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Legal Hotlines Pre-Conference Day Outline

Center for Elder Rights Advocacy Wednesday April 30, 2014

Facilitators: David Bonebrake, LSC; David Godfrey, ABA; Kari Deming, CALL/ Lakeshore Legal Aid; Shoshanna Ehrlich, CERA; Craige Harrison, ULS; Al Herman LCE, Claudia Johnson, Probononet; Joan Kleinberg, NWJ; Keith Morris, CERA/ELM; Cheryl Nolan, LSC

Morning Session: Money David Godfrey, Moderator

Core definition of legal hotlines to which the ABA Standards for the Operation of a Telephone Hotline apply: “Hotline Services that have the capacity to provide fact specific legal advice that assists callers in reaching decisions about legal matters, taking steps to resolve those matters or making a decision not to take action.” ABA Standards for the operation of a Telephone Hotline Providing Legal Advice and Information, 2001)

The term “legal hotline” as we are using it, does not apply to those programs where the telephone service screens for intake only or makes referrals without rendering fact specific advice. While different hotlines may provide a variety of services, core services include analysis of clients’ legal questions and fact situations and providing answers to the questions and advice on steps to take to resolve the legal matters. Most legal hotlines also refer suitable clients to in-house full service programs or other legal providers after analysis and advice. I. Problem Solving Through Technology (9:15-10:15)

A. Overview of Technology: what’s happening at LSC programs, CLEAR, CALL, and ELM hotlines

B. Phone systems C. Online intake and triage D. CMS, documentation and appointment systems, E. Website content management, wikis, coordination with statewide websites F. Other technologies anyone else is using in hotline setting?

II. Cost Cutting Tips (10:15-10:30) Rapid fire group tip sharing

III. Making the Case for Hotline Services with Data (10:30-11:45) A. Lessons from a Canadian Study B. Statewide reporting efforts C. Client follow up projects – how they impact services D. Tracking monetary successes and reporting good stories

Lunch on Our Own 11:45-12:45 (See restaurant list for suggestions)

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Afternoon Session: People Joan Kleinberg- Moderator

IV. Management is More than A Performance Review (1:00-2:30)

A. Philosophy - What Factors affect hotline culture?

B. Building or Molding a Hotline Culture How do we structure a hotline working environment to promote high morale and productivity?

C. Who should work a legal aid hotline?

D. Practice: Primary Principles for Managing People

1. Identify and Engage Core Influencers / Crafters 2. Establish Clear Expectations 3. Tell your team regularly AND your applicants early and often what you

expect from them.

1. Hire Carefully -Assess holistically and weed ruthlessly 2. Consider the match (are you, your team and the candidate a good fit? Are you

all as good for the candidate as the candidate is for you?)

E. Train Deliberately and Manage Continuously 1. What kind of training should we give staff? 2. Intro to Your program’s style. 3. Substantive Law and Practice (overviews + roadmaps) 4. Technical How To’s (building an app, CMS, phones…) 5. Customer Service!!!

F. What’s the training timeline?

G. Supervision 1. Review, feedback, and coaching 2. Plan for Retention and Rejuvenation

V. Setting Productivity Standards - Set explicit performance expectations and Tell Your Team What They Are! (2:30-3:15) A. Productivity benchmarks from senior hotline annual reports and benchmarks report B. Productivity tracking at:

• LCE • ELM • CALL • ULS

Afternoon Break 3:15-3:30

VI. Controlling Demand for Services (3:30-4:15) A. Strategic priority setting B. Balancing Quality and Quantity

4:30- 5 Questions, comments, Wrap Up

3 Lunch restaurants Hilton Portland and Executive Tower

HILTON PORTLAND: 921 SW 6TH AVE - BISTRO 921 RESTAURANT .

Subway - 0.0 mi / $ / Sandwiches/Subs / 1031 SW 6th Ave Veggie Grill - 88% - .1 mi / $ / Vegetarian / 508 SW Taylor St Pizza Schmizza - 73% - .1 mi / $ / Pizza, Vegetarian / 512 SW Taylor St Fritz Avani Coffee - 100% - .1 mi / $ / Coffee, Diner / 811 SW 6th Ave Brady's on Broadway - 100% - .1 mi / $ / Sandwiches/Subs / 850 SW Broadway Koji Osakaya - 94% - .1 mi / $ / Japanese, Sushi / 1000 SW Broadway Qdoba Mexican Grill - 80% - .1 / $ / Mexican / 505 SW Taylor St Banh Mi - 100% - .1 / $ / Vietnamese / 1033 SW 6th Ave Potbelly - 91% - .1 mi / $ / Sandwiches/Subs, Soup, Vegetarian / 802 SW 6th Ave Caffe Viale - 93% - .1 mi / $ / Coffee, Bagels, Sandwiches/Subs / 1001 SW 5th Ave Prego Pizzaria & Deli - .1 mi / Pizza / 1001 SW 5th Ave Express-O Deli - .1 mi / Sandwiches/Subs / 520 SW Yamhill St Nathan's Cafe - .1 mi / 510 SW Yamhill St The Picnic House - 88% - .1 mi / $$ / American, Sandwiches/Subs / 723 SW Salmon St. Steaks 5th Avenue - 100% - .1 mi / $ / American, Burgers, Sandwiches/Subs / 701 SW 6th Ave Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe - .1 mi / $ / Coffee, Desserts/Ice Cream / 700 SW 5th Ave Shelly's Garden - Honkin' Huge Burritos - 100% - .1 mi / $ / Mexican, Vegetarian / Pioneer Courthouse Square Flying Elephants at Fox Tower 92% - .1 mi / $ / Sandwiches/Subs, Soup, Coffee / 812 SW Park Ave TE:bar - 91% .1 mi / $ / Asian / 909 SW Park Ave Elephants in the Park - 94% - .1 mi / $ / Desserts/Ice Cream, Burgers, American / 877 SW Taylor St Freshii - 95% - .1 mi / $ / Modern American, Southwestern, Coffee / 617 SW Morrison St Cafe Portlandia - 82% - .1 / Sandwiches/Subs / 410 SW Main St Steamers Asian Street Bistro - 84% - .1 mi / $ / Chinese, Latin American, Asian / 504 SW Madison St Spicy Pickle 91% - .1 mi / $ / Soup, American, Sandwiches/Subs / 1220 SW 6th Ave

Legal Hotline Managers Program

April 30th, 2014 – Equal Justice Conference, Portland OR

Schedule 8:30 AM Breakfast at Forum Room 9:30 -11:45 AM Morning Session – “Money” 10:30 AM – Beverage Break at Forum Room 11:45-12:45 – Lunch on Our Own – see dining suggestions 1:00 -5:00 PM Afternoon Session – “People” 3:00 PM – Afternoon snack break at Forum Room

Facilitators

David Bonebrake- LSC dbonebrake@lsc.gov

David Godfrey–ABA David.godfrey@americanbar.org

Kari Deming–CALL kdeming@lakeshorelegalaid.org

Shoshanna Ehrlich– CERA sehrlich@ceraresource.org

Craige Harrison – ULS craige@utalegalservices.org

Alan Herman – LCE aherman@aarp.org

Claudia Johnson–Probono Net cjohnson@probono.net

Joan Kleinberg – NJP – joank@nwjustice.org

Keith Morris – ELM – kmorris@elderlawofmi.org

Cheryl Nolan –LSC – nolanc@lsc.gov

Problem Solving Through Technology (9:15-10:15)

Phone Technology

Still no silver bullet Some phone system options ◦ Hosted VoIP ◦ On-premise VoIP servers/IP PBX ◦ Asterisk open source

Case Management Systems

Making the Case for Hotline Services with Data (10:30-11:45)

Cost Cutting Tips in 15 minutes – 10:15-10:30

Making the Case for Hotline Services with Data (10:30-11:45)

Lessons from Canada

Lessons from Canada: -MacFarlane Study on Self Represented Litigants: Must Read! Some SRL’s began with a reasonable sense of

confidence; others began with trepidation. However within a short time almost all the

SRL respondents became disillusioned, frustrated, and in some cases overwhelmed by the complexity of their case and the amount of time it was consuming.

Main reason to self represent $$$$$

Tools available for SRLs

Tools available for SRLS: Court forms hard to read, long, hard to understand, no instructions Online resources focus on substantive knowledge, no practical information, no procedural information, no options to litigation/other solutions Self Help Center Staff overwhelmed, stressed, no privacy

Why Hotlines are Crucial Now

High training on soft skills—ability to listen, summarize, convey information at all levels of capacity and style/build trust connection

Can convey practical info and go over strategy—something technology/courts can’t do

Hotlines can “coach” and walk through samples and provide support as the case moves along—high need for this found in study

Lunch (11:45-12:45)

Management is More than A Performance Review (1:00-2:30)

Setting Productivity Standards (2:30-3:15)

Hotline Advocate Productivity (SE) 2:30- 3:15

Cases per year per FTE Cases per year per FTE

2003- Hotline Measures Self Evaluation Report 1,476 Average

cases/FTE 2005 1,519 cases per FTE 1,025 cases when

hotline did 25% limited action

2008 -1,109 cases .8 cases per hour per FTE 2010 -1,127 Cases per FTE .8 Cases per hour 2011 – 1,434 cases per FTE .65 cases per hour 2012 -1,350 cases per FTE .65 cases per hour

ULS’ Performance Metrics

Timing ◦ Every quarter, when logging into CMS, each staff member gets

a slide show of 6 reports (closed cases & average time per case, closed cases and length of time open, Case activity report (30-60-90), Case vs. Projects). Based on time records (finalized reports) Time spent is greatest

◦ Following staff review, each supervisor gets a slide show of employee graphs.

Notes ◦ Acknowledge many parameters to a case (qualitative vs quantitative) ◦ Helps “flag” possible follow-up

Goal ◦ To enhance professional development ◦ To assure best practices are followed ◦ To improve client service

ULS Sample Graph

2009 2010 2011 2012

Mo. YTD Wkdys AvInt/Day

Mo. YTD Wkdys AvInt/Day

Mo. YTD Wkdys AvInt/Day Mo. YTD Wkdys AvInt/Dy

Jan 26

5 265 18 14.7 26

0 260 18.5 14.1 28

5 285 18 15.8 238 238 18 13.2

Feb 24

9 514 20 12.5 23

6 496 15.5 15.2 20

7 492 16.5 12.5 286 524 19.5 14.7

Mar 29

5 809 22 13.4 33

5 831 23 14.6 30

9 801 23 13.4 302 826 19.5 15.5

Apr 30

2 1111 22 13.7 27

6 1107 22 12.5 23

7 1038 21 11.3 227 1053 19.5 11.6 May

272 1383 19.5 13.9

286 1393 19.5 14.7

272 1310 21 13.0 270 1323 21.5 12.6

Jun 27

7 1660 22 12.6 28

7 1680 22 13.0 26

3 1573 21 12.5 253 1576 20.5 12.3

Jul 33

2 1992 21.5 15.4 32

6 2006 20.5 15.9 24

5 1818 19.5 12.6 280 1856 18.5 15.1

Aug 31

1 2303 21 14.8 38

9 2395 22 17.7 30

4 2122 23 13.2 292 2148 20 14.6

Sep 26

4 2567 19 13.9 32

1 2716 19 16.9 25

4 2376 16.5 15.4 238 2386 15 15.9

Oct 30

2 2869 20 15.1 32

9 3045 21 15.7 26

4 2640 20.5 12.9 240 2626 18 13.3

Nov 25

0 3119 17.5 14.3 23

3 3278 14 16.6 23

0 2870 18 12.8 216 2842 18.5 11.7

Dec 22

9 3348 19.5 11.7 20

3 3481 14.5 14.0 18

9 3059 18.5 10.2 180 3022 14.5 12.4

2009 Total 242 13.8 2010 Total 231.5 15.0 2011 Total 237 12.9 2012 Total 223 13.6

LCE Monthly Intake Stats

Break (3:15-3:30)

Controlling Demand for Services (3:30-4:15)

Reception Tanya Acker

Intake Carroll Ingraham

Connie Tello-temp Claudia Sepulveda

Hotline Al Herman

Carol Matthews Bruce Rathbun Ivy Smithers Katie Feiock Volunteer:

Ellen Yahuda

Advise & Close (HOT)

Consumer Protection Unit

Amy Mix Erik Goodman

Linda Stern-Siegel (P/L)

Foreclosures Kerry Diggin

Real Prop Tax Joanne Savage

(APPT)

(APPT)

Landlord-Tenant Unit &

Alternatives Project

Jen Berger Stephen Clark

Adrienne Buenavista Karen Greene (P/L)

Soc.Wkrs.: Karen Currie

Sonia Gahimbare (APPT) (ALT)

Pub.Benef. & G.S. Daniela de La Piedra

Rebekah Mason Tina Smith Nelson (limited)

(APPT)

Ombudsman Lynne Person

(OMB) SMP

Theresa Brownson

Probate & Estate Plng

Tina Smith Nelson (limited) (APPT)

LCE Outreach

Bruce Rathbun

Pro Bono Project Shirley

Williams Sheryl Miller

(RVLP)

SHO Ebonee Avery

(P/L) (RSHO)

Reduced Fee Panel Ivy Smithers

(AREF)

Home Visitor Danielle Morton

(RHOME)

Referral Other Legal Services

Social Services Private Bar Assn Pro Bono Clinic

(etc.) .

LCE INTAKE - HOTLINE ACTION CHART

Info & Referral

Resources

www.legalhotlines.org www.nlrc.aoa.gov www.lsc.gov www.lsntap.org www.mindtools.com www.managementhelp.org www.managementcenter.org/resources www.accesstojustice.net www.probono.net/lhi http://representingyourselfcanada.com/final-

report/