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

Texas legal aid organizations and the Houston Bar Association are using LiveHelp to assist Texans affected by Hurricane Ike in obtaining free legal information:

The new service ... is available now and enables Hurricane Ike victims to conduct a live online chat with attorneys recruited by the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program. Attorneys will answer questions and also refer those seeking help to legal resources specific to FEMA appeals and other disaster-related issues.

Funding for this project was provided by the Texas Access to Justice Foundation. The LiveHelp project was funded by the Legal Services Corporation and developed by Pro Bono Net. For more information about this project, read the full press release here. For more information about LiveHelp, contact Liz Keith (lkeith at probono.net). -M

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Unless you've been holed up for the past several months, you've heard that the health of the economy has taken a turn for the worse. It's a complicated situation that This American Life has done a great job of explaining in a couple of segments: The Giant Pool of Money, which we previously mentioned, and Another Frightening Show About the Economy.

For low-income households, this has made a bad situation worse. Renters are being evicted as their landlord's properties are foreclosed on, homeowners are falling prey to foreclosure scams, and tent cities are growing as the rate of homelessness increases.

Even while facing their own financial challenges (news about Indiana, Minnesota, and New Jersey), the legal aid and pro bono communities are stepping up to provide additional assistance. Nationally, several pro bono programs are organizing foreclosure projects. In Minnesota, ProJusticeMN.org launched a website specifically for these advocates that includes sample court documents, statutes, and practice aids. (See their e-newsletter story about the project.) Additionally, programs are making more legal information available online. For example, Illinois Legal Aid Online has created several foreclosure videos, including Mortgage Foreclosure Overview, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid has an attorney who is blogging about foreclosure issues at ForeclosureBuzz.org, and in California, ForeclosureInfoCA.org provides legal information on foreclosure for the public. And these are not the only efforts. For a complete list of activities, check out the list on LSNTAP.org. - K

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A press release from the Texas Legal Services Center on legal resources available for victims of Hurricane Ike. Also, be sure to check out the recently launched National Disaster Legal Aid website, a partnership of the ABA, NLADA, LSC, and Pro Bono Net. -M

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Bexar County self-represented litigants will now have one less place to turn when looking for legal information to help them represent themselves. On Tuesday, July 22, 2008, the County Commissioners voted to close the county self-help center, bowing to pressure from opponents that included many private attorneys and judges. The whole story is available from the San Antonio Express-News, which has a second article here,  as well as op-eds for and against the center.

And a note for self-represented litigants from Texas who end up reading this article while searching the Internet for legal information, check out TexasLawHelp.org, which provides legal information and referrals. - K

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I've been collecting lots of little bits and pieces of information with the hope of turning them into full blog posts, but I haven't. So today, instead of depriving you of these valuable tidbits any longer, I'm throwing open the doors and inviting you to enjoy the smorgasbord.

• 100 Unbelievably Useful Reference Sites You've Never Heard Of. This site links to a long list of reference sites. You'll find the typical links to dictionaries and quotation references, but you'll also find resources that cover prescriptions and illnesses, technology concepts, and pop culture. (Thanks to Kevin Wenzel for passing this along.)
• Texans on Justice. Check out the submissions in the State Bar of Texas's YouTube video contest. Participants were asked to create videos on the theme "Texans capturing the promise of justice for all."
• Recent Studies on Pro Bono Practice in the US. The Legal Ethics Forum summarizes a Law & Society conference panel on pro bono.
• Sources for Congressional Voting Records. Idealware has posted links to sources for congressional voting records to make your research a bit easier.
• Public Interest Legal Technology Resources. The ABA Site-tation posted descriptions of the major legal aid technology resources and players.  - K

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The Brennan Center for Justice Legal Services E-Lert, one of my favorite e-newsletters, brought to my attention a great example of a legal aid blog: Foreclosure Buzz. Robert Doggett, a Texas RioGrande Legal Aid attorney, writes about foreclosure news and attempts to dispel common myths about what you should do if you are facing a foreclosure. Robert, great job! Keep it up! - 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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