CALI Spotlight

CALI Welcomes the Legal Scholarship Blog to Classcaster!

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Sarah Glassmeyer

CALI is pleased to welcome the Legal Scholarship Blog to ourClasscaster network of blogs, websites and podcasts. From their announcement:

On Monday November 3, 2014, the Legal Scholarship Blog will be moving – but never fear, we will keep the same url and subscribers to the blog’s RSS feeds and email alerts will continue to receive LSB updates as usual…

We made the decision to move because the blog has been hacked several times and we have been looking to find a more secure home. Our search took us to CALI, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, and its Classcaster blogging platform. CALI, as many of you know, is a non-profit consortium of mostly US law schools that conducts applied research and development in the area of computer-mediated legal education. Classcaster is CALI’s legal education podcasting and blogging network and seemed like an obvious place for the LSB. When we asked about moving the LSB over to Classcaster the CALI team responded enthusiastically and has been extraordinarily helpful in accomplishing the movement of our blog and its 7 years of archived content.

As the old advertising slogan goes, “if you lived here, you’d be home now!” If you have wanted to try blogging or are already a blogger and wish to have an advertisement-free blog with personalized support, try CALI’s Classcaster. It is a FREE benefit of membership in CALI.

And it’s not just for blogging…Classcaster can be used as a personal website, podcast host, course webpage and so much more! Classcaster is made from WordPress, an open source web platform. It can be manipulated into just about any shape or tool imaginable – and no programming skills are required. Questions? Please contact Elmer Masters at emasters AT CALI.org

Photo Credit: Mykl Roventine via Compfight cc

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A2J Author® software is a finalist for the 2014 International Innovating Justice Award

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Sarah Glassmeyer

A2J Author® software—developed by IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and CALI®, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction—has advanced to the final round of the international Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL) 2014 Innovating Justice Awards. A2J Author finished in the top three among 14 other global innovations in the “Successful Innovations” category, which recognizes initiatives that are already making a difference.

The next phase of the awards process involves finalists attending the Innovating Justice Forum November 25 and 26 in The Hague to present their projects. CALI executive director John Mayer will represent the A2J Author team at the forum. The awards will be announced November 26.

“The advancement of A2J for the HiiL Innovating Justice award is terrific news for the software and its creators, CALI and IIT Chicago-Kent,” said Professor Ronald W. Staudt, director of IIT Chicago-Kent’s Center for Access to Justice and Technology (CAJT). “A2J Author has been used millions of times by self-represented people to seek justice. It is easily the most successful innovation I have been part of in the more than 36 years I have been working on issues related to law, technology and access to justice.

“This nomination will showcase that success and help law students, lawyers and courts worldwide learn about the benefits of A2J Author. CAJT program coordinator Jessica Bolack Frank did a great job in preparing the entry, and John Mayer will be fabulous presenting the A2J Author story at The Hague,” said Professor Staudt.

A2J Author is the first court form automation software designed to be pro se user friendly. This allows nontechnical law students, legal aid attorneys, and courthouses to build customer-friendly interfaces that help self-represented litigants complete necessary forms. These A2J Guided Interviews® ask questions in plain language and process the information provided by the user to be assembled into a savable and printable document.

A2J Author is the most widely used document automation tool by pro se litigants to address their legal needs. There are more than 1,000 A2J Guided Interviews that are live on the LawHelp Interactive national server. These 1,000 Guided Interviews have helped almost 2.5 million people in less than 10 years.

It is the only free tool available to legal aid attorneys and court staff to automate court forms for people without lawyers. Other software tools and services on the market charge authors to create their automated forms or charge end users to access them. A2J Author is completely free for any nonprofit organization to use for noncommercial purposes.

A2J Author is jointly owned by IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI®). It is managed by IIT Chicago-Kent’s Center for Access to Justice and Technology.

The Center for Access to Justice and Technology was established at IIT Chicago-Kent to make justice more accessible to the public by promoting the use of the Internet in the teaching, practice, and public access to the law. The Center conducts research, builds software tools, teaches classes, and supports faculty, staff, and student projects on access to justice and technology.

CALI®, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, is a nonprofit consortium of law schools whose mission includes promoting “access to justice through the use of computer technology.”

– See more at: http://www.kentlaw.iit.edu/news/2014/a2j-author-software-2014-innovating-justice-award-finalist#sthash.WBMeyel5.41ULgGWn.dpuf

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CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE CALI BOARD OF DIRECTORS Deadline: 10/31/14

Posted on October 27, 2014 by John Mayer

The current CALI Board of Directors: http://www.cali.org/content/cali-board-directors

The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) is seeking nominations of qualified and enthusiastic individuals to fill vacant positions on its Board of Directors. If you know of someone who would like to contribute to the research and development, strategic planning and governance of CALI, then consider nominating them for the CALI Board of Directors.

Please clear it with the person first to make sure they WANT to be nominated. self-nominations are acceptable.

REQUIRED INFORMATION

Phone number of the nominee
Email address of the nominee
Institutional affiliation of the nominee
CV and/or link to home page/bio for the nominee.

Directors are required to attend TWO meetings a year (June during the CALI Conference and January during AALS). Directors serve on committees at the behest of the President of the Board and work on other projects and issues relating to the governance, strategy-setting and promotion of CALI’s mission and activities.

Directors terms are for three years at which time their service is evaluated by the Nominating Committee along with other nominees. Service on the CALI Board is voluntary and gratis. Travel expenses for the Board meetings can be covered by CALI if institutional support is unavailable.

The list of all nominees will be submitted to the Nomination Committee who will determine a slate of candidates to be presented to the CALI Membership at the Annual Breakfast to be held on Sunday, January 4, 2014, 7:15-8:30 am in Washington, DC during AALS.

All nominees will be contacted during the week of November 3, 2014. Nominees who are chosen by the nominating committee and elected by the membership are required to attend the CALI Board meeting tentatively scheduled for Sunday, January 4, 2015 in Washington, DC (9:00am – 1:00pm).

CALI is a dynamic and forward-thinking 501(c)(3) non-profit with big plans and big ideas. CALI is supported primarily by membership dues from over 200 US law schools. Qualified Directors should have knowledge and experience that they can contribute to the ongoing marketing, development and strategic planning towards CALI’s mission.

Some of our projects include:

* CALI publishes over 900 web-based tutorials that are used by law students and law faculty at over 200 US law schools. We are constantly adding new lessons and updating the existing collection. More information is at www.cali.org/lessons.

* CALI publishes e-casebooks and other legal texts in multiple ebook formats under a the eLangdell imprint. These are distributed under Creative Commons licenses to allow for maximum flexibility for faculty and students to use in their educational endeavors. More information is at elangdell.cali.org.

* CALI created the A2J Author software platform that is used by legal aid attorneys and law schools to teach their students law process automation. More information about using A2J Author in law schools is at a2jclinic.classcaster.net.

If you have any questions or wish to submit a nominations, contact John Mayer, Executive Director at 312-906-5307 or jmayer@cali.org.

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CALI’s A2J Author has helped over 470,000 people this year!

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Sarah Glassmeyer

We’re proud to announce that in 2014 so far, CALI’s A2J Author® software has helped 471,942 pro se litigants fill out their court forms! We are on target to help over 629,000 people address their legal needs across the country. From the projected 629,000 A2J Guided Interviews® that will be run in 2014, almost 500,000 court forms will be assembled and ready for the pro se litigant to use in court. Since 2005, we have helped 2.5 million people fill out almost 1.5 million court forms!

A2J Author is a software tool created by CALI and IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law that delivers greater access to justice for self-represented litigants. It enables non-technical authors from the courts, legal aid organizations, and law schools to rapid build and implement pro se friendly web-based interfaces for document assembly. These A2J Guided Interviews walk pro se litigants through complicated court forms one question at a time, while offering just in time learning features to make the process easier. The over 1,000 A2J Guided Interviews cover a range of legal needs from completing a divorce petition to foreclosure defense to name changes.

To learn more about A2J Author, visit a2jauthor.org.

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Mid-Semester Blues….

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Sarah Glassmeyer

We’re just about at the half-way point for the Fall Semester, which for law students means it’s time to get serious about understanding and organizing class materials and notes. Remember – no matter how smart you are, you’re not going to be able to learn all of this stuff the night before your final exam.

Sorry, that’s just not how law school works.

And if you find you’ve either been slacking off a bit or just not quite understanding what is going on, remember – IT’S NOT TOO LATE. You still have a good six weeks to get yourself ready for finals. And CALI can help!

First things first – your briefed cases will be the back bone of your study outlines. Yes, there are commercial briefs available, but you’ll find that putting the holding and black letter law into your own words will help you understand and recall them. Happily, CALI has a lesson for that, coincidentally called, “How to Brief A Case“.

And of course, to assist you in learning the substantive law, we have over 900 lessons for you to take. You can find them by topic, by subject breakdown, and even by casebook.

Over in our eLangdell Press collection, we have a book by Dean Barbara Glesner Fines called Law School Materials for Success. This covers all aspects of doing well in law school, but of particular interest at this time of year are Chapter Three “Getting the Most out of Class”, Chapter Four “After Class Review”, and Chapter Five “Outlining and Exam Preparation.” There are also downloadable podcasts with this book if you like audible information.

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Why Does My Password Never Work?

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Sarah Glassmeyer

Has this happened to you? You’re settling in for a nice long session on CALI to study (or maybe you’re a professor getting ready to create some LessonLinks.) You go to log into the site and….password denied.

You try again. Password denied.

And again, this time typing slowly so you know you hit ever key correctly. Password denied.

You reset your password, but that is a temporary fix since it happens every time you visit CALI.

WHAT IS GOING ON?????

Trust me, if it was something with CALI’s website, we’d fix it ASAP. Unfortunately, the issue with your browser. Specifically, your browser’s cookies.

No, I know…how can something called “a cookie” be bad? (Besides for our waistlines or blood sugar numbers.) Well, they’re not bad in and of themselves. You actually need browser cookies to use CALI or Amazon or thousands of other sites on the Internet. Cookies send data back and forth between a website and your browser.

The problem happens when you’ve changed your password but your browser thinks you’re still using the old one. Even if you retype it and don’t rely on a “remember my password” autofill, the browser cookies will use the old one.

Fortunately, the solution is very simple. Just clear your cookies. Then open CALI.org and log in using your password. Everything should work smoothly.

Photo Credit: ssoosay via Compfight cc

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The CALI Roadshow

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Sarah Glassmeyer

Does your law school have a Library Fair? Or a Database Day? How about a Faculty Brown Bag Series? Or are you in a metropolitan area with some other law schools and you want an excuse to meet with the faculty and staff of them?

CALI WILL BE THERE!

Yes, now that the dust of the beginning of the year has settled, the CALI roadshow is all ready to go. Next week our Director of Community Development, Sarah Glassmeyer, will be in New York City meeting with students and faculty at New York University Law School, Brooklyn Law School and CUNY Law School. If you see her, say howdy and see what CALI can do for you!

If you are looking for a in person or virtual live training or information session on any CALI tool or product, we can make that happen! Please contact Sarah at sarah@cali.org to schedule.

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Request for Proposals: A2J Author Course Project

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Sarah Glassmeyer

Copyright Margaret Hagan. Used with permission.

CALI is happy announce the second round of the A2J Author® Course Project. You’ll find linked at the bottom of this post a flyer with the details of our Request for Proposals as well as a fact sheet about the program. Please share them with colleagues that may be interested in applying.

The A2J Author Course Project is a coordinated effort by the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI®), the Center for Access to Justice & Technology at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and Idaho Legal Aid Services. Faculty selected for inclusion in this project will receive a stipend to either create a new course – or adapt an existing one – that uses A2J Author® software as a tool for teaching students technology and practice skills. No technological experience is required to participate in this project and training and support on A2J Author® will be provided.

A2J Author® allows non-programmers to use their legal skills and knowledge to create an expert system we call A2J Guided interviews®. These interviews walk self-represented litigants through a legal process and can create a document to be filed with a court. More information about A2J Author®, including the recent roll out of the latest web-based version, is available at www.a2jauthor.org.

For more information, visit our model course kit at A2JClinic.classcaster.net. If you have any questions, please contact John Mayer at jmayer AT cali.org

a2jflyer

a2jbackground

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It’s Never Too Early in the Semester to Start Taking CALI Lessons

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Sarah Glassmeyer

If you haven’t been warned yet, law school exams are not like undergraduate exams. If you were able to get by with cramming the night (or even week) before finals, unfortunately that’s not going to work now. Even if it did work for your exams, that’s not the way to retain knowledge – and you’re going to want to remember the law for the bar exam and your future career!

Our user statistics show that most of our lessons runs occur during the “finals rush.” And while CALI Lessons are a good way to prepare for finals, that’s definitely not the only time to take them. They can help you absorb material throughout the semester and be more prepared for class. Not sure where to start? Try our list of CALI lessons cross-referenced to casebooks OR our subject breakdowns.

Even if you’re not ready to do some substantive law exercises, we have some lessons that will help you with the process of absorbing legal information. They are:

How to Brief a Case. Everyone develops their own method eventually on how to take notes for class. This lesson will give you a good starting point so you can make sure that you’re including everything that you’ll need come finals time.
Learning Legal Analysis Through Its Components: Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion – IRAC. The IRAC analysis pattern will help you in reading and deciphering cases as well as in your LRW and final exam writings.
Plagarism – Keeping Out of Trouble. Finally, as with everything else in law school, you may find that academic honesty and honor codes are much tougher and strictly enforced than in undergrad. This lesson can help you stay out of Honor Council hearings from an inadvertent mistake.

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Your CALI Account and You – Webinar this Friday!

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Sarah Glassmeyer

The past few weeks have been busy. So many things to do, so many new people to meet, new classes and new schedules. Is there something that you’re forgetting? Something like, oh, I don’t know…..

Registering for CALI?

Registering for CALI is fast and easy, but just in case you want to see what you’re getting into, we’re going to have a webinar on Friday, September 5 at 1pm Central Time. It’s totally free, but requires pre-registration at this link. It’ll be quick too – only about 20 minutes. If you’ve already registered for CALI, we’ll also be covering how to do things like recover your password, edit your existing account and why it’s important to do so.

See you then!

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