Lawyer In A Bus

Inspiration

Our inspiration for this project comes from Patty Pro Se - a fictional potential client who has experienced domestic violence and has been in and out of jail for years due to drug abuse. She has three minor children, an unstable home life and is a minimum wage worker who works two jobs. This client cannot afford an attorney for a divorce that would give her independence from her abusive spouse, and a chance to stabilize her home life. Patty Pro Se is a "do-it-herself" character who is very resourceful when it comes to community services and somewhat tech-savvy. If she wants to do something, she will Google it or find the right person to talk to.

Our project "Lawyer In A Bus" comes from our desire to help clients like Patty Pro Se who are incapable of affording a private attorney, are financially ineligible for legal aid, and are willing to figure out how to use self-help materials.

What It Does

Lawyer in A Bus can be found at your local courthouse, legal aid organization, library, food bank, school or community center. A mobile app can help you determine where the bus is on any given day, or where you can pick up resources (such as "Lawyer in A Box, explained below).

An attorney and volunteers drive along a scheduled route in the community and set up shop to give out information, legal advice and help clients complete pro se forms with legal matters such as dissolution of marriage, wills, bankruptcies, landlord/tenant, modifications, etc. On the bus there are lap tops available for tech-savvy clients to fill out their forms via the website.

On the bus, clients may also pick up "Lawyer In A Box;" a resource toolkit that contains legal documents/forms, step-by-step instructions on how to file the forms, timelines on court proceedings, and related resources/materials. Each Lawyer In A Box covers just one legal issue (e.g. one box for a simple dissolution of marriage, another box for a wills matter, etc.).

How We Built It

The bus route is determined through collaboration with social service agencies as well as based on requests from the app, and feedback provided by other testers.

For the proposed Lawyer In A Box phone app, there is possibility for development of this app on both Androids and iPhones using Google Maps. However, on the whole, this project would need to raise funds in order to acquire a state-of-the-art bus with lap tops for client intake and internet use.

Challenges We Ran Into

Our team had to discuss and decide whether or not this project would be potentially funded using Legal Services Corporation (LSC) funds, and we came to the conclusion that we would not be able to do that. Due to the LSC income restrictions needed to qualify to services, we knew we would not be able to help most people by using LSC funds. Not everyone can meet LSC requirements in order to receive the legal help they need. We wanted to help the working poor, and knew that unrestricted funds would be the best way to do this. Seeing as our project focuses on pro se methods, we knew we would be able to help clients who are Do-It-Yourself types, regardless of income.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

Lawyer-In-A-Box has the potential to improve the document completion rate of pro se litigants. It can make a complicated and daunting process more manageable, user-friendly and accessible.

Lawyer-In-A-Bus is a community-oriented and client-centered approach that can build stronger community partnerships amongst service organizations. It reaches out to clients in the places that they frequent, instead of them going out of their way and out of their schedules to receive legal help.

What We Learned

There is a desire for mobile units to do community outreach and provide legal services. This can help clients experience less dependency on outside factors such as transportation, child care and work schedules; all of which are obstacles for the low-income community.

We also learned that it's great to talk to testers who gave us valuable feedback and insight on honing our ideas.

What's Next for Lawyer In A Bus?

LAWYER ON A PLANE - just kidding :)

Anything can happen next - a full-fledged website with our own personal interactive documents, a YouTube Channel for the website with virtual instructions on everything from documents to your own legal rights, helpful phone applications related to the project (for locations, times, etc.), and building even stronger community partnerships.

Project by: Nancy Lugo Esq., Randall Berg Esq., Abigail Adkins, Cynthia Woodward Esq., Ichi Vazquez and Mark Brown Esq.

Built With

• our-heads!-:)