LRI: Special Populations: Elder Assistance

The purpose of the Georgia Mobile Law Unit ("MLU") project is to make legal services and legal information available to hard-to-reach clients in isolated low-income communities and to empower these groups to address their own legal problems. Based on a modification of the Self-Help Office model developed by AARP in Washington, DC, the MLU partners (Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Georgia Legal Services Program, and Georgia AARP, among others) seek to deliver cost-effective, extensive legal information and interactive services in rural public libraries, seniors centers, disaster assistance centers and other locations where low-income clients who have difficulty accessing legal services might congregate. In the Atlanta metropolitan area, the Mobile Law Units will focus their efforts to reach the elderly and disabled in locations such as seniors centers and high-rise apartment complexes. In greater Georgia, the Mobile Law Units will be deployed in the public libraries in remote rural areas, such as Clay, Seminole and Early counties, and in disaster assistance centers in counties subject to frequent flooding and other natural disasters.

The two necessary components of this service model are a well designed website, which is the central informational source, and on-site staff, who are trained to help users access that information. Following extensive advertising to attract walk-in clients to the Mobile Law Unit sites, GLSP or ALAS staff would assist clients in logging onto the community-based computers or lap-tops and direct the clients to Georgia's statewide website located at: http://LegalAid-GA.org/. The MLU staff would then help clients find the legal information and documents they needed. Staff will work with clients to access legal information, self-help forms and online applications, social service organizations and agencies, courts and legal service organizations and attorney referral resources in over 23 areas of law, including: Health Law, Family Law, Housing, Public Benefits, and Taxes. In the event that clients might need extended services, the MLU staff member will be able to conduct intake on-site and refer the individual to an attorney at the nearest Atlanta Legal Aid Society or Georgia Legal Services Program office for additional help.

To expand the ability of the Mobile Law Units to put clients in the best position to help themselves, GLSP and ALAS will be converting to the HotDocs document assembly program a number of form letters and pleadings currently used by the Georgia Seniors Legal Hotline and the Georgia AARP. The HotDocs program will enable web site users to generate their own legal documents through a user friendly, step-by-step interface. To access Georgia's statewide website, visit: http://LegalAid-GA.org/.

Contact Information:

Tracey M. Roberts
ALAS / GLSP Web Project Manager
Atlanta Legal Aid Society
151 Spring Street
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Phone: (404) 614-3934
Email

Georgia Legal Services Program
1100 Spring Street, Suite 200
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
Phone: (404) 206-5376
Email

Additional Information:

Special Populations

Overview Elder Assistance Migrant Farm Workers Native Americans Rural Delivery Homeless Trafficking Victims Protection