LSC Wants To Answer Your Questions

Earlier, Matthew told you that LSC had released the final Technology Capacity Planning document. Well, Joyce Raby and Glenn Rawdon will be hosting a session at the LSC TIG Conference, where they want to answer your questions about this document. If you have a question that you want answered, either e-mail it to Joyce Raby or post it below, and I’ll pass the question on to her. – K

A Belated NLADA Annual Conference Report (Part 1)

I sat in on several great sessions at the NLADA Annual Conference. While most weren’t technology sessions, technology was nicely woven in to all of the presentations.

LSC Updates – Helaine Barnett, Karen Sarjeant, John Constance
I missed the first few minutes of the session, but I did arrive in time to hear Helaine Barnett talk about the LSC technology survey and the resulting guidelines document, Technologies That Should Be in Place in a Legal Aid Office Today, which was recently released. LSC is working to support grantees as they implement the outlined technologies. In particular, they worked with LexisNexis to develop a HotDocs software donation program and have funded the national document assembly project (NPADO) to support programs implementing document assembly initiatives. Through TIG, LSC provided funding for an updated version of the case management system report as well as a rating system for hardware, software, and vendors. LSC is also looking at identifying additional training opportunities and, as a part of this, will be webcasting parts of the TIG conference. In order to ensure that programs are looking at using technology to improve their service delivery, a technology plan will become a required part of an LSC grant application as was previously mentioned on Techno.la.

Additional technology-related news that was mentioned: LSC will shortly be sending check notices electronically; 33 TIGs were awarded; and LSC has funded the development of a website that focuses on legal issues for active military and veterans.

Client Use of Technology: 2008 Updates – Gene Donney, Kathleen Brockel
Gene led a great session about Internet use. (His slides are available on the LSNTAP.org site.) It was one of the most interactive sessions that I’ve participated in for a while. And Kathleen was an amazing Vanna White!

My take aways:

• The digital divide still exists, but it is getting smaller.
• Our clients are using technology with us or without us, and we need to adapt, so that we can better serve them. For example, another attendee told the story of being asked to send a homeless client a text message rather than phone him because it cost less on a pre-paid cell phone. This is simple and can provide significant benefit to the client.
• Legal aid has to provide more than one way of accessing its services. I will be the first to acknowledge that technology is not the solution for everything. Some communities, like migrant workers, can be best reached through in-person intake; others can easily access legal aid through hotlines. In the same way, online intake can act as an important funnel for others–homeless families who don’t have access to a phone because public telephones are disappearing and people who turn to the Internet for resources first.

That’s all for today. Check back later this week for more. – K

A Reminder Never Hurts

These days it’s assumed that you know a lot of basic technology information–how to use a mouse, how to search on Google, and how to turn off your computer–pretty simple actions you need to use a computer effectively. But it is also assumed that you know a lot of information that is more nuanced.  Unfortunately, this information isn’t written down in one place, and you have to gather it over time and learn from your mistakes.

Today, I came across a couple of articles that detail some of this information. The first, from the Reader’s Digest, reviews 13 Things Your Computer Person Won’t Tell You. The second, from the ABA Journal, pointed out Things You Should Never Put in an E-mail. Likely, you know most of it, but a reminder never hurts. And don’t you have someone that you’d like to pass it on to? – K

ABA Journal Article on Cyber-Piracy and Legal Aid

If you haven’t seen it yet (it was just featured in this week’s LSC update), be sure to read “Who’s Putting a Price on Free Legal Aid?” by Terry Carter in the September issue of the ABA Journal, which looks at the problem of legal aid domain cybersquatting. To learn more about how cyber-piracy impacts the legal aid community and how to protect your program, check out these resources available on LSNTAP. -M

Self-Represented Litigation at Court Solutions Conference

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

Recent Open-Source Ruling Explained

If you heard about the recent ruling that said that open source licensors are entitled to copyright infringement relief and want to learn more, The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU had a short segment that explained this ruling’s importance. – K

Listen to the ABA Testimony on Technology and the Delivery of Legal Services

As was mentioned on Techno.la in April, the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services is holding hearings on technology and delivery of legal services. The next hearing will be held during the ABA Annual Meeting on August 8, 2008.

For those of you who weren’t able to attend the hearing that took place at the 2008 Equal Justice Conference, you can now listen to the testimony online. – K

Free Friday: Digital Freedom

Typically we use Free Friday as an opportunity to share free online tools and technology resources. However, given that this particular Free Friday happens to land on the 4th of July, it seems apt to use it as an opportunity to honor an organization that has contributed a great deal to digital freedom: the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Founded in 1990, the EFF defends digital rights, from free speech to privacy and innovation to consumer rights. Among its many cases, the EFF has successfully challenged the constitutionality of internet censorship laws, kept corporations from spying on consumers, defended the confidentiality of online journalists, and established that computer code is speech and deserves First Amendment protection. So, as you celebrate the 4th of July today, why not join the EFF today and make a lasting contribution to digital freedom.