Remote Resources for Pro Bono Attorneys During Pandemic

By Sherri Knuth, MSBA Access to Justice Director

Public law libraries are eager to assist attorneys who volunteer their time to assist those in need. Library support may involve access to helpful legal research resources, especially for the attorney who takes pro bono clients with issues outside the attorney’s practice area.

Thomson Reuters has extended remote access to Westlaw during the pandemic. The Minnesota State, Hennepin County, and Ramsey County Law Libraries can help attorneys with remote access Westlaw. It’s not known how long Thomson Reuters will offer remote access via public law libraries.

Pro bono attorneys may contact the following law libraries about remote access:

• Minnesota State Law Library—651-297-7651

• Hennepin County Law Library—612-348-2903

• Ramsey County Law Library—651-266-8391

Pro bono attorneys in other metro area counties should also contact their local public law library to learn what resources they provide. A full directory of county law libraries is available.    

Other Remote Reference Services
Minnesota State Law Library—Via email, reference and resources from Westlaw, Lexis, HeinOnline, National Consumer Law Center, and print resources like the MNCLE Deskbooks.

Hennepin County Law Library—Offers temporary offsite access to Lexis and research assistance and emailing resources from the library’s extensive practitioner-oriented collection. Related to last summer’s unrest, the library has robust construction and insurance law collections. Pro bono attorneys in Hennepin County may talk to library director Karen Westwood about getting member access, which allows attorneys access to Hein Online and Wolters Kluwer titles from their offices. This also goes for legal nonprofits.

Ramsey County Law Library—Contact the library for documents that can be sent via email. This includes text from Minnesota Practice Series and Lexis Minnesota titles.

For Minnesota State Bar Association Members
The following online resources are available to MSBA Members: Fastcase for online access to primary legal materials; eBooks; mndocs and practicelaw for online forms templates and practice resources. Attorneys access these resources directly from the MSBA.

Instant Messaging on LawHelpMN: You Might be Chatting with a Law Librarian

In 2019, the newly designed LawHelpMN.org had over half a million unique visitors looking for civil legal information and referrals. Many visitors discovered the LawHelpMN Guide for the first time and used it to get resources tailored to their situation. Sometimes, though, visitors just need help finding the right fact sheet or phone number, or want to know if a question can be answered without contacting the court or an attorney. Enter LiveChat, the instant messaging feature on LawHelpMN that lets a visitor chat with a live navigator who knows the site and its resources well.

In order to provide consistent service and staffing with the LiveChat feature, State Support quickly realized it needed a partner. And what better partner than a law librarian? Starting in 2014, the Minnesota State Law Library joined forces with State Support to staff LiveChat. That partnership has been instrumental in keeping the popular tool vital and increasingly available. In the past year, State Law Library and State Support staff engaged in 612 online chats with LawHelpMN users needing help finding information. Chat is generally staffed from 9 am – 4 pm, Monday – Friday.

In the past six months, a new “ticket” function was added to LiveChat. After consulting with State Law Library staff, LiveChat was set up to allow users to submit messages that go to the “Ask a Librarian” inbox during hours when chat is not staffed. This led to 458 tickets being created and then responded to by the law librarians. The ticket system represents a significant increase in LiveChat traffic, and therefore the number of people served.

In 2019, the LiveChat partnership assisted visitors from 51 Minnesota counties, with the highest concentration of issues in the areas of family law, housing, consumer and debt, seniors, employment, criminal issues and domestic abuse. The majority of LiveChat visitors were looking for advice, followed by those looking for information and/or for a lawyer.

With the new ticket function now available, State Support anticipates an increase in “after hours” questions, and thanks to the dedication and commitment of the State Law Library, someone will be there to answer them.

Stearns County Self-Help Center – A Statewide Oasis for Self-Represented Litigants

She’s called “the expungement queen” and with good reason – in 2018, Julie Kelly, one of only two full-time legal services staff at the Stearns County Self-Help Center, assisted with over 350 criminal expungements. Kelly, a paralegal, and her colleague, attorney Autumn DeCosta, both of Central Minnesota Legal Services (CMLS) – St. Cloud are the team behind a vital collaboration between CMLS and the Stearns County Law Library Board of Directors. Created to help pro se litigants and located in the Stearns County Courthouse, the self-help program had over 7,200 in-person and telephone/email contacts with self-represented litigants on 27 common legal issues in 2018 alone.

The CMLS Self-Help Center is open from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and assistance is provided on a first come, first served basis. This can mean long wait times, but no one is turned away (though sometimes walk-in clients will leave and return the next day). Kelly and DeCosta provide court forms assistance, service, and procedural instructions for self -represented litigants already involved in a civil court action or looking to start one. They help with cases involving OFP, HRO, dissolution, custody, child support, guardianship and conciliation, to name just a few. They do not give legal advice but do refer clients to advice clinics or Central Minnesota Legal Services itself for full representation, as needed.

Dan Morris, CMLS managing attorney and supervisor of the program said, “I am singularly impressed with the quantity of predominately low-income self-represented litigants that Julie and Autumn serve on a daily basis, and how they are still able to provide excellent assistance to all in greater central Minnesota on such an impressive range of legal topics. We are proud to partner with the Stearns County Law Library Board in providing this indispensable service to pro se litigants and the county district courts.”

Since the program began in 2006, nearly 60,000 self-represented litigants have been served, and in 2018, they came from 40 Minnesota counties, mainly Stearns, Benton, Sherburne, Morrison, Wright, Hennepin, and Kandiyohi. In recognition of the program, its improvements to the legal and procedural standards of pro se filings, and its positive impact on the efficiency of the court process, the Benton and Stearns County District Courts issued court orders requiring that it review all pro-se dissolution cases before they are filed.