Community Response Team

Legal Aid Society of San Diego - 030027

Abstract Number: 030027

February 2003

Legal Aid Society of San Diego (LASSD) operates a centralized intake system referred to as the Community Response Team that receives calls through a single phone number. LASSD's intake system is a paralegal driven system. LASSD believes that providing extended services and representing clients in court constitute the best use of staff attorneys.

LASSD operates a two tier intake system that employs intake specialists as the first tier. Intake specialists are specifically trained to determine whether callers are eligible for assistance and have a legal problem that meets LASSD's priorities. Upon receiving a call, intake specialists initially inquire about a caller's legal problem and then determine if the caller is income eligible. Intake specialists are located in any of LASSD's three offices and also work as receptionists. Once a caller has been determined to be eligible for services, they are placed in another phone cue where they are provided with the estimated waiting time as well as given the option of entering his/her phone number to receive a call-back when his/her call reaches the top of the cue. This call-back option, a feature of LASSD's phone system, is a tremendous convenience to callers.

LASSD's second tier is comprised of eight paralegals that are located at a centralized location and provide legal advice to callers as well as collect information for attorneys who may provide extended services to clients. LASSD's legal staff is organized into substantive legal teams. If it is determined that an attorney will provide extended services to a client, the paralegal emails the client's information to the appropriate team who then follows up with the client. The intake paralegal's work is supervised by a senior attorney who reviews case work by running queries in a database on all cases opened during any particular day. The supervisor can then read cases notes in Kemps and directly add any comments.

To compliment LASSD's hotlines, staff are present in the court houses in San Diego and conduct intake and give advice on site with direct dsl linkup to the LASSD database via Citrix. In addition, LASSD has purchased two kiosks from the Interactive Community Assistance Network (I-CAN!) Project of Legal Aid Society of Orange County. These kiosks provide pro se information on family law and unlawful detainers. If questions arise on how to use I-CAN!, videoconferencing capabilities exist adjacent to I-CAN! networked with the CRT and the intake team can provide assistance via videoconferencing as a user works through I-CAN!.

Contact Information:

Dennis Holz
Legal Aid Society of San Diego
216 South Tremont St.
Oceanside, CA 92054
Phone: (619) 471-2620
Fax: (619) 263-5750
Email

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