Page 90 - Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice

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This program relies on the support of Housing Court Answers and University Settlement in Brooklyn and the Access to Justice Program in the Bronx .47
The Committee issued a “Snapshot” report at the end of 2014 to gauge the initial impact of the courtroom navigators .48 This report described the actual workings of the program, gave the results of a litigant survey conducted in the summer of 2014, made recommendations, and provided the perspective of the judiciary .49 The survey, while limited, did report that clients found that the navigators answered their questions, helped them to understand the proceedings, and “helped them feel that progress was being made in their case .”50
Legal Hand
Just this past year, the Center for Court Innovation (CCI) launched Legal Hand, an initiative to provide legal information, assistance, and referrals at three neighborhood storefronts .51 To operate these storefronts, CCI partnered with three Citywide legal services organizations – Legal Aid, Legal Services-NYC, and NYLAG .52 Legal Hand services are provided in neighborhoods with a high need for legal services, in Brownsville and Crown Heights in Brooklyn and Jamaica in Queens .53
The Legal Hand model is well suited to assist low-income New Yorkers with civil legal matters that are not in court . The legal needs of community members are much broader than requiring assistance with court cases . By placing staff in accessible community offices and specifically conducting outreach for community members to visit the offices for legal matters that are not in court, Legal Hand promises to fill gaps in services not currently filled by help desks and in-court navigators .
Mobile Community Offices
NYLAG, in partnership with the Access to Justice Program, launched the Mobile Legal Help Center (MLHC) in 2012 .54 The first of its kind in the country – a law office on wheels - the MLHC allows NYLAG to provide direct community access to legal services at a different location every day .55 While the MLHC serves as intake for NYLAG’s traditional programs, with clients being evaluated for representation, the MLHC also serves the important function of providing legal information and advice to clients in their communities . As with the Legal Hand storefront offices, MLHC staff not only provide assistance on matters that are in court or before administrative agencies . They also provide assistance on out-of-court matters and information on what is amenable to a court or agency resolution .
47 See id. at 2-6.
48 Id.
49 Id.
50 Id. at 7.
51 See Legal Hand, cenTer for courT innoVaTion, http://www.courtinnovation.org/legal-hand (last visited Mar. 14, 2016).
52 See Citizens Lend a Legal Hand, NYLAG (Nov. 24, 2015), http://nylag.org/news/2015/11/citizens-lend-a-legal-hand.
53 See Legal Hand, supra note 51.
54 See NYLAG Launches Mobile Legal Help Center, NYLAG (Apr. 6, 2012), http://nylag.org/news/2012/04/nylag- launches-mobile-legal-help-center.
55 See Merritt C. Birnbaum & Randal S. Jeffrey, NYLAG Mobile Legal Help Center’s Challenges and Successes, 46 clearinghouse reV. 406 (2013).
Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice