initially

20. Search Engine Optimization and Marketing • TIG grant beginning January 2010 • Combining natural search strategies (eg key word, linking, etc.) with paid marketing • Piloting SEOM in Spanish re: www.ayudalegalny.org • Developing models for replication and lessons learned for statewide website community: dashboard and toolkit

21. Enhancing Language AccessRights Resources • Using “workaround” to add multilingual organization listings for Korean, Chinese and Russian communities in NYC. • Range of improvements on Spanish mirror site, including Spanish url, adding more than 100 org descriptions in Spanish, reorganizing intake info to ensure translation into Spanish, etc.

22. Enhancing Language Access Rights Resources • Adding plain language language access rights instructions for NYC agencies: • Dept. of Homeless Services, • ACS, • HRA, • Family Justice Center, • Dept. of Ed in English, and translated into Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian and Korean • **Recruited Pro Bono attorneys to implement

23. Enhancing Language AccessRights Resources • Translated 6 existing key resources : • Russian, • Chinese, • Spanish and • Korean. • **Recruited Pro Bono law firm to implement. • And more . . .

24. Spanish A2J Author TIG Project Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.

25. Spanish Family Violence Petition

26. Template Selection • High need legal issue for target population • High likelihood of success • Presiding matters • Ex parte matters

27. Module Logic • Informing Petitioners • Information • Legal options • Limiting scope of Petitioners • Jurisdiction/venue • Complicating factors • Untimely petitions

28. A2J Author Functionality in Spanish • A2J navigation buttons translated • Spanish option in Interview tab • Law Help Interactive navigation screens will be translated soon. • What about text responses??

29. Bob’s Computation to the Rescue! SAMPLE TEXT: Specifically Respondent «SP Violence CO»«Violence dummy MC» Respondent used the following weapons during this incident: «Weapon CO»«Weapon dummy MC». The following parts of Petitioner’s body were injured during the incident: «Injury CO»«Injury dummy MC» Petitioner sustained the following injuries during the incident: «Injury type CO»«Injury type dummy MC» The following items of property were damaged during the incident: «SP Property damage CO»«Property damaged dummy MC» SAMPLE COMPUTATION THAT MAKES IT WORK: "" IF ANSWERED (Slapped TF) AND Slapped TF RESULT + "se abofeteó al Demandante|" END IF IF ANSWERED (Pushed TF) AND Pushed TF RESULT + "se empujó al Demandante|" END IF SETViolence dummy MCTO RESULT

30. Checkbox (All that apply)

31. Radio Button (Select only one)

32. Just In Case • Optional Addendum to Petition in Native Language

33. Translation Issues • Staff v. outside translation • Print script for audio from reports tab • Don’t forget: • Buttons, • Steps, • TF and • MC options • Consider leaving A2J question names in English

34. HotDocs Template • Spanish Variable Names • SP child/children CO • SP Respondent eye color MC • Assemble both Spanish and English Versions

35. QUESTIONS?Contact:Kristin Nelson VerrillAtlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.404-614-3934knverrill@atlantalegalaid.org

36. Don’t forget to complete our survey  Thank you Gwen Daniels gdaniels@illinoislegalaid.orgIllinois Legal Aid Online Leah Margulies lmargulies@nycbar.orgCity Bar Justice Center Kristin Verrillknverrill@atlantalegalaid.orgAtlanta Legal Aid