Justice Innovation
One of the needs we uncovered at the Self Help Centers in courts was to make it clear to people that they couldn’t expect full legal representation. The courts wanted to make sure they didn’t expect full confidentiality or an ongoing relationship.
To do this, we propose a poster that could also be replicated as handouts or cards.
It would lay out key points about the relationship in large fonts, with messages in bolds. It would have icons and pictograms to illustrate the points.
What is it? Posters and other large-scale signage that can be placed physically throughout and around the court building, and on any web- or mobile-based court technology. It would reach out to people considering using the court by framing the problem in words they understand, using iconography and colors. It would give the person a ‘pathway’ view of what resources are available for their issue-area, and help them understand what applies to them.
Work with a visual designer to choose the right color scheme, fonts, and icons. Work with a content expert to choose the most important issues, and how people talk about them. Then create outreach signage that features the pathways of these issues, and that presents it in ways that will engage the target audience.
This will likely take several weeks to a month to design, and $1000 to create the signage.
Courts and associated legal actors must implement a coherent, user-centered signage system. It should be with larger fonts, consistent color coding, and use of pictograms. The names should be consistent across all signs, and they should be phrased in terms of the problem or task of the user that they are addressing, rather than the term that the legal system has created for them.
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.
How to deal with ‘tough talks’ is available here at their site.
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
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.
