Working and Collaborating Across States

Alison Paul, Montana Legal Services AssociationEd Marks, Legal Aid of Western OhioLiz Keith, Pro Bono NetEve Ricaurte, Iowa Legal Aid

Introduction

Why do we care?

Sharing Resources

Training Legal Aid University NTAP Training

Hosting web-based services Montana/Idaho case management NTAP Poverty Law Survey Tool Coming Soon: NTAP Listservs

Sharing Resources

Tech Support Maine and Montana examples

Other ideas Centralized back-up servers Help desk functions ?????

Cyber-Piracy Project

PTLA settlement with Legal Match brought issue to forefront of community

PTLA and NTAP worked to ensure lessons learned benefit entire SWEB community

Impact on local users, but required national strategy

Iowa’s Online Intake

Iowa created a Remote Intake system using ideas and groundwork from other programs.

To actually create the interview, Iowa used two sources of technology in a new way.

The intake questions are programmed into an A2J Interview, and the output is transformed to create a case in the Pika Case Management system

A2J Guided Interview for Intake (.a2j files)

Case Management System Data Collection

Interview Answers

(.anxFile)

XSLTransform

Transformed Answer Files

Case Management System

Answer File Data Now Available For Review in the Case Management

System….….conflicts check….attorney review

….processing

More of a Good Thing…

Ohio’s Replication of Iowa’s A2J Intake Template

The “Script”…

The script from Iowa’s initiative is being used as the “starting point” for the Ohio intake initiative.

The script will be reviewed by all participating Ohio programs and will be edited based on the individual intake process for each program.

Ohio Web Intake

Full Circle

Lessons learned and materials developed by Ohio will benefit Iowa with updated interviews and other technological advances.

Website collaborations

Disaster relief post Katrina/Rita

Learning from the NY 9/11 experience Conference calls of regional

coordinators Disaster legal services content-sharing

Client and advocate content

Disaster relief post Katrina/Rita

KatrinaLegalAid.org FEMAanswers.org wiki On the ground tech support Ad hoc resource sharing and support

networking

Content translation collaborations

Why collaborate on translation? Do more with less: translation is

expensive and time-consuming Ability to create something you can’t do

on your own Higher quality result for users Serve more users!

Content translation collaborations

WashingtonLawHelp.org navigation translation

Model Russian and Spanish content:http://www.probono.net/link.cfm?9355

Shared content banks Content sharing and adaptation

Adapting substantive content Federal resources Medicare part D guide LawHelp.org/NY Internet Fraud

Document assembly replication

Website content collaborations

Building Blocks of Website Collaborations

Common goals/needs Knowing who’s who

and who knows what How can technology

help? Share and share alike

LiveHelp

A joint TIG-funded project of Iowa Legal Aid Montana Legal Services Association State Bar of Georgia Pro Bono Project Pro Bono Net Recently added – Arkansas, Louisiana

What is LiveHelp?

Provides virtual, live assistance for Web site visitors

Helps visitors find information and referrals

Doesn’t provide legal advice

Cross-platform capabilities

Where is LiveHelp being used?

Navigation assistance on MontanaLawHelp.org and IowaLegalAid.org since June 2006 Also on MontanaFreeFile.org and in conjunction with

remote intake in Iowa LawHelp.org/LA (October 2007) GeorgiaAdvocates.org (December 2007) ARLegalServices.org (January 2008)

Staffed by VISTA volunteers, paralegals, interns, attorneys, and other willing (or drafted) staff members

How did the cross-jurisdictional collaboration come about?

Discussions among PBN, MLSA and ILA about LiveHelp as disaster legal services tool

Other cross-jurisdictional benefits Supported by 2006 TIG grant

What did we want to learn?

What is involved from a technical perspective?

What knowledge and experience is needed on the part of the navigator?

How best to support cross-jurisdictional navigators?

What are the benefits and challenges of cross-jurisdictional support?

LiveHelp Chat and Operator Interface

Canned chat is available for all sites in the project

Canned chat from one program can be copied and modified for use by another program

Review of chat topics and search terms used on all sites helps operators determine interests and needs of website visitors

Admins can

Monitor all sites Access reports and data collection View operator login information Disconnect operators if needed Alert others if there is a problem Accept chats from states even if they are not

listed as operators Create or modify canned chats for all states Create or modify surveys for all states Change project settings, or just those of one

state

Operators can

Send private chats to other operators who are engaged in a chat This is useful for training Helpful if there is information they

can share about the visitor's question Transfer a chat to any other operator

who is logged in Useful for catching chats quickly Can be used to transfer to a navigator

with special knowledge or skills, such as the ability to respond in a foreign language

How the Cross Jurisdiction Test was set up

Conference calls Identifying willing navigators Minor configurations in LivePerson Scheduling joint shifts Sharing of the most frequently used sites,

the most often asked questions and the answers

Monitoring by both sites so that the navigator had backup

Use of the Spark IM system LiveHelp Wiki

Experiences of the Cross Jurisdiction Navigators

From the site visitor’s perspective it is seamless

The learning curve is much shorter for a second, or third, state

Centralization of resources/forms helps Serving as a navigator in one state makes

it easier to recognize reliable online resources in other states, even if they are not housed by parallel services

Possible expanded uses

General “seat”-sharing and expanded coverage (hours, days, etc.)

Specialized multilingual assistance Deliver substantive expertise in

specialized area Assistance in disaster legal services

contexts Others?

Interim Analysis of Potential Broader Usage within Legal Aid

Advocate Support for Pro Bono Attorneys Pro Bono Advice or Information to Web site Users Cross State Assistance Multi-Lingual Support Document Assembly Support Low-Literacy User Support Service Finding and Online Application Assistance Diagnostic Software Support As Assistive Technology Considerations

General LiveHelp replication

Key resources for replication: MLSA navigator manual ILA project management resources PBN expanding replication support:

Implementation, training, marketing and evaluation assistance

2007 TIG grant to coordinate and support additional replication initiatives

Cross Jurisdictional Advocacy

How can we work across state and program lines to improve our advocacy efforts?

Service Area

Offices serving 32 counties in western Ohio

More than 30,000 requests for service received in 2007

"Wherever you are,

technology can go . . .”

Collaborative advocacy across traditional program boundaries

Local cases take on national significance

Technology expands our capacity to engage in national advocacy

The Big Picture

Client-centered strategic advocacy

What’s the problem vs. where’s the client

Combine & deliver expertise regardless of proximity

Patterns and repeat offenders

Affirmative advocacy Systemic impact

The Power of Data

Tsunami warnings from aggregate data

Discerning the signs Documenting the history

Strategic data mining

Track the ebb and flow Get ahead of emerging trends Develop action plans

It’s about the clients

The virtual law office makes it possible

Together, we do the community justice.Together, we do the community justice.

Remote access, wireless networks and mobile broadband

LegalMeetings and webinars

Web-based case management systems

Google documents & other web-based tools

Shared brief banks and document libraries

Web-based research systems

Technology Questions for Litigators and Program Leaders

Together, we do the community justice.Together, we do the community justice.

What’s the task?

Who are the stakeholders?

Who are the leaders?

Who will have time and expertise to do this?

Where will the money come from?

Evaluation/Accountability/Timelines

Think strategically - Support the mission!

To Find out More

Alison Paul, Deputy Director, Montana Legal Services Association, apaul@mtlsa.org

Ed Marks, Litigation Director, Legal Aid of Western Ohio, emarks@lawolaw.org

Eve Ricaurte, Managing Attorney Pro Se Projects/Eastern Iowa Intake, Iowa Legal Aid, ericaurte@iowalaw.org

Liz Keith, National LawHelp.org Circuit Rider, Pro Bono Net, lkeith@probono.net