[ad_1]
The UI helped launch the online law library after receiving more than $600,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding.
Vincenzo Mazza
The Boyd Law Building in Iowa City can be found on Sunday November 6, 2022. The Boyd Law Building helps with simple legal matters.
The University of Iowa helped launch a website with the State Library of Iowa to provide free legal information. The website, called the People’s Law Library of Iowa, was funded by $600,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Carissa Vogel, director and professor of the UI Law Library, created the website with State Library of Iowa librarian Michael Scott. It was inspired by the Maryland People Law Library, which was created in the 1990s and is considered the gold standard in online legal resources, Vogel said.
“I think most legal opinions are very difficult to understand because they are so technical. It can be really crazy and weird,” he said. “We want, at that very basic level, to help people. This is not a substitute for having an attorney. This is a story that helps people get to the next level.”
The website contains information on three main topics: consumer law, family law, and landlord/tenant law. Vogel said he and Scott plan to cover 15 legislative areas over the next five years.
The website has video explanations on how to use the site and language translations such as Google Translate.
It also has a quick escape feature, which opens a different tab on the user’s device.
Vogel said the situation was created for people in abusive relationships who seek legal advice and need to get out of the situation quickly.
After one month of the site being live, the UI Law Library reported an increase in people asking for help based on the legal information they received from the website, Vogel said.
He said that they are waiting for three months to send the official data about the interaction with the site and the feedback from the community in order to collect more data.
According to Attorney Amanda Elkins, UI Student Legal Services Attorney, access to free legal services is a resource for students. The website gives them a place to guide students who don’t call for help.
“It’s hard to navigate the legal system, especially for students, and a lot of times, the other party in a case — like the landlord — has financial and legal resources, and that’s unfair. , regardless of the facts of the case,” he said. .
Elkins said having access to free legal services can help people feel more confident in their legal careers.
“Lack of access to services affects our mental health, [and] it affects our work,” he said. “These legal issues interfere with other important things in people’s lives such as family, relationships, and education.”
According to Eric Goers, Iowa City attorney and member of the Iowa Bar Association’s Legal Access Committee, legal access is an important goal of the legal system, but it is not always achieved.
“The long-term goal in the legal profession is to give everyone access to legal representation and make the system work better,” he said. “We will do our best to ensure that everyone has access, not limited to those who have the means to hire private counsel. The legal system, however, is not easy to navigate.
Goers said the State Bar Association’s legal access committee is working with the People’s Law Library of Iowa to make the law more accessible to the public.
“The consequences of doing the wrong thing or not following the right procedures can be very profound,” he said. “Our committee is the legal access committee. A subcommittee has been established to work with the State Bar Association to make that project a success.”
[ad_2]
Source link
