Sabrina at beSpacific highlighted the Nevada Legal Resources Directory yesterday, and its sponsor, the L.E.A.N. Project (Legal Electronic Assistance for Nevadans). Nevada’s efforts to make legal services more affordable and accessible need to be studied and imitated by other states. Implementing such programs should be an important part of the activities of bar associations, firms and individual lawyers, in fullfilling their ethical obligation to improve access to the law and to perform meaningful public service. The L.E.A.N Project was created to provide user-friendly access to Nevada legal information and free and low-cost legal assistance to Nevadans. In addition to including agencies that provide legal advice per se, the Directory also has information and links to agencies that provide help with law-related issues like alternative dispute resolution, child support enforcement, consumer information, debt management, domestic violence, employee activism, and minority affairs.
What’s important to me is not just the use of computer technology to inform consumers about law-related services, but the very existence of the services — e.g., meaningful self-help assistance for pro se parties in Family Court and alternate forms of dispute resolution, such as mediation. Equally important, these services are available with no means test, letting middle class Americans decide, too, whether their law-related problems can be solved without using traditional lawyer services. The middle class also finds it hard to afford lawyers and it deserves to know about less-expensive options.
Three cheers for the Washoe County Bar Association, which provided some of the funding for the L.E.A.N. project.
- Two Cents from Jackie Cliente: I’ve got a BARonx Cheer for the Nevada Bar Association’s online Divorce brochure, which never mentions the mediation and self-help options available throughout the State.
ethicalEsq?ethicalEsq?
Special Thanks to the Stark County (OH) Law Library Blog for its coverage of our blastoff. And, to Kevin Heller of Tech Law Advisor for giving us a mention.