CALI Spotlight

We’re very excited by the response we’ve gotten to the Request for Proposals for the new A2J Clinic Program.  Here are some answers to frequently asked questions we’ve received.  If you have any other questions, please don’t hestiate to contact CALI Excecutive Director John Mayer at jmayer @ CALI.org

Who owns the ‘Course Kits’?

Q: After the A2J Clinical Project concludes, who will own the property rights to the “Course Kits” that are developed and used by participating faculty members?
A: The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction historically retains the copyright to all of the CALI Lessons that are developed by faculty authors in exchange for a one time payment. Similarly, we will offer a one-time payment of $5000 in exchange for the copyrights to the participating faculty members’ course kits. These course kits will be freely available for use by all CALI member-schools.

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What is a ‘Course Kit’?

Q: What is a ‘Course Kit’?
A: Defining exactly what will be included in each participants Course Kit will be determined as part of the Project. At a minimum, the course kits are likely to include a syllabus, assignments and a work plan for the student performances, as well as any tools developed or used by the faculty member to help track their students’ performance. This website is an example of the course kit developed by Prof. Ronald W. Staudt at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.

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When will these courses be offered?

Q: When will the courses developed as part of the Access to Justice Clinical Course Project be offered at participating law schools?
A: The A2J Clinical Course Project plans to announce selected faculty members in January and then work with that group throughout the Spring 2013 semester to develop course kits. The plan is that those course kits would then be taught by the faculty members in the Fall 2013. If a professor wanted to teach an A2J Clinic in the Spring 2013, we are eager to help with that, but the project does not require it.

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Is this project only available to Clinical Professors?

Q: Is the A2J Clinical Course Project only available to Clinical Professors?
A: No, the A2J Clinical Course Project is open to all full-time faculty members CALI-member law schools. The Project seeks to combine an academic treatment of the legal, ethical and policy issues posed by electronic lawyering with the hands-on experience of developing online tools that lower the barriers to justice for low-income people. All full time faculty members are encouraged to participate.

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Is prior technical experience required?

Q: How much prior technical experience must I have to teach an A2J Clinic?
A: No prior experience with A2J Author® or any other document assembly tools is required to participate in the Access to Justice Clinical Course Project. All participating professors will be trained in A2J Author® and HotDocs during a three-day training session in Spring 2013. Additionally, funds will be provided so that each participating clinic can hire an outside technical consultant to assist students with the software.

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What if I’m not selected?

Q. If I’m not selected to participate in the A2J Clinical Course Project, can I still adopt this course model?
A. Yes! We welcome any interested professor to adopt this course model at their law school. Financial resources limit the number of clinics we can accept into the A2J Clinic Project, but we would happily assist any professor in establishing such a clinical course offering as much as possible.

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How do I apply?

Q: How do I apply to teach an A2J Clinic at my law school?
A: To submit a course proposal, interested faculty members need to submit a Letter of Intent along with a copy of their resume/CV by email to CALI® Executive Director John Mayer at jmayer@cali.org by November 15, 2012. All submissions should include a proposed course name and description; number of credits to be offered; whether the course will be a new offering or a modification of an existing course; and whether the faculty member intends to develop the course as a permanent part of the law school’s curriculum.

Elmer Masters presenting Court Cloud and the Free Law Reporter

This past week, half of CALI traveled to Ithaca, New York to attend the Law Via the Internet Conference.   LVI is an semi-regular international conference where those involved in making primary legal materials available on the Internet meet to discuss the challenges and successes of their endeavors.

This year’s conference marks the 20 year anniversary of Friends of CALI The Legal Information Institute as well as the 10 year anniversary of the Montreal Declaration on Free Access to Law.  The conference had over 400 attendees from over 37 countries that ranged from academics to non-profits to civic minded hackers. There were five tracks and approximately4o presentations. Two CALI projects were discussed in Track 4: Application Development for Open Access and Engagement.

On Monday, Director of Internet Development Elmer Masters debuted Court Cloud as well as discussed his work on the Free Law Reporter. Court Cloud operates on a similar platform to cloud hosting service DropBox.  It would allow courts to drop word files of their court opinions into Court Cloud simply by dragging and dropping into a file on a clerk’s computer desktop.  Court Cloud will then transform the documents into html, xml and PDF.  A copy these are return to the court via the same desktop folder and the court is free to do with them what they wish.  Court Cloud is secure and is also available to store these opinions for the court.  Finally, a copy of the case is uploaded the Free Law Reporter.   It’s a win for the courts who are provided with free opinion storage and conversion and a win for the public who will be provided with free access to the laws that govern them.   This project is still in early beta, but if any court is interested in testing Court Cloud, please contact Elmer at emasters AT CALI.org .

Tuesday morning, Executive Director John Mayer discussed A2J Author, a collaborative project between CALI and the Center for Access to Justice and Technology at the Chicago-Kent School of Law.   A repeating theme of LVI was that access to primary law wasn’t enough – there need to be tools that makes the law more accessible.  A2J Author fits that need perfectly.  It is currently used by legal aid organizations to create intake forms or to assist pro se individuals to complete forms that they can then turn into the court.  It operates much like a free version of LegalZoom, except that the individuals are walked through the process step-by-step using easy to understand language and avatars to make the process less threatening.  These forms have been used over 400,000 times last year alone.  Examples of the available forms can be found on the Law Help Interactive website.  In a dovetail with CALI’s mission towards improving legal education, this software is also being used by law school clinics. In creating forms, participating students learn the primary law and procedures behind them and are exposed to cutting edge legal practice technologies.  These forms are then made available to legal aid organizations so that they are able to assist more people.  Yet another win-win situation for all involved, which we really like to faciliate here at CALI.  If you have any questions about A2J, John would be delighted to discuss it further with you.  He can be reached at jmayer AT CALI.org .