Inspiration: We were concerned about the large number of low income folks who are unable to gain access to legal services because they couldn't travel to the local office or they were not eligible for pro se family law assistance because they didn't have a safety issue.
What it does: Our bus travels to various locations (neighborhoods in urban areas or towns in rural areas) to provide a variety of family law legal services. The bus is staffed with a bi-lingual social worker who "triages" the clients, which includes intake, referral to community resources, and referral to the local legal aid office for non-family law legal matters. The social worker will determine whether the client needs assistance with pro se forms or needs to meet with the attorney. The second step of the process is for the client to meet with a paralegal in the "Computer Lab" if he/she needs assistance with preparing pro se forms. If the client does not need to complete forms, then he/she will be sent directly to the attorney. In the Computer Lab, the bi-lingual paralegal will assist the client in filling out the applicable family law forms, by accessing the FloridaLawHelp website or the Florida Supreme Court website. If the client is non-English speaking, then the bus will have access to interpreter services. Once the forms are completed and printed, the client will meet with the attorney, who will review the documents and answer any questions. The attorney could be a staff attorney or a pro bono volunteer attorney, who is experienced with family law. Once the forms have been reviewed by the attorney, then the paralegal will notarize, scan and copy the forms so the client will have the original packet for filing and a copy for his or her records. All clients will be advised regarding the timeline for the family law matter and encouraged to return to the bus or contact the paralegal in the future if additional assistance is needed. For cases identified as meeting program priorities for full representation, the client will be referred to the legal aid office for extended service.
Details of the bus: The bus will be ADA compliant. Inside, there will be a restroom, at least five laptops, a printer, scanner and copier, wi-fi enabled, and a private interview area for confidentiality. Outside, the bus will have an awning that will shade the "waiting area." The waiting area will have a table with a display board and brochures along with chairs for waiting clients.
Challenges we ran into: We originally planned on using the bus for domestic violence victims, however, our testers raised the concern of safety issues for these clients and that they would not come to a bus that was advertised as serving domestic violence victims. The testers suggested that the name and logo of the legal aid organization be prominently displayed on the bus along with the website and phone number so the public would know the bus is a legitimate legal aid service.
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