Remote Services & Professional Responsibilities September 2020 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinics:

Remote Services & Professional Responsibilities

September 2020 Law Student and Lawyer Volunteer Training

Three main topics in today’s training

WHY WE OFFER THESE SERVICES HOW WE (YOU) PROVIDE THE SERVICES WHAT ETHICAL RULES APPLY IN BRIEF LEGAL ADVICE SETTINGS

IF YOU CANNOT AFFORD AN ATTORNEY... One will NOT be provided for you in civil matters.

The cost of accessing justice

Filing fees:

$98 for small claims actions $198 for divorce with children $188 for divorce without children

Service fees:

$75 for three attempts by Milwaukee Co. Sheriff’s Office

Attorney’s fees:

Often hourly Sometimes with a retainer

State-Allocated Funding For Free Legal Aid

Legal Aid Can Save Costs

• Housing: Prevent evictions and foreclosures
• Health: Promote health & prevent illness by helping with

benefits or remedying conditions that caused the problems

• Domestic Violence: Prevent recurrence resulting in fewer

hospital visits

• Seniors: Prevents guardianships, financial abuse, and

consume fraud

• Veterans and Military Families: Assists with benefits

claims

Inadequate-Funding ≠ Cost-Savings

MVLC Mission

To serve the Milwaukee community in Marquette’s tradition of service by increasing access to justice while providing learning and mentoring opportunities for law students.

MVLC is part of a broader civil legal aid community

• Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee
• Legal Action of Wisconsin
• Centro Legal
• LOTUS Legal Clinic
• Metro Milwaukee Mediation Services
• Civitas Law Group
• Kids Matter, Inc.
• Catholic Charities Legal Services for

Immigrants

• …and more!

Referrals

• Before referring to another

service, please consult with a supervisor.

• Clients are pre-screened before

having an appointment with the MVLC and are referred to other more robust services when possible.

How the Zoom clinic operates

• Clients call a main number and are referred to a variety of services, including the

Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinics.

• Volunteers receive an email the day before their shift containing the link to the Zoom

meeting they’ll attend and a brief synopsis of each client’s legal matter.

• Law student, lawyers, and supervisors gather on Zoom 10-minutes before start time in a

virtual “main office.”

• Supervisors place student/lawyer teams into virtual meeting rooms (Zoom “breakout

rooms”). Clients are assigned to those meeting rooms as they arrive.

• The students and attorneys may return to the “main office” at any time to consult with

supervisor and facilitators.

Example 1: Client info you receive before your shift:

Family / Divorce – Assigned to ____ (Lawyer) & _____ (Law student) Getting divorced and judge asked her to complete a form about her child. She does not understand the form and why she needs to fill it out. Has a court date for October 8 at 1:20PM and the Judge told her the form is due by the end of September. Family / Placement - Assigned to ____ (Lawyer) & _____ (Law student) Client has an order from 2018. She has two questions: (1) What are the consequences of not paying into an account she was ordered to pay into for the child? (2) Father was withholding child was client due to Covid-19 concerns. Can she now withhold the child from him? Family / Divorce - Assigned to ____ (Lawyer) & _____ (Law student) Client and her spouse have a moving business together. She wants to ask about how they should divide it. Also has questions about dividing vehicles and whether CS liens from spouse's arrears will attach to cars that are going to become "just hers" after the divorce.

Example 2: Client info you receive before your shift:

Civil / Eviction – Assigned to ____ (Lawyer) & _____ (Law student) Landlord told client she is being evicted due to non-payment of rent effective next Monday. Client has not received anything in writing about this. Can the landlord evict the client now? Civil / Housing - Assigned to ____ (Lawyer) & _____ (Law student) Client is pregnant. Her doctor told her she cannot walk up stairs. She lives on the third floor of her apartment and landlord said she could not move to a first-floor unit even though one is

• pen. What can she do?

Civil / Contract - Assigned to ____ (Lawyer) & _____ (Law student) Client is a nurse on a Covid floor. She previously signed a contract to teach exercise classes. It is no longer safe for her to teach exercise classes. The gym told her she will have to buy her way

• ut of the contract or they will sue her.

Zoom “Break-out” Rooms: managed by clinic supervisors

ROOM 1: FAMILY LAW ADVICE ROOM 2: FAMILY LAW FORMS ROOM 3: CIVIL LAW FAMILY LAW CLIENT CIVIL LAW CLIENT FAMILY FORMS CLIENT

The Law Student Role

Host and Client Intake

Greet the client Make introductions Explain the limits of the clinic Gather intake info

Researcher

Have “Gold Guides” and other clinic materials at your fingertips

Listener and Client File Manager

Listen to the client and attorney and ask clarifying questions Take client-friendly notes during the meeting

The law student acts as host and conducts client intake

1) Make introductions of yourself and the attorney (first names only) Welcome to the Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic. My name is Angela and I am a law student. Richard is also here as a law student. Mary is our volunteer attorney today. First, I am going to explain the limits of our service. 2) Explain the limits of our service We are a brief legal advice and referral service. We cannot take ongoing cases or represent you in

• court. We will do our best to answer your questions and get as much as possible accomplished in the

time we have today. However, some legal matters are too complicated to be resolved with brief legal advice and we will let you know if that is the case here. Everything we discuss will be kept confidential. I will be taking notes for you during the meeting and they will be emailed to you as soon as we finish along with a link to an evaluation form for you to complete if you are willing. Do you have any questions about the limits of our service?

{Continued on next slide}

The law student acts as host and conducts client intake

{Continued from previous slide}

3) Conduct a brief client intake interview Before we talk about the issue that brought you here today, I need to gather a few pieces of information from you. üMake sure you have the client’s name, date of birth, email, phone #, and mailing address all accurately captured on page 1 of the intake üOn page 2 of the intake, start by saying “The next five questions are optional. If you do not want to answer any question, just say ‘skip.’ The information you share is used ONLY for our clinics to collect statistical data.” Then ask the demographic questions about the client’s identity, income, etc. üOnce you have moved through the optional questions on page 2, transition to the interview about the client’s substantive issue.

The Law Student as Researcher

Have the Gold Guides and MVLC Updates at your fingertips Have the MJC forms webpage at your fingertips Pop out of the Zoom “breakout meeting room” to consult with the supervisors as needed

The Law Student as Listener and File Manager

Asking clarifying questions of both the client and the attorney can help everyone involved

• If you don’t understand something the client or

attorney said, ask!

The law student shares their screen and has the appropriate tabs pulled up in advance

• Work collaboratively with the attorney to find the

relevant resources

The law student takes notes for the clinic and for the client and navigates online resources

• Law student and lawyers work together to make sure the

client notes are high quality and thorough before the client meeting concludes.

The Lawyer Role

READ THE MVLC UPDATES TAB BEFORE EACH CLINIC CONSULT WITH SUPERVISORS AS OFTEN AS YOU’D LIKE PROVIDE THE BRIEF LEGAL ADVICE TO THE CLIENT ENSURE THE NOTES ARE WELL DONE BEFORE THEY ARE SUBMITTED TAKE CARE WHEN PROVIDING CLIENT REFERRALS

MVLC UPDATES & GOLD GUIDES

Review the MVLC Updates before each shift. Review the relevant Gold Guides based

• n the client synopses you receive.

Notetaking: A Joint Effort

• Law students take client notes during the visit
• Lawyers review them before they are submitted
• Notes are the client’s guide AND are relied on by

future volunteers should a client return

• Notetaking Guide linked in training materials

Limited Scope Representation: Ethical Rules

Limited scope does not mean limited ethical responsibility Some special rules for brief legal advice clinic setting

What ethical rules apply to brief legal advice?

• All of them!
• Confidentiality, SCR 20:1.6
• Competence, SCR 20:1.1
• Limited Scope Representation, SCR 20:1.2
• Requires informed consent: 20:1.0(f)
• Informed consent for brief legal advice does not require client signature
• Conflicts of Interest, SCR 20:6.5
• Special rule for brief advice clinics
• Ghostwriting, SCR 20:1.2(cm)
• Communicating with Person Represented by Counsel, SCR 20:4.2

Confidentiality SCR 20:1.6

• A lawyer shall not reveal information relating to

the representation of a client

• Information contained in the public record does

not deprive it of its confidential nature

• When using Zoom, work in a private setting;

roommates and others should be insulated from hearing the client

• Destroy any notes you jot down during the meeting
• Students: Use only your Marquette.edu email

address for correspondence about clients

• Ensure your computer is password protected

Competence SCR 20:1.1

• A lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client.

Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.

• Limited scope representation does not exempt a lawyer from

the duty to provide competent representation, but the limitation is a factor to be considered when determining the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness, and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation. Rule Comment 7 to SCR 20:1.2

• A newly admitted lawyer can be as competent as a

practitioner with long experience… Perhaps the most fundamental legal skill consists of determining what kind of legal problems a situation may involve, a skill that necessarily transcends any particular specialized knowledge. Rule Comment to SCR 20:1.1

Limited Scope Representation SCR 20:1.2

A lawyer may limit the scope of the representation if the limitation is:

• Reasonable under the circumstances and
• The client gives informed consent.

Topics ill-suited for brief legal advice:

• Commercial real estate transactions
• Public school law
• Employment discrimination
• Complex litigation
• Anything you decide is ill-suited for brief legal advice

Informed Consent SCR 20:1.0(f) the second prong of limited scope representation

Three elements of informed consent. Each is included in our written explanation of clinic services provided to clients by email. 1. Explanation of facts and circumstances 2. Explanation of the material advantages and disadvantages of a proposed course of conduct 3. An explanation of available options and alternatives

Informed Consent Not Required in Writing SCR 20:1.2(c)(1)

Informed consent need not be given in writing if the representation is provided by a lawyer … participating in a program sponsored by … an accredited law school, or a court and lawyer’s representation consists solely of providing information and advice

• r the preparation of court-approved legal forms.

Conflicts of Interest SCR 20:6.5

• A special rule for lawyers participating in advice-only clinics.

No need to check for conflicts. You only have a conflict if you know it.

• A lawyer who, under the auspices of a program sponsored

by … an accredited law school … provides short-term limited legal services to a client without expectation by either the lawyer or the client that the lawyer will provide continuing representation in the matter: (1) is subject to Rules 1.7 (conflict with current clients) and 1.9(a) (duties to former clients) only if the lawyer knows that the representation of the client involves a conflict of interest; and (2) is subject to Rule 1.10 (imputed disqualifications) only if the lawyer knows that another lawyer associated with the lawyer in a law firm is disqualified by Rule 1.7 or 1.9(a) with respect to the matter.

Ghostwriting SCR 20:1.2(cm)

• A lawyer may prepare pleadings, briefs,

and other documents to be filed with the court so long as such filings clearly indicate thereon that “This document was prepared with the assistance of a lawyer.”

• Not required for court forms drafted by

the Wisconsin Courts system.

• We draft everything as the client.

Assume they are proceeding pro se.

Communication with Person Represented by Counsel SCR 20:4.2

In representing a client, a lawyer shall not communicate about the subject of the representation with a person the lawyer knows to be represented by another lawyer in the matter, unless the lawyer has the consent of the other lawyer or is authorized to do so by law or a court order. Rule comment: This rule does not preclude communication with a represented person who is seeking advice from a lawyer who is not otherwise representing a client in the matter.

CLE credits & substantive training

Wisconsin lawyers can claim one hour of CLE credit for every five hours of pro bono work in qualified pro bono programs, up to a maximum of six credits per reporting period. 2020-2021 calendar of free CLEs now open for registration https://law.marquette.edu/mvlc/brown-bag-cle-series Past presentation are available on our website: https://law.marquette.edu/mvlc/brown-bag-cle-series

Personal Pro Bono Accounts

Lawyers

• Your pro bono hours are recorded for you
• Your CLE attendance with any MVLC-

sponsored CLE is recorded in your pro bono account

• Wisconsin lawyers who have performed at

least 50 hours of pro bono legal services with the Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic in a calendar year are reported to the Wisconsin Pro Bono Honor Society (created by the WI Access to Justice Commission with support from the State Bar’s pro bono program)

Law Students

• Record your pro bono time as you

complete it

• Record your attendance at CLE sessions

(like this one) directly into your pro bono account

• Students who earn 50+ or 120+ pro bono

hours are inducted into the Marquette Law School Pro Bono Society and graduated wearing an honor cord for service.