Janet Millard, Executive Director
Wyoming Legal Services
P.O. Box 247
Fort Washakie, WY 82514

                                                              Re: State Planning Report

Dear Janet:

          Thank you for the timely submission of Wyoming’s state plan, developed in response to LSC Program Letters 98-1 and 98-6. Please excuse this much delayed response to your report.

          We recognize the considerable work that went into this plan and continues to go into your planning efforts. The staff of the Legal Services Corporation’s Office of Program Performance has thoroughly reviewed the plan and would like to share the following observations with you. They reflect the information from our conversations and include developments since the report was initially submitted. We want to emphasize that our letter is a "feedback" document and should not be viewed as a criticism. We are available to answer any questions or concerns about our response to your plan and to provide assistance to you in your planning work.

          At the outset, we note with appreciation Wyoming’s planning efforts over the past four years that were required to create a new statewide legal services program in place of the three individual programs which existed in 1996. Establishing an effective and efficient statewide entity required addressing the topics raised in Program Letters 98-1 and 98-6. We recognize that several successful statewide efforts such as working with University of Wyoming Law School to obtain a grant to help address domestic violence and creating a statewide pro bono project in collaboration with the state bar association could not have been accomplished without a great deal of work and planning. We are also pleased that, during the time between the initial submission of the plan and the preparation of this letter, Wyoming Legal Services and the other stakeholders have continued to pursue implementation activities. You clearly understand that efforts to strengthen Wyoming’s civil legal services structure merit serious and on-going attention.

          We want to applaud the productive and positive relationship between Wyoming Legal Services and the Wyoming State Bar Association. The WSBA’s support will be crucial if Wyoming Legal Services is to be successful in many proposed activities such as resource development and assistance from private attorneys on behalf of the low-income community in Wyoming.

          In order to place our comments on the Wyoming state plan within a context, it is important to understand what we look for when we review a plan.

          1. Coordination of efforts. Coordination of existing legal activities is required to insure that no community of low-income clients is excluded from securing and enforcing their legal rights, and that all low-income persons in the state have appropriate access to the civil justice system. To this end, a state’s legal services programs must coordinate efforts with one another, with other providers’ services to low-income persons, and with funders. A good plan sets out how this coordination occurs and what changes are necessary to improve current efforts and meet future needs.

          There are only a few legal services providers, social service agencies, and community groups in Wyoming. It appears that Wyoming Legal Services coordinates its activities with them. We note the joint application with the University of Wyoming Law School for the Department of Justice grant for domestic violence.

          2. Common purpose. A viable plan is founded on shared goals, purposes, values, principles and norms to ensure a consistent vision and purpose. It spells out as early as possible what the planners are attempting to achieve through their plan. Sometimes planners have these in mind but make the assumption that others will see them as inherent in their planning effort.

          The Wyoming plan did not include a common vision, shared values, or principles to guide the planners and the planning process. Developing and reaching agreement on a common purpose or vision helps to clarify and resolve any difference among the planners, thereby strengthening the process and its outcomes. Also it is our experience that, when planners have reached consensus on goals, they can better prioritize tasks and measure success against the norms they have established. A common vision guides the planners through the years and provides a foundation to which they can return as they evaluate progress and set new objectives.

          Florida, for example, has adopted the touchstone of "energetic, affirmative, client-centered advocacy." Proposed activities are examined by planners to see if they advance "energetic, affirmative, client-centered advocacy." Strategies that cannot be seen as leading to this goal are abandoned. In the same vein, New Jersey planners articulated (1) a belief in the need for legal services programs to function as a "concerted, coherent, closely coordinated legal assistance delivery system" and (2) the need to develop additional resources to expand the provision of legal services; (3) the need to incorporate the views of clients and key partners in making major decisions about how to design and implement a system of high quality comprehensive legal services; and (4) the need to target legal services resources to achieve the greatest measure of equal justice for clients and economically disadvantaged people. That state’s plan then showed how its vision would be realized through planning efforts. Washington State developed a set of hallmarks and core capacities needed in the civil justice system to achieve its vision. The hallmarks, developed five years ago, continue to guide the planning process today. Oregon likewise developed "equal justice values" in 1996 that continue to frame the planning issues.

          We ask that Wyoming planners spend some time candidly and fully discussing what they believe is the best civil legal services delivery system for the state. Based on the outcome of these conversations, planners should then establish a set of articulated values and principles that they adopt as the foundation to help them achieve that vision.

          3. Stakeholder involvement. Meaningful planning reflects the participation of all individuals, organizations and institutions within the state that have a stake in the state’s system for ensuring equal justice. Participation in the Wyoming planning process has been limited to the Wyoming State Bar association through its Legal Aid Committee. While the state bar is an important partner in all efforts to achieve a comprehensive, integrated legal services delivery system within the civil justice system, there are other stakeholders who need to be included in a systemic planning effort.

          In other states planning partners have included representatives of domestic violence coalitions, law schools, homeless prevention organizations, client organizations and an array of social and legal services providers. We recognize that appropriate partners are dependent on the individual circumstances of each state but as we have discussed, for planning in Wyoming to succeed, it is imperative to bring in additional stakeholders. We encourage planners to engage others who are also committed to equal access to justice for poor people. We urge Wyoming planners to share their plan as widely as possible with appropriate groups if they have not already done so. Usually, the more organizations feel included in the planning process, the more they will support the implementation of a given plan. LSC encourages you to continue expanding the community of planners in Wyoming.

          4. Assignment of tasks. A good plan presents its goals both in terms of measurability and of who is responsible for ensuring their completion. Responsibility is either assumed or assigned. Moreover, responsibility is shared among everyone who is covered by and included in the plan. In a high-quality planning document all of the legal services providers play important roles and perform essential tasks.

          While Wyoming’s plan does present some timelines, and a number of activities have moved forward since it was submitted, the planners may want to set out specific tasks, assign responsibility for their completion to individuals and organizations and establish definite time frames as a next step in the process. Formal deadlines with assigned accountability are often quite useful tools to help activities move forward since they create common expectations about completion. They are helpful too because they highlight agreed-upon goals. Furthermore, individually and collectively, discrete accomplishments generate a sense of achievement that inspires additional movement and deepens a sense of ownership in participants.

          5. Broad vision. An effective plan indicates that all of the legal service providers and their partners looked beyond single issues or a single provider and examined client needs and organizational capacities at the state level. This allows participants to design the best possible methods and mechanisms to address present and future needs of clients within the state. A plan that provides for coordination of legal services will contain concrete information about what the legal service providers see as the major issues confronting clients and client communities. It will indicate how these providers will collaboratively respond to these issues, and it will describe what they envision for their collective future and for the future of their delivery system.

          It is unclear from the plan what the planners see as the major issues facing low income residents of Wyoming. Likewise, it is not clear if Wyoming has in place delivery mechanisms that will ensure that all low-income persons within the state are able to enjoy meaningful and appropriate access to the civil justice system including those individuals who may be disenfranchised, unpopular, or not currently fully served by legal services providers. We ask that these critical issues be addressed in the response to this letter.

          6. LSC requirements. A comprehensive plan will fully respond to all of the issues identified in Program Letters 98-1 and 98-6. Our comments on those specific issues are found below. We acknowledge Wyoming planners’ understanding of the importance of good planning as evidenced by the efforts undertaken prior to LSC’s issuance of Program Letters 98-1 and 98-6 and by the continuation of those efforts. As noted above, we also recognize that the development of a statewide program could not have been accomplished without thoughtful planning. However, our concerns are based on criteria for good planning stated above and need to be addressed.

          We congratulate you on the development and implementation of a statewide, centralized intake system. The intake system, with one statewide toll-free telephone number, allows applicants to be screened for eligibility, referred to the appropriate provider, or given advice and information regardless of where they may live within the state. Encouraging service applicants to use the central number while offering to conduct intake when they either call a local office or come in person, demonstrates both a sensitivity to the low income community and a recognition of the culture and geographical realities of Wyoming. Having scripted protocols in various substantive areas helps ensure consistent quality in the advice given to callers. Using specialists in Indian and elder law to provide advice in those substantive areas enhances the opportunity to serve callers efficiently and effectively.

          We ask that the planners share with us their specific goals, objectives, and measurable outcomes for the integrated intake system. For example, tell us why you selected this approach to intake, the benefits you expect that it will provide to the program, how it will strengthen services to clients, and the methodology you will use to evaluate it.

          We applaud Wyoming Legal Services’ recognition of the importance of technology and its commitment "to using available technology to the greatest extent feasible to expand client access to the program and to increase the effectiveness of the program." This commitment is evidenced by the upgrade in its computer capacity two years ago. All case handlers have computers on their desks. These are networked within the individual offices and all have internal e-mail capabilities. Each program office has at least one computer with access to the Internet. Although this is a good improvement, the planners need to consider the importance of each case handler having access to external e-mail and the Internet at his/her desk to facilitate efficiency.

          The planners may want to establish additional connectivity and electronic communication goals for all the stakeholders in the Wyoming civil justice system. Besides improving and coordinating technological capacities among providers, planners should consider how low income people can use the various new technologies to meet their legal needs. Some examples of this approach include web sites with pro se information, forms, and instructions and remote intake from public library and other sites. Technology can also be useful in providing pro bono attorneys access to poverty law materials, such as briefs and pleadings, and in recruitment of additional private attorneys.

          Although Wyoming may not currently have the technological infrastructure, such as public access to the Internet through libraries, rapid progress is being made across the nation to bridge the "digital divide." Planning for the time when such access will become available would allow providers to take advantage of the technology more quickly than waiting until an infrastructure is in place. The planners may want to review the technology section of other state plans such as Maine and Washington or visit their web sites.

          Video conferencing technology is developing rapidly in many rural states through a variety of institutions including university and community college systems. We encourage planners to research the availability of this technology in Wyoming and to consider how it could be used to assist clients in remote locations of the state. Florida Rural Legal Services has developed the capacity to do intake and provide services with clients in library locations throughout its service area. In rural Lousiana, Kisatchie Legal Services Corporation makes use of teleconferencing for staff meetings and for attorney/client conferences which results in both staff and clients avoiding driving long distances and still being able to meet "face to face."

          The Legal Services Corporation is able to provide technical assistance to planners in this area. Glenn Rawdon has joined our staff to assist programs on technology issues. Feel free to contact him at (202) 336-8868.

          The report reflects solid attention to access to the courts for low income residents of Wyoming, particularly around the development of pro se materials along with instructional classes for divorces. It is noteworthy that this work is undertaken in partnership with the bar and the courts. The instructional classes are being tested in conjunction with the domestic violence work in southeastern Wyoming. After the demonstration phase, they will be offered in other areas of the state. Materials and classes will then be developed in other substantive legal areas. Although we concur with the planners’ belief that there is no substitute for direct representation, we encourage planners to commit to ensuring that efforts for pro se access are implemented in additional substantive areas of the law. Such efforts are particularly needed given Wyoming’s very limited resources to meet the need for representation.

          The plan calls for WLS to develop basic community legal education materials "in selected topics of particular interest to the low income communities throughout the state." After the materials are completed, a schedule for presentations by members of local bars and other providers will be developed. Please tell us the status of these efforts in the next report, discussed below in "Next Steps."

          As a statewide LSC funded program, WLS coordinates its work through its weekly meetings of all case handlers "held to review case work, legal developments and updates, and to ensure that all work is coordinated." Each staff member’s access to e-mail, allows documents, pleadings, and other information to be freely exchanged which enhances staff coordination and collaboration.

          The report does not describe how coordination occurs with other providers such as the Coalition against Domestic Violence and the elderly network. Since WLS receives the state legal services developer grant for services to seniors, our assumption is that there are formal mechanisms for coordination with advocate groups representing that population. Please describe this and other coordination in the next report.

          We congratulate both Wyoming Legal Services and the leadership of the Wyoming State Bar Association and its Legal Aid Committee for the good work in establishing a volunteer lawyer project and its support for equal justice efforts in Wyoming. We encourage the planners to continue offering a wide variety of opportunities for private attorneys to participate in equal justice efforts in addition to direct representation. Potential opportunities might include assisting with self-help clinics, providing community legal education, conducting intake and giving legal advice by telephone, mentoring new legal services staff, or sharing expertise in areas such as tax, that are outside the usual legal services practice.

          It is common knowledge that legal services organizations need diversified funding bases. Building coalitions that pursue creative resource initiatives will expand the number of groups participating in the equal justice community. A broader array of funding resources also will allow WLS and its partners to offer additional services much needed by the low income community.

          We recognize the difficulty in developing additional resources in a state with such a small population and little wealth. In light of this reality, the planners may want to consult with the Management Information Exchange fund raising project or other organizations for ideas and assistance in developing new approaches to resource development. In many states equal justice efforts are supported by filing fee surcharges which have been established with support of the bar and after solid strategic planning. Successful efforts have often taken several years of work but now are a continuing, reliable source of funding for legal services to low income clients. We urge the planners to persevere in their resource development efforts even though they will face considerable challenges. The low income residents of Wyoming deserve everyone’s best efforts in working to obtain the resources necessary to make equal justice a reality rather than an empty platitude.

          The Corporation recognizes Wyoming’s efforts to create a comprehensive, integrated delivery system. We ask that you address the concerns raised in this letter about the 1998 plan by August 1, 2000. Also in that report, please provide information on accomplishments achieved since the initial plan was submitted. I have enclosed a copy of the Washington State plan. You and the planners may find it helpful as you articulate your vision, goals, measurable objectives and the tasks necessary to achieve your vision. We wish you much success in this endeavor. Please contact me if you have any questions or want to discuss any of the issues raised in this letter.