Technola : Public Interest Law & Technology Updates & Commentary : Matthew Burnett & Kate Bladow : Tech Advice for the Non-Profit Legal Sector

The Center for Access to Justice & Technology and the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction released A2J Author 3.0 last week. With A2J Author, non-techies can create user-friendly interfaces that help self-represented litigants fill out court forms and other legal documents. Several states with great A2J Author interviews, including New York, Washington state, and Washington, DC, have been highlighted on Technola previously.

New features included in A2J Author 3.0 include the ability to

• add graphics and videos to questions;
• customize how users exit an interview and let them leave before an interview is completed;
• create new interviews by "cutting and pasting" existing questions or question sets; and
• add a logo to the interview.

You can download A2J Author 2.0 from the A2J Author community website. A2J Author is free for noncommercial use. - K

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Law Technology News (LTN) just published a nice article on LawHelp Interactive (fka NPADO), a document assembly program that helps pro se litigants and volunteer attorneys prepare legal documents online. LawHelp Interactive is managed by Pro Bono Net in collaboration with Ohio State Legal Services Association, with funding by the Legal Services Corporation and the State Justice Institute. -M

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The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program recently launched six interactive online court forms for use by pro se tenants and landlords. The forms include an answer in a residential landlord-tenant case, an application to proceed in forma pauperis, a motion to modify a protective order, a motion to vacate default judgment and quash writ, a motion to vacate dismissal, and a notice to quit for nonpayment of rent. Using guided A2J Author interviews and Pro Bono Net’s LawHelp Interactive service, pro se users answer a series of questions that are used to populate an approved court form that can be printed and filed. The project was done with cooperation from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, support from the D.C. Consortium of Legal Services Providers, and funding from the D.C. Bar Foundation. -M

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I've looked and listened for people who love document assembly and who are talking about it online, but I haven't been very successful. Either I'm searching the wrong terms or they aren't talking about it. So while I've learned a lot about the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto, I haven't turned up many conversations about LexisNexis' HotDocs software.

Today, however, I was thrilled when I found a post from The Exari Blog that pointed me to Five Document Assembly Blogs/Legal Technology Blogs to Follow. I've added these blogs and the Exari Blog to my news reader and hope to see some good conversations.  - K

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I've come across several interesting stories about innovative uses for technology recently, and instead of letting the links gather dust, waiting for me to write a post about each of them, I'm collecting them here in one post and getting the ideas out to you.

• Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe released a Start-Up Tool Kit, which includes a Term Sheet Creator to help draft start-up and venture financing documents. Fans of the National Document Assembly Project (NPADO) will recognize that they've used LexisNexis' HotDocs Server to run the site. The ABA Journal covered this release: Orrick’s Free Term Sheet Generator and Forms Library Aimed at Entrepreneurs.

• Avvo, a site where the public can rate lawyers, has a forum where people can ask lawyers for legal advice and answers. While not new, it is new to me, and it's the first time that I've seen a site advertise that they are offering advice and not legal information, and actually give advice. KGO-TV San Francisco has a brief story on the Avvo site: Web site offers free legal advice.

• The Huffington Post profiled Holla Back DC in When Hollered At, HollaBack! Victims of street harassment (cat calls, groping, indecent exposure, and so on) can document incidents that range from inappropriate and sexist to terrifying. The site tracks and maps the location of the reported incidents, identifying where dangerous areas might be. Holla Back sites also exist for several other locations.

• In Minnesota, Day One Services is using software to track where open domestic violence shelter beds are. In one call, a victim can find an open bed and arrange transportation, if necessary. Day One hopes to take the program national, according to Software connects domestic violence victims with open shelter beds, an article in the Minnesota Post.

I can't be the only one finding these interesting stories. Any great stories about using technology that you've found lately? Go ahead and share them in the comments. - K

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In April, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati sent the legal community into a tizzy when they launched a tool that lets the public generate contract term sheets. But today, the New York State Unified Court System and Legal Assistance of Western New York (LawNY) topped WSGR's term sheet generator.

Justice Fern A. Fisher, Director of the New York State Courts Access to Justice Program and C. Kenneth Perri, Executive Director of Legal Assistance of Western New York announced the release of three new computer programs that will help New Yorkers navigate the legal system. These DIY (Do It Yourself) programs ask straight-forward questions to help users prepare individualized court forms and instructions. (Read the full press release.)

Now self-represented litigants can get help filling out a Support Modification Petition for Family Court, the Small Estates Affidavit for Surrogate's Court, and the Adult Name Change Petition for Supreme Court online.

As a warning, I am a bit biased. I've been working with the New York Courts on this project for almost three years as part of my day job at Pro Bono Net. So I'm particularly excited to see it launch! - K

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Want to help the Online Document Assembly Project win $5,000 cash and $25,000 worth of donated software in Microsoft's and TechSoup's Show Your Impact contest? Yes? Great!

It's easy. You just need to vote for the "Increasing Access to Justice" entry in Microsoft's and TechSoup's Show Your Impact contest by June 10, 2009. Here's how:

1. Go to Microsoft Impact Story Contest.
2. Register or log in.
3. Vote for "Increasing Access to Justice" in the Transformations to Maximize Impact category.
4. Vote for at least 2 other programs. (Preferably, your two other choices are in other categories.)
5. Cast your ballot.
6. Tell your friends to vote.

The first round of judging is by the public, or more specifically any individual from a Microsoft donation recipient organization, TechSoup or Microsoft, and any of those individuals' friends, family or contacts. (If you are reading this post, you qualify.) To move on to the second round, the "Increasing Access to Justice" entry needs to be one of the top nine voted-for entries in the Transformations to Maximize Impact category. So please vote!

Need to know more about Online Document Assembly, the project that consumes my days, before you vote? Check out the profile that The Chronicle of Philanthropy published in February.  -K

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The Chicago Lawyer recently published a nice article on the work of Professor Ron Staudt, director of Chicago-Kent’s Center for Access to Justice & Technology. Among its other projects, the Center for Access to Justice and Technology is behind A2J Author, which allows advocates to easily build guided online interviews for pro-se users to generate court forms or find answers to their legal problems. -M

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Continuing my report on the NLADA Annual Training Conference sessions . . .

Technology Planning 101 - Jim Dill, Kate Bladow, Glenn Rawdon, Kathleen Brockel
So yes, I was on this panel, but I didn't really talk that much. The summary of what I had to say? Don't leave your techies in a room by themselves to create your tech plan. Your plan needs to be based on your organization's strategic plan, and you need buy in from attorneys, paralegals, administrators, and so on. After I was through with that introduction, the good stuff started.

Jim Dill, the Director of Technology at the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, talked about the statewide technology planning process in Pennsylvania. Less than a year old, his position was established to help the legal aid programs create and implement a statewide technology plan. Jim's initial goals have been to learn about the programs' existing infrastructures and needs and to help them to standardize platforms. After these initial steps, he hopes to help them to look at innovative initiatives that could be implemented on a statewide level. A few bits of wisdom that Jim provided the session attendees with:

• Check to see if your state government allows nonprofits to participate in their cooperative purchasing program. (Pennsylvania's program is called COSTARS.)
• Review your contracts with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) yearly.  Programs may be able to save money by re-negotiating contracts.
• Don't sign a contract for T1 services for more than a year at a time. The price is likely to decrease, and you don't want to be stuck in contract if you could be paying less.
• Don't use consultants for strategic planning. Consultants are good for day-to-day tasks, but in most cases your mission is not their passion.

After some discussion and questions from the audience, Kathleen Brockel shared the results of the LSNTAP technology survey. A few points of interest:

• Programs spend the most on hardware and personnel. If the personnel line is low, it is usually made up by contracts for outside support.
• 99 to 100 percent of programs that responded have the security software necessary to protect their data, except in the case of instant messaging.
• Three-quarters of programs are using document assembly, and 46 percent of programs are using HotDocs.

If you want to check out more of the statistics, you can view Kathleen's slides on SlideShare.

Glenn was the closing act and discussed planning for document assembly projects. The summary--programs should be using document assembly. Get on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, I was watching for questions and confused looks and didn't take notes. I would recommend that you check out his slides, which are also on SlideShare. - K

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The National Center for State Courts just released its 20th Anniversary Edition of Future Trends in State Courts, which includes an article on online document assembly by Kate Bladow and Claudia Johnson, as well as an article by Richard Zorza on a judicial curriculum and leadership package developed by the Self Represented Litigation Network. Other topics in this edition that may be of interest include website disability access, language access, cultural competency and several articles on court technology. - M

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The Northwest Justice Project just announced new online interactive court forms for pro se users to file a divorce petition with no minor children of the marriage. Future forms available on WashingtonLawHelp.org will include interviews for finishing your divorce, a domestic violence protection order and a demand letter for return of a rental security deposit. This work is funded by a grant from the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) and the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). They use A2J Author, developed by the Center for Access to Justice & Technology (CAJT) at Chicago-Kent College of Law and the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI), LexisNexis's HotDocs Professional, and the LSC-funded national document assembly server (NPADO), a project of Pro Bono Net. -M

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Today is the official launch of the Self-Represented Litigation Network Court Leadership Package, a set of tools that judges, court administrators, self-help facilitators, and others can use to educate their court and state about innovations in self-represented litigation. Topics that are covered include

• Court Self-Diagnosis and Strategies for Getting a Court Moving (Including Funding Issues)
• Establishing and Operating Self Help Centers
• Designing and Modifying Physical Space for Access
• Establishing Justice Corps and Volunteer Programs
• Training and Supporting Clerks for Access
• Developing and Deploying Forms and Instructions
• Deploying Automated Forms for Access
• Setting Up Case Management for the Self-Represented
• Working with Judicial Leadership
• Courtroom Staffing and Services for Access
• The Court Role in Establishing and Supporting Discrete Task Representation
• Supporting and Integrating Law Library Services
• Distance Service Technology
• The Limited English Proficiency Challenge
• Developing Systems to Facilitate and Ensure Compliance with Court Orders

These tools are being launched at the National Center for State Courts' Court Solutions Conference. People who are attending the Self-Represented Litigation Track will be trained to use these tools and have the opportunity to interact with experts and learn more about each of the areas.

For those of you who won't be in Baltimore at the conference, the materials will be posted on the SelfHelpSupport.org website in the next couple of months. If you will be at the conference, find me. I'll be there and helping out in a variety of roles. - K

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The Legal Services Corporation and LexisNexis have announced the launch of the HotDocs® software donation program:

The new donation program will strengthen the important national online document assembly project that LexisNexis, LSC and the State Justice Institute have nurtured to provide access to justice for low-income Americans. LSC initiated that program, known as National Public Automated Documents Online (NPADO), in 2001 with a grant to the Ohio State Legal Services Association that developed a system in which legal aid programs use HotDocs® Professional Edition to create easy-to-use guided document assembly interviews from existing forms. Interviews are then uploaded to a national server, allowing users to assemble professional-looking legal documents.

Any LSC or state IOLTA funded legal services organization can request a donation using the program's website. -M

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Thanks Bill Jones at the ABA, all of the session materials available for 2008 Equal Justice Conference are now online. Materials from the last five years are archived here. Many of the technology related session materials for the 2008 Conference are also available on LSNTAP. Next year's conference is scheduled for May 14-16, 2009, in Orlando, Florida. -M

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Kate and I will be participating in a few sessions at the Equal Justice Conference in Minneapolis next week. If you're planning to attend, we'd love to have you join us.

• Tuesday, May 6th
  Distance services/technology (2:30pm-3:30pm; Presentation at Self Represented Litigants Pre-Conference)
  Presenters: Katrina Zabinski, Glenn Rawdon, Judy Meadows and Kate Bladow
• Thursday, May 8th
  Using Technology to Advance Your Mission: Challenges and Opportunities for the Up-to-Date Legal Aid Law Firm (2:00pm-3:30pm)
  Presenters: Kate Bladow, Kathleen Brockel, Rachel Medina and Alison Paul
  
  Using Technology to Provide Technical Legal Assistance at the State and National Level (3:45pm-5:15pm)
  Presenters: Matthew Burnett and Michael Monahan

There are a number of other great sessions on statewide websites, document assembly and legal aid technology initiatives, so be sure to check out the full agenda. If you won't be at EJC, just tune in to Technola next week, where Kate and I will be blogging from the conference. -M

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Rachel Medina, the A2J Author Project Manager at the Center for Access to Justice and Technology, has started a new blog for A2J Author developers. She's promised to post training dates, tips and hints, and other A2J Author goodness. - K

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TexasFreeFile.org is a new website launched just in time to file those tax returns before April 15th. TexasFreeFile.org works with I-CAN E-File to provide on-line tools that allow most Texans to file federal income taxes online. The online filing is free and is designed to be simple using a question and answer format to prepare the return. The website allows persons to prepare returns in either English or Spanish. The need for many Texans to employ costly tax preparation services is avoided. Working Texans will and retirees will appreciate the fact that the online service is designed to simplify claiming tax refunds for families that are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit.

View the full press release here. -M

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The Center for Access to Justice & Technology, in partnership with the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, has released version 2.0 of A2J Author. With A2J Author, non-techies can create user-friendly interfaces that help self-represented litigants fill out court forms or other legal documents. A great example of A2J in action can be seen on the New York City Housing Court and Civil Court websites. A2J Author 2.0 has several new enhancements.

• Developers can move between development screens more easily.
• Audio files can be deleted with one button click instead of deleting the files one at a time.
• The courthouse graphic can be switched out for an alternative graphic.

You can download A2J Author 2.0 from the A2J Author community website. A2J Author is free for noncommercial use. - K

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From Shelia Fisher at North Penn Legal Services:

Anyone who wants to check whether they qualify for Food Stamps can now do so over the Internet. Friendly, cartoon-like characters ask questions about income, expenses and other household information. After a few quick questions, you know the answer to whether you are entitled to Food Stamps! (Answers are estimates only.) This computer program, written by Sheila Fisher, of the Lehigh Valley Office of NPLS, is available to the public.

To view the Food Stamp Estimator, go here and click on "Food Stamp Estimator." - M

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