June 24, 2004 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Going before a judge without a lawyer and filling out the necessary paperwork for the court can be complicated, but a charity in Santa Ana, Calif., has turned to technology to help make self-representation less intimidating.
The Legal Aid Society of Orange County has created the Interactive Community Assistance Network, or I-CAN, a Web-based service that provides legal assistance to people who are representing themselves in court, usually because they cannot afford to hire a lawyer.
By answering a series of questions, users are able to generate pleadings for a variety of legal proceedings, such as seeking protection from domestic violence, obtaining child support, responding to a landlord’s lawsuit for eviction, or suing in small-claims court.
I-CAN kiosks have been placed at courthouses, local legal-services organizations, libraries, and women’s shelters. Many of the instructions are available in Spanish and Vietnamese, but all of the pleadings are generated in English. The kiosks also include video tours of the courts and an overview of court procedures.
Bob Cohen, executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, says that clients often stumble upon the kiosks at a courthouse and at first aren’t terribly excited to be using the system because they had hoped there would be a person available to help them complete their paperwork.
But after going through four or five screens of information on the kiosks, he says, most users feel comfortable using them. “They go through the program, and they’re really proud of themselves, because not only have they done the pleading, which they need to file in court, but they have figured it out themselves,” says Mr. Cohen.
Since an initial version of I-CAN was introduced in November 2000, litigants have generated 21,900 pleadings using the system. Currently I-CAN averages 400 pleadings a month.
The Legal Aid Society of Orange County has created modules for courts and government agencies in Massachusetts and Oklahoma, and has signed agreements to provide programs for Colorado, Minnesota, and Virginia. The organization has also created software that is being used nationwide to help low-income taxpayers file for the earned-income tax credit. This year taxpayers in 44 states received refunds totaling more than $3-million using the system.
The Legal Aid Society of Orange County decided to create the earned-income tax credit program when it realized that many of its clients were going to commercial tax preparers and in some cases getting refund-anticipation loans that ate up a significant chunk of their refunds, says Mr. Cohen.
“A client could be entitled to a $4,000 refund,” he says. “The commercial preparer, after the fees and the loans are in place, might end up taking up to half that. And our client, not knowing any better, is happy with the $2,000, and shakes the guy’s hand who just defrauded him.”
According to Mr. Cohen, legal-aid organizations have the capacity to assist only 20 percent of the people who need their services. He believes that systems like I-CAN are an important first step toward meeting the needs of the remaining 80 percent.
“But if you ask me, Is it sufficient to have a client go in without representation? My answer would be no, it’s not,” says Mr. Cohen. “There should be representation for everyone, but I’m realistic enough to know that that’s not going to happen, and getting a client before the court with a domestic-violence problem is better than not being able to offer them that kind of assistance.”
For more information: Go to http://www.legal-aid.com.
