Webinar to explore ‘New ABA Standards for the Provision of Civil Legal Aid’
The American Bar Association will present “The New ABA Standards for the Provision of Civil Legal Aid - Parts 1 & 2” as a webinar on Monday, May 23, beginning at 1 p.m.
For sixty years, the ABA Standards for the Provision of Civil Legal Aid have provided guidance to the nation’s legal aid organizations on best practices for the delivery of legal services to their clients. The Standards recently underwent a year-long revision and redrafting process which has resulted in a newly adopted set of Standards that reflect today’s legal aid practice.
This six-hour training is designed for legal aid organization leaders, managers, staff, funders, and board members to learn how the new Standards have been drafted to support the provision of high-quality legal services and to ensure that organizations are managed effectively.
The training, led by experienced legal aid leaders, will utilize a series of real-world hypotheticals and breakout sessions to allow participants to examine the new Standards in depth, and an ethics-focused portion of the program will demonstrate how the new Standards provide guidance under evolving ethics rules. Among the speakers at the webinar will be Angela S. Tripp of Michigan Legal Help (https://mich iganlegalhelp.org).
Cost for the webinar is $150 for ABA members and $225 for non-members. To register, visit www.americanbar.org and click on “events.”
ABA working to expand and enhance homeless courts in California
The American Bar Association is expanding its commitment to establishing homeless courts through a collaboration with the Judicial Council of California.
The Commission on Homelessness and Poverty (CHP) has been a leader for more than 20 years in replicating the homeless court model across the country, helping to establish around 70 homeless court programs in 21 states.
California, which has homeless courts in 19 of its 58 counties, acknowledged that leadership in a 2020 report from the California Work Group on Homelessness. An “action area” in the report called on the Judicial Council to contract with CHP “to provide training and technical assistance to courts, with the goal of strengthening the homeless court model throughout California.”
That collaboration, called Expanding and Enhancing Homeless Courts Across California, is now underway. So far, Orange County and Long Beach County, which already have homeless courts, are working with CHP to expand and refine their courts, and more are expected to follow.
Homeless courts resolve legal barriers to stability through voluntary, individual action to satisfy fines and fees and bring about case dismissal. They are a tool to incentivize treatment and help get people off the street with a hand up, not a handout. CHP’s ongoing work ensures that homeless courts can enable clients to alter their trajectory through obtaining education, identification and benefits and removing legal barriers to stability. For additional information on CHP, visit www.americanbar.org/content/aba-cms-dotorg/en/groups/pub lic_interest/homelessness_poverty.
