RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia’s system of providing free legal services to the poor is expected to improve significantly with a new online case management system that makes a limited debut Monday.
Justice Server eventually will allow lawyers throughout the state to log onto their office computer and select a free or “pro bono” case that’s fed into the system by legal aid organizations. Lawyers will be able to instantly search for the type of case they are interested in handling — uncontested divorce or landlord-tenant disputes, for example — and will have access to the entire case file with the click of a mouse.
Steve Dickinson, executive director of the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, said the system will replace cumbersome and time-consuming procedures “based on technology that peaked sometime in the 1970s.”
The current system, he said, works like this: Legal aid organizations like Dickinson’s find pro bono attorneys through outreach, social or fundraising events. A list of attorneys’ names and phone numbers is compiled. When a case comes in, calls are made to find an interested attorney. Information about the case is faxed to the lawyer. If he or she takes the case, the entire case file is mailed to the attorney.
That back-and-forth procedure will be streamlined under the new process, which also will knock down geographical barriers. A lawyer in Arlington, for example, will be able to represent a client in Abingdon — especially if the case is among the vast majority that do not require a personal appearance by the attorney.
“Hopefully, the bottom line is that more clients get service,” Dickinson said. “The secondary benefit would be that legal aid is able to expand its capacity to handle these despite no significant increases in revenue, and more private attorneys will be involved in doing pro bono work.”
Dickinson said many attorneys want to do their part in representing indigent clients but simply haven’t had time to deal with the current system.
“We’re hoping to double or triple the number of volunteer attorneys once they find out how easy it is to pick up cases,” he said.
Three central Virginia organizations — Dickinson’s, the Legal Aid Justice Center and the Greater Richmond Bar Foundation — will begin feeding information into the new system Monday. After some testing, the system will go live for those organizations and their clients later in the week, Dickinson said. The private bar will be trained on the system through the rest of the summer, and other legal aid organizations across the state are expected to come on board around Jan. 1.
The need for pro bono attorneys has never been greater, Dickinson said. Studies have shown that less than 20 percent of the need is being met, he said, and the problem has been exacerbated as the bad economy has increased the number of cases while shrinking legal aid resources.
Dickinson said his organization had to cut four staff positions last year but but managed to keep its 10 in-house lawyers, who serve low-income residents in five cities and 15 counties.
The idea for Justice Server can be traced to the Virginia Supreme Court’s first Pro Bono Summit in April 2010, when Capital One Financial Group stepped up to lead the effort.
“To take on a project like Justice Server, where there was a technology gap, large companies like Capital One have the resources and the talent to make it happen,” said John G. Finneran Jr., the company’s general counsel and corporate secretary. “You can leverage the reach.”
Finneran sought out Capital One information technology expert Andy Schwartz, who took the lead in putting together a team and developing the system. Capital One allocated about 20 percent of his working hours to the project.
“I’ve burned my 20 percent and then some,” Schwartz said.
The technology team had no template on which to base the system, he said.
“There are a couple of other older systems being used, but as far as we know this is the first one that uses up-to-date technology,” Schwartz said. “We’ve already had inquiries from people in Utah who would like to leverage the system in their state.”
Finneran said about $170,000 was raised from major law firms and corporations to get the project started.
