NLADA Honors State Support with Innovations in Technology Award for LawHelpMN

The 2022 Equal Justice Conference (EJC), held in Minneapolis in mid-May, was an exciting opportunity to meet colleagues in person for the first time since 2019. A project of the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Pro Bono and and Public Service and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), EJC 2022 was a resounding success that brought together legal aid staff, access-to-justice organizations, the courts, and private practice attorneys from across the country to share and learn about developments and innovations in the field.

The excitement and inspiration were on full display at the NLADA Awards Presentation and Luncheon held on May 13th. Legal Services State Support, and program manager J. Singleton, were honored with NLADA’s Nan Heald Innovations in Equal Justice Award, conferred on LawHelpMN for outstanding vision, creativity, and leadership in increasing access to justice for all. Presented annually at the Equal Justice Conference, the Innovations in Equal Justice Award honors an individual or group who has made outstanding career contributions to creativity and innovation in the delivery of legal services to people with low-incomes.

With the award, State Support and its partners were commended for an “incredible feat of coordination both of humans and technology” and for legal help resources that were “carefully and thoughtfully developed and designed with usability and accessibility at top of mind and stand out as a model to others around the country.” J. Singleton’s contributions were also lauded, beginning in 2014 as State Support’s legal technology project manager and then as program manager. Singleton led the development of LawHelpMN’s ground-breaking Guide tool, as well as the Legal Organizations Online Network (LOON), both instrumental in the redesign of LawHelpMN in 2019. As co-chair of the Self Represented Litigation Network’s triage and portal working group, and frequent presenter, Singleton shares and teaches about her experiences within the statewide legal services community and at conferences nationwide. Many self-help website and portal leaders from other states look to LawHelpMN and its various tools, like the Guide and LOON, for insight and guidance on how to model their own tools and resources. Singleton is a leader in Minnesota, guiding coalitions of legal services providers as well as collaborating with other community organizations. Last year, J. was awarded the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Bernard P. Becker Emerging Leader Award.

In accepting the award, Singleton said, “One of the things I’m most proud of is that LawHelp is a real collaborative effort between my office and so many others. Our legal aid partners not only provide us with their legal expertise to make sure our content is accurate, but also give us the feedback we need to continue improving. In addition, we’ve had such great support from our state court system, LSC, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the private bar, and partners like our state and county law libraries. Without this group effort, LawHelpMN would not be possible.”

State Support & CMLS Partner to Gauge User Understanding on LawHelpMN

Central to LawHelpMN.org, Minnesota’s award-winning legal information and referral website, is its Self-Help Library. With the help of legal services attorneys and professional translators, Legal Services State Support curates and maintains a robust collection of fact sheets on a wide range of civil legal topics. Though accessed by thousands of visitors each year, little was known about the effectiveness of these resources in helping self-represented litigants (SRLs) understand their legal issue or problem. As part of a recently concluded Technology Initiative Grant (TIG), State Support teamed up with Central Minnesota Legal Services (CMLS) to create 15 videos and 30 knowledge tests (quizzes) to gauge SRL understanding of the legal issues presented in a selection of fact sheets. “Can My Landlord Enter My Home? A Tenant’s Right to Privacy” offers an example of a video and a quiz utilized to measure the helpfulness of the resource.

The TIG project included four objectives: 1) Create quizzes to integrate within fact sheets; 2) Create short, animated videos to integrate within fact sheets; 3) Explore real-time use of knowledge test answers to guide users to other resources and referrals; and 4) Revise fact sheets based on quiz results to improve understanding and effectiveness.

Quizzes were paired with short videos that explained the legal issue through animation. State Support saw high engagement with the quizzes and they appeared to help SRLs better understand the legal concepts presented. The quizzes have provided staff with new insights about what should be highlighted and expanded upon when revising fact sheet content. Video views were quite low and there was no preference for animated versus narrated video types.

Having a different perspective on LawHelpMN’s content, as well as data about how visitors are engaging with it, was both eye-opening and instructive. State Support staff found the initiative to be a useful exercise for taking a fresh look at the kinds of questions SRLs might have and how we can best answer them.

Statewide Legal Services Staff Featured at LSC's Innovations in Technology Conference

Staff from across the state will represent Minnesota at LSC's 2022 Innovations in Technology Conference (ITC2022) this week. ITC 2022 brings together a broad range of professionals to showcase technology projects and tools being implemented across the country and internationally to promote access to justice and high-quality legal representation for people with low incomes. The conference will be presented virtually again this year with pre-recorded presentations, podcasts to spark live discussions, engaging speakers, live interactive sessions, and networking opportunities.

Lending their expertise on panels demonstrating technological innovations in legal services delivery and pro se assistance are staff from Legal Aid Service of Northeastern Minnesota (LASNEM), Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota (LSNM), Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA) and Legal Services State Support.

Beginning Wednesday January 12, at 2:30 p.m., Dori Rapaport, executive director of LASNEM, will co-present the session “Relationships and Tech: Rural Remote Services.” Panelists will discuss the gulf between urban and rural legal access and how to overcome geographical, cultural and digital divides to ensure access to justice. They will cover innovative approaches that integrate technology solutions with relationship-building.

On Thursday, January 13 at 2:30 p.m., State Support’s program manager, J. Singleton, will co-present “COVID-19 Data Trends and Response: Lessons from Four Legal Help Portals.” The session will explore the COVID-19 response and data trends discovered by four legal help portals in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Minnesota. The leaders from each organization will walk through processes, strategies and tools for adapting to challenges with a focus on utilizing data to determine areas of need.

Then, on Thursday, January 20 at 12:30 p.m. (the second week of the virtual conference), staff from three legal aid programs, along with A2J Tech staff, will co-present the session “Deploying a Statewide Network of Legal Kiosks.” Rachel Albertson (LASNEM), Lisa Cohen (MMLA), Dori Rapaport (LASNEM) and Kelly Wencl (LSNM) will discuss the creation of a statewide network of nearly 280 legal kiosks stationed in a variety of court, agency, non-profit and other community locations. The panel will walk participants through the project development process from grant management and project ideation, to research and design, partner and stakeholder navigation, and the iterative implementation of technology.

Find our more about the conference and view the full agenda: 2022 Innovations in Technology Conference Schedule | LSC - Legal Services Corporation: America's Partner for Equal Justice.

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.”

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.