LawHelpMN Adapts to Emerging Needs with App and Website Improvements

J. Singleton, Program Manager - Legal Services State Support

In response to changing legal needs in Minnesota, Legal Services State Support recently partnered with California digital design firm Y Media Labs to refine the nationally recognized LawHelpMN.org website and its mobile app.

When it launched in 2019, the site reached over half a million people quickly and its use since the COVID-19 pandemic began has been significant in bringing critical legal information to Minnesotans. The site’s mobile app has not been as responsive and many users have been unable to access what they need when using it. Enter Y Media Labs (YML) who donated their services to State Support as a way to support access to justice through technology. The firm’s designers spent weeks streamlining the website and app to improve functionality and ability to match Minnesotans with available resources.

“In the first two weeks since we launched the new design, we’ve already seen a 40% increase in the number of people who get resources from the LawHelpMN Guide. Y Media Labs has been amazing to work with.”

— J. Singleton, Program Manager - State Support

Among the beneficiaries of LawHelpMN’s new improvements are those utilizing it via one of 250 "legal kiosks" across the state. "We don't want people to have to be problem solvers or jump through hoops just to get through a form. They abandon it if they run into trouble. So we are grateful for the changes made," said Sally Nankivell, executive director of LegalCORPS, a Legal Kiosk Project host.

Read more in the Star Tribune’s “Upgraded app aimed at bringing free legal aid to more Minnesotans.”

LASNEM PAI Director Recounts Legal Aid's Crisis Advocacy and Adaptation

In the April edition of Bench and Bar Magazine, Lilo Schluender, director of private attorney involvement (pro bono) with Legal Aid Service of Northeastern Minnesota (LASNEM), gives a candid account of the humanitarian crisis legal aid faces in the midst of a global pandemic and how it’s adapting to the ongoing challenges.

As director of PAI, Schluender sees firsthand how COVID-19 has exacerbated the hardships legal aid clients routinely deal with, and how access gaps, notably the digital divide, have created additional burdens, complexities, and stress. Even with legal information and court forms readily available online, without internet at home or safe public spaces in which to access it, many eligible legal aid clients have been unable to find legal services or appear for remote hearings.

Schluender points to the work of the Minnesota Legal Services Coalition and its Legal Kiosk Project as one of the ways civil legal services programs are collaborating to provide more access in local Minnesota communities. In its own service area, LASNEM’s virtual legal clinic model allows them to serve their entire 11-county region with volunteers and staff attorneys who participate from across the state. With remote access, a volunteer attorney in Wayzata can now represent a family law client in International Falls. 

In conclusion, Schluender shares thoughtful tips for how to avoid poverty-shaming in a pandemic. Read Legal aid in a pandemic: Notes from the front lines.

Reach Justice Minnesota: Need legal aid? It’s nearby.

The Minnesota Legal Services Coalition (“The Coalition”), providers of justice to people in poverty throughout Minnesota, has received $3.5 million Federal CARES Act funding from the State of Minnesota to provide Reach Justice Minnesota. Reach Justice Minnesota is a series of initiatives that leverage technology and emergency staffing to help protect Minnesotans’ basic civil and human rights in the face of an unprecedented emergency and disaster. There is rising demand for civil legal aid all over Minnesota as a direct result of the public health and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Coalition leads a civil legal aid network delivering legal help that enables people to protect their livelihoods, their health, and their families. The Coalition provides these life-changing legal services in every county in Minnesota and helps level the playing field for approximately 46,000 Minnesotan households each year. 

With high unemployment and other economic challenges, more and more Minnesotans are struggling to make ends meet and facing threats to their basic needs. They are worried about losing their housing, even as being at home is fundamental to their families’ health and safety. They are worried about their personal safety and stability, with isolation endangering survivors of domestic violence and their children. As a result of these realities, tens of thousands of Minnesotans are seeking basic information on their legal rights and requesting legal representation to resolve their civil legal problems.

With technology and additional staffing, Reach Justice Minnesota is reaching communities throughout Minnesota to provide the legal help they need. These investments now will endure beyond the current public health emergency, and will bridge the long-standing digital divide experienced not only by rural communities, but by low income people throughout Minnesota who lack resources to access technology.

Reach Justice Minnesota initiatives include:

• The Legal Kiosk Project, a statewide network of nearly 270 community-based computer kiosks stationed in a variety of community locations offering the public the ability to apply for civil legal aid services, access legal resources, and, in some cases, attend online meetings and remote court hearings in privacy.

• Justice Buses: these mobile legal aid offices will travel to rural areas, bringing with them the ability to meet in person or obtain legal information so clients can stay close to home.

• Additional investment in LawHelpMN, an easy-to-read, dynamic online portal containing fact sheets, booklets, videos, and other legal information to help Minnesotans solve legal problems, with translations in Spanish, Hmong, and Somali. New traffic to LawHelpMN has increased by 33% since the start of the pandemic, and visitors continue to access COVID-19 specific resources here. New content is added frequently as laws develop and new client needs emerge.

• Increased legal representation to thousands of Minnesotan households in need of critical legal help. Emergency staffing has expanded our capacity to serve clients in need.