The use of interactive online legal forms in combination with advice from a legal helpline attorney can greatly augment the effectiveness of legal assistance. Idaho Legal Aid Services (ILAS), as part of the AoA Model Approaches to Statewide Legal Assistance Project,  constructed a set of forms for the nation's first web-based senior legal form library linked to document assembly software.  (Read Idaho's Lessons Learned from its AoA Model Approaches Grant, LHC Dec '09)

The webinar will showcase how ILAS' Automated Forms and Senior Legal Hotline attorneys impact client service delivery. The webinar will include (1) the Technology Project Developer’s Perspective on Automation of Documents. (2) the Senior Legal Hotline Attorney’s perspective on how to utilize the forms in the legal hotline work and (3) the Project Director’s perspective on creating and selecting forms, finding funding for document automation, obstacles and lessons learned in creating and integrating an automated documents library into the legal services delivery system. 

With the new round of AoA Model Approaches Awards just announced, this is an opportunity for the new awardees to get together and discuss their plans for senior legal helplines and to bounce ideas off each other.  New senior legal helplines managers, as well as experienced ones, will benefit from this discussion.
Additional Materials:

• Casenote Considerations by Alan Herman and Shoshanna Ehrlich, LHQ Spring 98.
• Legal Hotline Evaluation Criteria
• Powerpoint Presentation

Presented by NLRC partner, The Center for Social Gerontology. 

All Model Approaches Award Recipients are tasked with conducting an assessment of the legal needs of older persons in their state and also assessing the capacity of their state's current legal delivery system to meet those needs.  This webinar will look at how to complete both of these essential tasks.  For needs assessments, we will look at different approaches/methodologies (formal and informal), the importance of first deciding “whose needs” you want to assess; approaches for focusing on needs of target populations; costs of different approaches and tips for saving on costs, and valid ways of reporting the results.  For assessing capacity of your current legal delivery system, we will look at various components of delivery systems, focus on the core components of the system, and explore the kinds of questions that need to be answered regarding those core components.  Legal Service Developers, Senior Legal Helpline Managers, and other partners in the Model Approaches Grants should attend.

Presentation: [.ppt] [.pdf]
Natalie Thomas Presentation: [.pdf]

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]

Many senior legal hotline managers struggle with how to tell others about the good work that their hotlines are doing each year.  Many funders and community leaders are looking for more than just a report on the number of clients and cases.  This workshop discusses telling the story of the hotlines through various outcome measures.  It discusses the challenges and limitations for hotlines in reporting outcome measures because of the limited levels of service that many offer.  The webinar was recorded on March 26, 2009.

With limited resources, senior legal helplines must work to use their efforts efficiently. One way to do that is by targeting populations most needy populations. This webinar looks at the reasons for targeting, targeting using outreach techniques, targeting by setting priorities, how senior legal helplines can help the IIIB programs with their targets efforts, and how to use GIS mapping to better target and to evaluate effectiveness. The webinar was recorded on Thursday, June 18, 2009.