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Pine Tree Legal Assistance's Kids'
Legal Aid of Maine Project
Pine Tree Legal
Assistance (PTLA) recently launched the Kids' Legal Aid of Maine
project to deliver legal services to low-income children in order
to ensure children can access health care, appropriate education
services, services for children with disabilities, and public benefits.
This project initiated several collaborations which included partnering
with the Pediatric Clinic at the Maine Medical Center, the Multilingual
Office of the Portland, Maine School System, and several homeless
teen centers in Portland.
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Southern Minnesota Regional Legal
Services' Housing Alliance Law Office (Project HALO)
Southern Minnesota
Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) partnered with the City of St. Paul,
the 3M Company (Minnesota's largest employer), Briggs & Morgan
(St. Paul's largest law firm), William Mitchell Law School, and
VISTA to launch the Housing Alliance Law Office (HALO) to ensure
access to safe, habitable, and affordable housing by low-income
tenants. Despite some pro-tenant laws that supported standards of
habitable and safe housing, SMRLS housing attorneys often did not
encounter substandard housing cases until buildings were condemned
by the city and thus too late to be saved. In order to ensure that
affordable housing remains on the market and buildings are kept
up to code through repairs and improvements, SMRLS brought together
the HALO partners to deliver legal services through a store front
office on St. Paul's eastside.
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Utah Legal Services'
Staff Performance Evaluation
Utah Legal Services
(ULS) implemented a staff performance evaluation system that provides
ULS employees, both support staff and attorneys, with a performance
based annual bonus up to $1200. Employees who perform exceptionally
well receive a substantial bonus, employees who perform competently
receive a modest bonus, and employees who need improvement do not
receive a bonus. ULS' Personnel Manual indicates that no more than
50% of staff may be ranked in the highest category and ULS has found
that, in practice, the percentage is typically around 30%.
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APALC's Report
on "Expanding Legal Services: Serving Limited English Proficient
Asians and Pacific Islanders"
The Asian Pacific
American Legal Center (APALC) published "Expanding Legal Services:
Serving Limited English Proficient Asians and Pacific Islanders"
to explore and highlight approaches that legal services programs
are taking to overcome linguistic and cultural barriers to deliver
legal services to low-income, limited English proficient (LEP) Asian
and Pacific Islander (API) clients. The report begins by discussing
recent demographic changes in the U.S. and the challenges experienced
by legal services providers as they work to address the legal needs
of these LEP clients. In doing so, the report profiles five model
programs that have been successful in overcoming many formidable
delivery barriers and improved access to justice for LEP API clients.
