The Virtual Office: Technology Enables the Practice Area Delivery System
Texas Rural Legal Aid - 020075
Abstract Number: 20075
August 2002
In response to limited lawyering resources, Texas Rural Legal Aid (TRLA) is using technology to enhance its service delivery system. While technology cannot replace lost resources, it can be helpful in reducing the impact of fewer advocates for the poor. TRLA has resorted to technology to convert its widely-scattered staff into a virtual office. Using a custom-written case management system to access a centralized database of case records, a Citrix-based wide area network, a law student operated telephone call center, and an advocate-oriented website, TRLA can now operate as if it were one large office - a virtual office - with a full range of advocacy specialists and support staff in the same building. Advocates who are hundreds of miles from one another can function as a complementary team to represent a client who may not live anywhere near her lead counsel.
TRLA also created a website to support the advocacy efforts of the staff. The site focuses on the needs of advocates rather than creating an alternative delivery mechanism for clients. As a result, it complements the other elements of the delivery system. The website has a confidential, password-protected intranet site as well. The web address is www.trla.org. To view TRLA's Practice Area Delivery System Manual as a PDF document, click on the text below.
Contact Information:
David Hall, Executive Director Texas Rural Legal Aid, Inc 300 South Texas Boulevard Weslaco, Texas 78596 Phone: (956) 968-6574 Fax: (956) 968-8823 Email
LSC:
America's Partner for Equal Justice 