Transcript Online Intake

Brief Services in the
st
21 Century
National Technology Assistance Project
www.lsntap.org
July 27, 2007
Presenters
Gabrielle Hammond – LSNTAP
Carol Garner – Law Access New Mexico
Rachel Medina – A2J Authoring Tool
Eve Ricaurte – Iowa Legal Aid
Hugh Calkins – Pine Tree Legal Assistance
Our focus today
• Review specific technologies that are
reinventing client services.
• A look at programs pushing the envelope
Brief Services: Then
LSC Definition - The B Code
Cases that require limited representation,
usually defined by a retainer agreement signed
between advocate and client.
"Brief Services" defines the scope of service
AND is typically limited to cases that meet
the case acceptance protocol
Brief Services: Future
Person may or may not access a legal aid
service delivery system.
Person receives limited assistance
through online mechanisms: interactive
forms, website chat, or other web
services.
Brief Services: Now
In the middle
Brief Service Units: Extension of hotlines -organizing method of how brief services can be
afforded to more persons once a person enters
the delivery system (consolidation of clinics and
assisted pro se services).
Pro Se Online Services that Integrate with Courts
and Legal Aid Services.
What’s Changed?
•
•
49% of persons with HH income <
$30,000 are online.
Aging of the Internet: Who uses it more?
18 - 29 year olds are neck-and-neck with
30 - 49 year old counterparts. (83%
online)
What’s Changed?
•
•
Use of Internet for News: The proportion
of adults who used the Internet to find
info on “news, weather or sports”
increased from 7% in 1997 to 40% in
2003.
Health: 46% of online seniors sought
answers to their health questions online
in March 2000. In June 2002, 74% did.
What’s Changed?: TEENS
Teenagers: A Look to Your Next Gen
• 75% are online.
• 84% own at least one: computer, cell phone,
PDA; 44% have two.
• 33% use cell phones for text messaging
• 75% of online teens use IM, and they use IM to
share links (50%), photos or documents (45%),
music or audio files (31%)
• 55% have profiles on one or more social
networking sites
What’s Changed?: YouTube
•
52% of HH income < $30k watch or download online
videos
•
Of all video consumers, 39% do so on dial up.
•
57% of online video viewers share it with someone
else.
•
20% rate them.
•
Top three topics watched: News (37%), Comedy
(31%), and Education (22%)
What’s Changed?: Customization
•
•
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•
Technology can personalize the web for you
(RSS).
Amazon.Com recommends books for you to
read if you buy or search for one. You can look
at reader reviews.
Illinois’ Pro Bono statewide website
recommends cases to pro bono attorneys
based on their touring of site.
Could your site recommend information to
clients trying to find legal help or fill out forms?
What’s Possible?
•
Reinvention of how we reach and how many.
•
Accountability to usability (it’s rated!)
•
Support by a larger human infrastructure you
can’t control.
What’s Possible?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Online interactive forms that help clients complete
letters and court form.
Web chat (IM) to resolve questions.
Community educational videos that are shared and
rated.
Community chat rooms where people help people find
answers and share experiences.
Remote intake or brief services that use online
systems for support.
Advocates who actively use and create these online
tools as part of their work, not separate from it.
A Brief Services Unit to provide guided assistance for
assisted pro se.
Hotlines that evolve to support cell phone users with
text and online services instead of long holds.
Examples In Action
A Brief Services Unit:
The Law Access New Mexico Experience
Law Access’s Brief Services Unit
• One Goal: Increase the Number of Full
Representation Cases
• Strategy: Make the Helpline the primary
provider of advice and some brief services
to "free up" New Mexico Legal Aid
(NMLA).
Staffing the Unit | Hotline
• 4 Full Time Attorneys - 2 unit supervisors
covering the major substantive law areas;
• 7 part time helpline attys and 1 part time
paralegal (hiring 3 additional attorneys).
Hiring 3 intake screeners
• 1 Full time director.
Service Area Stats
• New Mexico is 5th largest (geographic size)
state in the US.
• The population is very poor - ranks next to
Mississippi. We assist up to 200% of federal
poverty guidelines = about 1/3 of all NM
residents.
• 1/3 of the NM population lives in Albuquerque.
• 40% of the population in New Mexico is
Hispanic. 4 staff assist Spanish speaking clients.
• We get a substantial number of deaf/hard of
hearing clients via Relay.
Targeting Services
• 2/3 from rural areas.
We targeted 15 very rural counties for Helpline
outreach this year chosen because both Law
Access and NMLA saw very few clients from
these counties the previous year. Many of the
counties that we visited are the poorest counties
and have 15 or fewer attorneys in the whole
county - some have zero - thus the Helpline is
truly their only resource.
Routing Cases & Criteria
• Route cases to every major legal services
program in NM (includes New Mexico
Legal Aid - about 10 offices, DNA - 3
offices, other programs = about 10 total
with various specialties - elder, disabled,
VAWA immigration etc.)
• Priority for Brief Services: assist on cases
where legal aid generally does not. Varies
by geographic region throughout the state.
Technology for a
Brief Service Unit
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•
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Case Management System
Document Assembly
Electronic Files
Statewide Website and other online
resources
• Telephone Technology
• Scanners
Innovations to Aid
Brief Service
• Not all programs and states have a Brief
Service unit (or program focused on Brief
Services).
• Many programs are utilizing new
technologies to:
– Improve volunteer assistance to clients
– Provide assisted pro se
– Provide service traditionally thought of as
“Brief Service”
Examples in Action
Interactive Forms:
A Look at Idaho & Iowa
Interactive Forms
• Also known as Document Assembly. Uses
software, like HotDocs or I-CAN!, to generate an
automated interview that helps complete court
forms. Can use another interface, like A2J, to
make it user friendly to clients.
• Think TurboTax for legal forms.
Note about Terms
• HotDocs is one software that creates templates.
• A2J is an interface that lays on top of it to make
it easier to use.
• I-CAN! Is another software to create templates.
Ease-of-use is built-in.
• A national community of template developers
can share in the developing and host these
templates on a national server. NPADO. Find
out More: http://lsntap.org/techlibrary (Click on
Document Assembly)
• Some programs use PDF or Word fillable forms
instead.
A2J Author:
Document assembly front-end and more
• Document Assembly
Petition for a
Protection Order
A2J Author:
Document assembly front-end and more
• Website Guide
What’s the next step?
Where do I go?
Who do I need to
contact?
A2J Author:
Document assembly front-end and more
• Case Management System Data Collection
A2J Guided Interview for Intake (.a2j files)
Case Management System
Interview
Answers
(.anx
File)
XSL
Transform
Transformed
Answer Files
Answer File Data Now
Available For Review in the
Case Management
System….
….conflicts check
….attorney review
….processing
A2J Author:
Document assembly front-end and more
Video: Coming Soon
A2J Author
States with
A2J Author Guided Interviews
(according to recent NPADO server statistics)
Alabama, Arkansas, California,
Idaho, Illinois, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Minnesota,
Montana, New York, Pennsylvania,
Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont,
Washington,
Ontario (Canada)
Other Registered Users
of A2J Author
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah,
Wyoming
Chicago-Kent College of Law /
Student Editorial Board Projects
Ventura County, California
(various interviews in process)
Illinois Legal Aid Online
(multiple interviews, either live or in development)
Document Assembly and EFiling System Projects
U.S. District Courts,
Eastern Missouri
Manatee County Clerk of the
Circuit Court, Florida
(pilot project for the state of Florida)
Intake Interview/Case
Management Database Projects
Iowa Legal Aid
A2J in Use: Idaho Legal Aid
• 144 HotDocs templates and authored 21
A2J guided interviews.
• 3 Spanish A2J guided interviews linked to
17 of the automated court forms with
Spanish instructions.
Courts: A Critical Partner
• Partnered and built relationships with all of
the 44 county Court Assistance Offices.
• 4 in-person statewide trainings to further
help them understand how the interviews
work, how to effectively assist users, show
new features of the A2J interface and hold
open discussions for feedback.
Feedback
• A large number of surveys from users handful of
the Magistrate Judges, Court Assistance
Officers/Clerks, ILAS staff and conducted two inperson interviews with our closest partnering
advocacy organizations.
• Approximately 60 comments from users via the
“send feedback” feature on NPADO.
Response from the Judiciary
Were pro se litigants were generally more
prepared about what to expect in the courtroom
and representing themselves?
8 out of 9 judges felt litigants were more
prepared.
More than half of the judges responding also
felt pro se litigants generally provide forms
that are more accurate and complete when
using the interactive court forms.
Response from the Judiciary
Negative:
Reflected some judges continued bias against
all pro se activity – and did not truly reflect a
bias against the forms or A2J process.
Court Personnel and
Legal Aid Staff
How the project has helped overall with efficiency and
effectiveness in assisting pro se litigants?
• Vastly helps! This is far superior to the fill in the blank manual
forms. First rate product, clean and foolproof!
• I believe this is an essential tool to the CAO program. Usually
upon an initial visit if you explain the reasons for registering,
saving, and property issues if it's a divorce, the parties are
readily able to complete the process with little added assistance.
• I think it has greatly improved pro se litigants understanding of
how to proceed and what forms should look like.
• I think it has greatly increased access to the courts for pro se
litigants and has freed up legal aid attorney time to work on
cases that are impractical for clients to do pro se.
Iowa’s Remote Intake Project
Eve Ricaurte
Pro Se Coordinator, Iowa Legal Aid
Goals of the Project
• To direct people to Iowa Legal Aid’s online
resources for answers to questions where
only information is needed
• To divert those with problems not handled
by Iowa Legal Aid to other sources of help
• To allow potential clients to complete an
application online from remote sites
Iowa Legal Aid’s
Remote Intake Project
• A pilot project funded by an LSC
Technology (TIG) grant
• The Remote Intake project started as part
of major technology upgrade including
addition of the LawHelp website and
formation of a unified intake system.
• The idea was to help ease the load of the
intake hotline.
Iowa Legal Aid
Self Help Center
http://www.iowalegalaid.org/intake/
• This is a password protected program page on
Iowa’s LawHelp website
• First a video shows users how to navigate the
website to find information
• The design encourages the user to first look at
information on the LawHelp site
• The second video explains the online intake
process and at the end of that video the user
arrives at the intake interview
A2J Interview
https://npado.org/A2JViewer/ilaintake.html
• A new use for A2J, no documents involved
• Questions take the user through types of
cases and eligibility issues that would not
result in intake if at a legal aid office on the
phone
• Those who cannot be served are directed
to other agency websites
• Help with the interview is offered through
the LiveHelp chat feature
• Income eligibility is determined before
personal information is gathered
• If the person does not have a the type of
case Iowa Legal Aid can accept, or does
not financially qualify, none of the
information is saved
• If the applicant completes the application it
is sent to the case management system,
Pika
• It will reside in a separate database until
conflicts are cleared
Issues & Lessons Learned
• The biggest hurdle has been the
programming of the A2J variables to work
with the Pika case management system
• A2J output is designed for HotDocs and is
not in LS-XML format
• Once all issues are resolved, the interview
will be available for other programs
• LiveHelp is available now
Examples In Action
Maine’s Problem Solving with
Technology
Maine’s Technology Solutions
for Brief Services / Pro Se
• Extensive online client education
materials
• Online fillable forms (PDF)
• Online Food Stamps calculator
• New online intake system that ties into
case management
Brief Services in Maine
• Volunteer Lawyers Project acts similar to a
hotline.
– Refers callers to website materials
– Mails education materials forms
– Provides brief service – (utilizing online forms)
– Offers family law helpline once a week
Online Client Education Materials
• In 2006:
– 809,412 client ed page views
– html & pdf (far more html)
– Housing & Family most popular
• Serve as triage – both for hotline callers
and direct website users.
• Utilized by staff and agencies serving
clients.
Online Forms
• Heavily used fillable PDF forms
– First posted 1997
– In 2006, 352,970 form downloads
– ¾ family law forms
– The more complex, the more popular
• Used by pro se litigants, advocates and
attorneys (legal services and private
practice).
• http://www.ptla.org/ptlasite/cliented/benefits/estimator.htm
Online Food Stamps
Calculator
• Powered by HotDocs
• Interview to determine whether and how
much a person is eligible for in food
stamps.
• Used directly by clients, agencies serving
low-income and legal service staff working
with clients.
• http://www.ptla.org/ptlasite/cliented/benefits/estimator.htm
Online Food Stamps
Calculator
• More than 1,200 interviews conducted and
1,100 documents assembled in first 6
months this year.
• Food stamp calculator has proven very
effective.
Wave of the Future
This brief service use of Interactive Forms
(HotDocs)
– gathers specific information about a client’s situation
– applies the law to those facts
– and gives a response relevant to that individual client.
We could be doing this in many other
situations.
Online Intake and Electronic
Case Transfer Systems
• Online intake opens up additional ways to
do intake
– Clients can apply for services via the web site
– Remote intake workers can use online intake
systems to do intake when direct access to the
CMS isn't practical
• Electronic case transfer systems eliminate
the need to re-enter information and makes
referring cases to partner organizations
easier
Maine's Online Intake Project
• The problem: Intake volunteers have a
difficult time working with the Volunteer
Lawyers Project's case management
system. Intake volunteers do intake almost
entirely in paper and VLP staff retypes the
information into the CMS.
Maine's Online Intake Project
• The solution: Creating Flash-based
forms for volunteers to enter information
that utilize interview-like screens for both
basic intake and also for various
substantive topics. These can be imported
easily into the Case Mgmt System.
Maine VLP Intake Project
• Volunteers (and clients, through a copy on the
VLP website) can fill out the Flash application
and submit the data to the VLP web site.
• When submitted, a file is created and VLP staff
can import the file directly into their CMS without
any re-typing. (XML is programming language
that allows easy transferability of documents,
regardless of platform.)
Maine VLP Intake Project
• Links:
– Basic Intake:
http://vlp.org/xforms/flash/primary
– Divorce:
http://www.gwendelyndaniels.com/vlp/divor
ce.html
– Web Administration:
http://vlp.org/xforms/flash/intakeList
Questions?
Where to find this information…
www.LSNTAP.org
Direct link: http://www.LSNTAP.org/ed104
Envisioning & Discussion
Appendix
What is Document Assembly?
• The automated completion of a form or standard
document.
• Special software is used to point out where content
changes in the form. For example, a name or the
number of children that a couple has.
• To complete the form, users answer questions, and the
answers are automatically placed in the document in
one or more places.
• Answers can be saved to use again for current and
future documents.
National Document Assembly Project
(NPADO Project)
• Developed to enable use of online document assembly
by legal aid programs, self-represented litigants, and
pro bono attorneys.
• Funded by TIG and the State Justice Institute and
managed by Pro Bono Net.
• Donation of HotDocs Server and over 100 copies of
HotDocs Professional by LexisNexis to jumpstart
project.
NPADO Projects
HotDocs Document Assembly Templates
Create Word (or WordPerfect) Documents
NPADO Projects (cont.)
Pro Se Templates in Use:
Montana’s Dissolution & Parenting Plan
NPADO Projects (cont.)
The Access to
Justice (A2J) Author
is a software tool
that allows nontechnical authors
from the courts,
clerk’s offices, legal
service programs
and website editors
to build customer
friendly interfaces to
HotDocs document
assembly templates.
A2J Interface
https://npado.org/template_info?template_id=template.2005-12-14.3196765823
NPADO Project Services
Online and In-Person Training:
• September 17 & 18, Chicago: Introduction to HotDocs
• December, Online Training
• Q1 2008, In Person: Two Tracks. Introduction to HotDocs
and Advanced HotDocs
NPADO Project Services (cont.)
Developer Support:
• E-mail List. (Sign up at
http://lists.lstech.org/index.html/info/hotdocs)
• LSNTAP LSTech Resource Center at
http://www.lstech.org/lilbookshelf?tid=49&name=Docume
nt%20Assembly
• Regular developer meetings
• NPADO Project Contributor Portal
• E-mail and telephone support services for content
developers
NPADO Project Services (cont.)
Circuit Riding:
• Responsible for facilitating legal aid and court document
assembly collaborations.
• Will assist the NPADO Project Coordinator with providing
programmatic support to local partners.
• In the process of filling position.
NPADO Contact Information
• Want to learn more? Contact Kate Bladow,
NPADO Project Coordinator, at
[email protected].