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

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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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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Wikipedia.org defines cookies as "small pieces of text, stored on a user's computer by a web browser; and [that] contain the user's settings, shopping cart contents, or other data used by websites."

Many web developers use cookies to track information about users in order to make websites work. For example, NPADO uses cookies to identify the form someone is filling out and allow him or her to return to the correct interview after generating a document.

Advertisers also use cookies to help them tailor ads. For example, in his post "Sugar-coated Corporate Speak," Seth Godin highlights a group of companies that are collecting information from cookies and selling information to advertisers to help them better identify potential buyers.

Is collecting and selling this data right? Wrong? Unfortunately, it's not a clear-cut call. Free content isn't really free. Someone is paying for it somehow. Often, advertisers are willing to step up and support news sites, blogs, and search engines. Yet, the data that is collected and shared can reveal a lot about people, threatening their privacy and anonymity. I'll admit that I'm torn. What do you think?

Interested in opting out from the initiatve that Seth describes? You can at the Network Advertising Initiative. - K

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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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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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