David Godfrey
Senior Attorney - ABA Commission on Law and Aging

Hotlines were cited as a potential tool for overcoming fear of commitment by potential pro bono attorneys at a recent pro bono summit. The ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service convened a National Pro Bono Summit in Washington, DC on October 24 and 25th, 2011.  In preparation for the Summit invitees were asked to submit ideas and issues in pro bono development. A key issue that was raised was a fear of committing to taking on a pro bono matter.  The discussion raised several fears; key among them was a fear of the potentially open ended time commitment of many traditional pro bono cases.  All of us have seen a simple litigation matter morph into a complex case going from just a few hours work to potentially hundreds of hours - and that is a fear identified as keeping many potential pro bono attorneys from committing. Hotlines were recommended as an option to overcome the fear of time commitment. Hotline service has the advantage of being limited in scope. With a hotline it is possible to limit the level of service - with anything beyond that level of service being referred on for additional services.  This format allows the volunteer attorney to commit, without fear of being becoming involved in unlimited representation.

Small hotlines are defined for our purpose as ones with one full time equivalent attorney or less. Small hotlines have special operational challenges as they have to perform all the tasks that larger hotlines do, but with a lot fewer resources. While it is true that small hotlines are usually located in states with smaller populations and have less call volume, they still have to handle administration, evaluation, training, and outreach, along with the case service duties. To lend guidance to planners and managers of small hotlines we sought the expertise of experienced managers at small statewide senior legal hotlines. Input from the Idaho Senior Legal Hotline at Idaho Legal Aid (ILAS), Legal HelpLine for Older Kentuckians, Rhode Island Legal Services (RILS), and the Senior Legal Hotline at West Virginia Senior Legal Aid (WVSLA) helped CERA collect these tips. CERA expresses is appreciation to Jim Cook and Rod Gere, Deputy Directory and Managing Attorney at Idaho Legal Aid Services, Robin Cooke, Managing Attorney at the Legal HelpLine for Older Kentuckians, Access to Justice Foundation, Joseph Proietta, Director of the Elder Law Project at Rhode Island Legal Services, and Cathy McConnell, Executive Director of West Virginia Senior Legal Aid for sharing their experiences and recommendations for this guide.

By:  Weston J. MacIntosh, Project Attorney/CERA

On March 9, 2011, a highly attended webinar was held on the topic of “Identifying, Preventing, and Addressing Identity Theft”.  If you missed the webinar, it is available for viewing at www.legalhotlines.org.  It is an excellent resource for identity theft victims and advocates.  Included below are some of the highlights and a roadmap of the webinar.

David Godfrey, Senior Attorney, ABA Commission on Law and Aging.

I was using the office copier one day and ran across a guide for the care and feeding of a hamster. (Someone was copying it.) As I looked through it, I realized that just as hamsters need special treatment to flourish, so do hotline attorneys.  So here, based on a guide to the care and feeding of a hamster, is a guide to the care and feeding of hotline attorneys.   

The species advocatus telephonicus, is a rare breed of attorney who primarily provides legal assistance by telephone. First domesticated in the 1970s advocatus telephonicus (AT) is now found in some form in nearly every state; special effort should be taken to keep them productive, happy and healthy.  Below is a brief guide modeled after a guide entitled, “How to Take Care of a Hamster.”

Adapted with permission from “Effective Utilization of In-House Volunteers in Legal Services” by Jan Allen May, Executive Director, Legal Counsel for the Elderly, MIE Journal Winter 2009

Legal Counsel for the Elderly has used in-house volunteers for 34 years and currently has over 100.  The benefits can be tremendous but recruiting, training, and retaining volunteers requires the development of systems to maximize their help.  This column contains tips condensed from Jan May’s article.

Legal Hotlines rely heavily on new technologies to deliver their services in the most effective and efficient way possible.  Online intake is one of the latest topics of interest to hotline managers as a way to possibly cut costs and handle more clients.  This webinar looks at what technologies are available and how they are currently being used to provide legal services. [ppt presentation]

 

NTAP is happy to announce that CMS.LSNTAP.org is now open to all members of the poverty law community. Users can login at http://cms.lsntap.org using their existing LSNTAP.org accounts and view and contribute reviews of the six major legal services case management systems. Think of it as a TripAdvisor or Yelp for your CMS. Please submit a review if you use a CMS and pass this along to others in your program.  If you do not have an LSNTAP.org account, contact David Bonebrake.

Cheryl Nolan at LSC, in collaboration with CERA, presented a webinar on September 17, 2009,  featuring Online Intake procedures at four legal hotlines. The presenters were Rachel Baca - CA, Rich LeMay- ND, Debra Jennings, OH, and Martin Ostensen, Alberta. 

Email from Claudia Johnson on the recent presentations on Document Assembly with links to examples and projects that are using this new technology.