Justice Innovation
In Iowa, there are two programs that sponsor Free Legal Aid for low-income residents at libraries. The Iowa State Bar Public Service Project and the Iowa Legal Aid Volunteer Lawyers Project offer statewide services through the library.
People can come to the library on certain dates to consult with lawyers without charge.
Have a standardized paper map of the steps in a legal process laid out, with tasks, hand-offs, and roles.
This map can then be marked-up and customized by the user and by lawyers and court staff, to help them understand the process in terms of their own situation.
Ideally, it would be visual — with icons and illustrations of the steps.
A design team maps out the basic, standard process for a given Legal Issue area (e.g., child custody, divorce, etc).
They vet it with court experts.
Then they print these one page maps out, ensuring there is generous white space on the page for annotations.
If there are common note-taking-points, these can be designated on the map with a box or question bubble.
It would likely take 2 months and under $500 to implement.
It is a standing easel, about five feet high, with clips to attach a series of booklets. It would be more attractive than a standard “Wall of Handouts”, and it would have more structured categories and flows of resources to take.
For example, each easel would be for a specific Problem, and then each row of resources would be for a specific task to do within that task. There would be labels and context for what the handouts are — so people know what to take, and why they’re taking them.
The Courts could buy easels, attach clips to them, and then affix labels/colors to the easels to make the distinct rows and titles. Then, they would have to stock the easels with the correct resources each day to ensure sufficient ones are present.
Planning beforehand would be required, to decide which Problems should get their own Board, and then what the key tasks/categories should be for each board. Finally, the planning team would have to decide which documents or other resources should go on the Board.
A model for feedback is the Happy/Not Happy card, a simple folded card that gives the user two sets of things to do to give feedback. It comes from a headphone company, Anker. They include this card with their product, to give a very clear set of steps to follow up with feedback.
The San Mateo County Law Library has a Lawyer in the Library Program. Once a month, the Redwood City-based library has a live lawyer present for 20 minute free consultations. You must sign up before hand.
The San Mateo County Law Library participates in the San Mateo County Public Library System’s ‘Lawyer in the Library’ Program. Every 4th Wednesday of the month between 6pm and 8pm, a lawyer is available in the Law Library for a free, one-on-one, 20 minute consultation with you on the legal issue covered that month. You must sign up by calling the Law Library at (650)363-4913.
For a listing of upcoming dates and topics, please see our home page.
The public libraries of Belmont (650.591.8286), Foster City (650.574.4892), Millbrae (650.697.7607), Redwood City (650.780.7058, press ‘0’), Pacifica Sharp Park (650.355.5196), and East Palo Alto (650.321.7712) also participate in this program. If you do not see your issue listed above in our offerings, you may wish to call these other libraries to see if they are offering a lawyer who can help you on your specific topic.
Also, Bay Area Legal Aid offers a Legal Advice Line for low-income Bay Area residents Monday and Thursday, 9:30am to 3pm and Tuesday and Wednesday, 9:30am to 1pm. Please call (800) 551.5554.
In addition to the Lawyer consults, there are also occasional Clinics available at the library and surrounding service-providers.
The Law Library offers a free Consumer Law Clinic sponsored by Bay Area Legal Aid every Monday starting at 10AM. RSVP for your spot by calling (650) 358.0745. The clinic meets in the Law Library Conference room.
The San Mateo County Superior Court offers a Small Claims Advisor to assist with Small Claims every Wednesday starting at 3:30 in the 2nd Floor Conference Room of 400 County Center, Redwood City, California. Call (650) 363.4303 for more information.
The Family Law Facilitator’s Office offers a Filing for Divorce Workshop every Tuesday starting at 1:15pm in the Family Law Facilitator’s Office, 2nd floor, 400 County Center, Redwood City, California. Call (650) 363.4590 for more information.
Legal Aid Society offers a Landlord/Tenant Clinicevery Monday starting at 8:30am in the Family Law Facilitator’s Office, 2nd floor, 400 County Center, Redwood City, California.
Bay Area Legal Aid offers a Domestic Violence Restraining Order Clinic every Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting at 9am and Wednesday afternoons starting at 1:30pm at their office located at 1048 El Camino Real, Ste. A in Redwood City, California. Call (650) 358.0745 for more information.
The Child Custody Clinic meets every Tuesday 1:15pm to 3pm, Wednesday 9am to 11am, and Thursday (Spanish only) 1:15 to 3pm in the Family Law Facilitator’s Office, 2nd floor, 400 County Center, Redwood City, California. Call (866) 901.3121 for more information.
What if courts documented real-life stories of people who went through various processes, and how they did so. This could be through pictures and words, or through interactive media or videos. It would give the user a sense of how others have used the process, what background they came from, and what they achieved.
This idea is partly inspired by testimonials that come along with exercise programs or diets. Or, like the following images, a booklet describing different birth control methods, and describing how different women chose different ones, why, and how they went about it.
Court MD is a project from the National Center for State Courts that lets court admins run an audit of their own organization, to figure out what’s going wrong and where they should focus resources.
Here’s the description from NCSC:
…start with CourtMD, a new and improved online diagnostic tool from NCSC that can help zero in on your court’s most likely problems — In a matter of minutes.
…
This new and improved version of CourtMD contains significant updates and enhancements to enable court managers and staff to get quick answers to what may be ailing their court.
New topics covered include:
caseflow management;
records management;
staff satisfaction;
customer satisfaction;
and enterprise management.CourtMD analyzes the answers you provide to a series of simple questions and then assesses the likelihood that your court is suffering from a particular pain point.
From there, you receive a printed summary, pointers on recommended reading, and where to go for more assistance.
BillFixers is a service that lets you have someone else deal with your bills, to figure out how to negotiate them down.
Our expert negotiators are ready to lower your bills up to 35%! Get started by signing up with BillFixers today!
You pay them half of what you can save, after they negotiate with the companies to save you money.
With our combined experience in negotiation, we decided to start a company where customers could save money without any of the hassle and with absolute security. We wanted to take money out of the pockets of giant corporations and pass it on to you without you having to put down your book or take time off work. You send us your bills, we get them lower, and we split the savings down the middle—no hidden fees, no hold music, and no hassle.
AirHelp scouts your flight details to see if you can make a claim for compensation. You can enter your flight details with airports and dates if your flight has been cancelled or overbooked. Then you can check your eligibility to see if you can apply for compensation.
Flight delayed? Canceled? Missed connection? You could receive up to €600 from the airline. Send AirHelp your flight details and get an answer in 3 minutes on compensation claims you could be owed!
The other option is to Email-Scan — in which you let the tool scan your emails for flight details and then make claims from there.
Tenants in Action is an app for tenants in LA to document and report issues they have with housing problems. They can use the app to note what problems they’re experiencing, match that to codes in the government-speak, and then register a complaint — all through the app.
