Category: Current Projects

Categories
Current Projects Training and Info

Strategy Prep for “tough conversations”

Public legal education groups, including the Justice Education Society, in British Columbia have created online guides to help a person have difficult conversations.

They are particularly meant to resolve disputes before they become more problematic.

These give a small training in the mindsets and approaches a person can use to get to better outcomes. It’s not just the step-by-step of the process, it’s about changing lenses & strategies.

For example, here is the Negotiating a Solution resource. It provides overarching frameworks, priorities, and tips.

Good Legal Design out of British Columbia - Screen Shot 2015-10-04 at 9.10.58 PM

How to deal with ‘tough talks’ is available here at their site.Good Legal Design out of British Columbia - Screen Shot 2015-10-04 at 9.10.51 PM

Categories
Current Projects Integration into Community

Neighborhood Legal Clinics in King County

King County provides a  Neighborhood Legal Clinics program to give free, limited legal help to people in Washington State. There are specialty clinics, like around family, debt, elder law, civil rights, etc. They don’t offer help on criminal issues.

The purpose of the Neighborhood Legal Clinics program (NLC) is to offer free, limited legal advice and referrals to King County residents and Washington State residents with legal issues in King County who might otherwise have no access to the legal system. It is a goal of the program to make the clinics accessible regardless of barriers such as income, education, language or disability.

WHO WE SERVE

King County residents or people with legal issues in King County

WHAT WE DO

Provide FREE 30 minute consultations with an attorney at 34 locations across King County. Attorneys determine whether the client has a legal problem, suggest possible options, and provide appropriate referrals. These attorneys will not represent you in court. NLC attorneys may not have expertise in all areas of the law, but they will make every attempt to answer questions accurately.

 

Attorneys will

  • Provide legal advice for civil legal issues
  • Help answering papers, summons and requests
  • Provide referral and resource information

Special Requests

  • Accommodations for persons with disabilities provided when requested
  • Interpreter services available when requested for all clinics

Referrals

  • Clients who need further legal assistance may be referred to Volunteer Legal Services, the Lawyer Referral Service and other legal or law-related agencies in the community.
  • NLC is a limited legal service and should not be considered a substitute for representation.

 

WE DO NOT    

  • Give advice on criminal legal issues
  • Provide representation in court
  • Help those living outside King County (unless they have a legal issue within King County)
  • Give legal advice over the phone

 

 

 

Categories
Current Projects Integration into Community

Free Legal Aid in Iowa Libraries

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.

Source: Free Legal Aid — James Kennedy Public Library

Categories
Current Projects Integration into Community

Lawyer in the Library + Clinics

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.

 

Categories
Current Projects System Evaluation

CourtMD self-audit for courts

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.

Categories
Advocates Current Projects

BillFixers: advocates who negotiate for you

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.

Categories
Current Projects Triage and Diagnosis

AirHelp: scan and claim for airline compensation


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.

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Categories
Current Projects Work Product Tool

Tenants in Action: app to report housing violations

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.

 

Categories
Current Projects Triage and Diagnosis

Paribus: scraping your data to find claims

Paribus is a tool that finds you ways to get reimbursed in part from companies you’ve bought products from. You give them access to your emails where you get receipts, and then it looks for opportunities for you to get money back from that company when prices drop or there are other obligations for them to return money to you.

It’s shocking how often stores owe you money. Paribus gets you paid every time. Some have saved $500+ without lifting a finger. Trusted by 200,000+ members.

Even if this exact company is not necessarily about ‘access-to-justice’, its model can inspire other products that can scout legal issues and opportunities for people.

Could we build a screening tool, that has users get their personal data scanned (in the most data-privacy-respecting way possible) to spot legal issues or opportutnities.

Categories
Current Projects Triage and Diagnosis

Heat Seek: documenting violations with sensors

Can we use technology to seek out problems that have legal dimensions, that people aren’t aware of?

Heat Seek is a technology-based legal tool to help people see if heating code violations have occurred.

It uses sensor technology to watch whether and how homes are being heated in NYC, and identifying when violations happen. It can then track patterns of abuse and work with the landlords and the court system to get to a resolution.

Here is their information about their initial pilot.

Heat Seek helps tenants resolve their home heating issues by providing the objective, reliable temperature data they need to hold their landlords accountable. We do this by installing low cost, web connected temperature sensors in buildings across New York City. During the winter of 2016, Heat Seek ran a pilot program in 50 buildings throughout four boroughs. For this pilot program, we sought out buildings with the following criteria: (1) an organized tenant association, (2) at a high risk for continued landlord abuse, as identified by our partners, and (3) stated willingness to bring a group case to housing court.

By the numbers:

56 buildings received sensors
73 individual apartments served
16 community partners, including attorneys, community organizations, and tenant groups, as well as the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) the city agency responsible for enforcing the housing code.
…

Outcomes

While we are still analyzing the results of the winter 2015-2016 Pilot, a few initial trends have emerged:

Heat Seek data help clients achieve more favorable legal outcomes.
In three separate cases that spanned different attorneys and at least eight buildings, landlords made more concessions to their tenants and our clients.

“[Heatseek] data are much more digestible than manual heat logs, especially for judges.” Attorney, Legal Services NYC

“With Heat Seek, I was able to submit proof of the lack of heat in my client’s apartment. Upon seeing the evidence, the landlord and his attorney conceded the issue and the landlord agreed to waive all rent claims and provide a rent-stabilized lease.” Edmund Witter, Attorney at Legal Aid Society

Landlords restore or increase heat provision when they know Heat Seek sensors have been deployed in their buildings.
In four buildings, tenants shared Heat Seek data directly with their landlords, who shortly thereafter turned up the heat. These increases in heat are reflected in our data.