Funded technical assistance on access to justice is now available to Courts from the NCSC Center on Court Acces for All.  This resource could be very helpful.  Here is the website  for  the assistance program.

The forms this assistance might take are described on the site as follows:

Technical Assistance
The Center . . . offers assistance to state and local courts interested in gaining specific expertise on implementing an access to justice program, practice or service. The assistance is flexible and typically involves a few days of an expert’s time on-site or through conference calls. The assistance also can take the form of sending representatives from one jurisdiction to another to learn first-hand how to implement a specific improvement program or practice. 

Examples given are as follows:

• Simplifying & automating court forms
• Training court staff on providing information to self-represented litigants
• Making electronic filing user friendly
• Developing judicial education on self-represented litigant issues
• Using pro bono assistance to support self-represented litigants
• Creating a self-help center
• Establishing a statewide self-help hotline
• Facilitating discussion among judges regarding unbundling issues
• Using online chat to provide informational services
• Developing volunteer programs to assist litigants

An attached document on the site gives more detail on such examples:

Build/Expand Self-Help Services

• Developing easy-to-understand and easy-to-access online information
• Establishing a self-help center
• Setting up rules and standards to govern the operation of self-help programs
• Establishing and funding a statewide self-help hotline
• Using online chat to provide informational services
• Serving self-represented litigants who face language access barriers

 Revise and Automate Court Forms for Easier Access

• Simplifying Forms and using plain language
• Automating forms and linking to e-filing
• Making electronic filing user friendly
• Using document assembly and co-browsing over the Internet to support self-represented litigants

 Provide Training and Education

• Setting up a judicial education program on self-represented litigant issues
• Setting up a lunch seminar on self-represented litigant issues for judges in a local court
• Facilitating discussion among judges regarding barriers to access
• Facilitating discussion among judges regarding unbundling issues
• Training clerk staff on providing information to self-represented litigants
• Helping all court staff understand the issues self-represented litigants face

 Enhance Case Processing and Management for Cases Involving Self-Represented Litigants

• Addressing lines in the clerk’s office caused by confused self-represented litigants
• Dealing with the problem of litigants who are unable to complete service
• Dealing with adjournments caused by unprepared self-represented litigants
• Ensuring litigants get the written orders they need following a judicial decision
• Ensuring litigants know what they need to do to obtain enforcement of orders
• Simplifying rules and court procedures
• Complying with Turner v. Rogers and its due process requirements for the self-represented

The technical assistance provides a great opportunity for courts to jump start processes for planning or improving access services.  Note that many of these ideas are low cost items, not budget busters needing new line items or new staff.  Rather they involve stepping out of the day to day and thinking about how to be more efficient or effective with current resources.

I know that all of us associated with the project are happy to do what we can to help.  A very simple form to request assistance is on the site.

If you have a question about assistance, please contact Deborah Saunders of the Center for Court Access to Justice for All at dsaunders(at)ncsc.org..