Family law cases can be intimidating and time consuming for pro bono attorneys, but they comprise one of the highest civil legal needs in the Greater Houston area. ScribeHELP introduces a layer of support to low-income pro se litigants in a flexible format that makes it an ideal volunteer opportunity for busy attorneys.
In this week’s blog post, Senior Staff Attorney Elliott Tucker highlights the importance of addressing the justice gap for low-income family law litigants and explains how you can get involved.
The justice gap in Texas is especially dire for family law litigants. Texas is a community property state, so it is very important to get a divorce and not be on the hook for your spouse’s debts or have them in line to receive your property if you pass away unexpectedly. Plus, for low-income Texans, you often need a custody order to be able to get crucial government benefits like SNAP. However, many low-income Texans cannot afford an attorney. Law libraries and foundations have crafted resources for litigant to file their own paperwork, but Texas has some puzzling presumptions and statutory language that trip up these litigants.
In close collaboration with the downtown Houston Law Library, HVL has developed ScribeHELP to help litigants move their cases on their own. Based on the widely successful “Drafting assistance” program used by the Philadelphia Bar to help de-clog family law courts of stalled out Pro Se cases, HVL’s pro se program coordinator Elliott Tucker has developed this ScribeHELP program for the compassionate lawyer.
This program is limited scope representation: cases are carefully screened and volunteers only have to draft a handful of documents and speak with a client over zoom for 1.5-2 hours. Unlike full scope representation, volunteers never have to show up to a hearing or sign any paper work that is filed. Volunteers get an email a few days before each clinic with a case summary in PDF, suggested documents to draft in DOC, and then day of clinic just need to log into zoom, confirm facts, get a short retainer signed, draft the docs, and then email them to the litigant. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Listen to Elliott’s bite-sized overview of some common family law issues before you sign up to volunteer with ScribeHELP.
Summary: via Zoom or telephone, you help a pro se litigant with a family law matter draft essential documents to advance his/her/their case.
Schedule: Wednesday morning and afternoon or Thursday evening.
Tiempo: 2-3 hours.
Mentorship: there is a CLE, a podcast, a PDF guide, template documents, and HVL staff will be available in real time via email and phone to answer queries.
Ideal for attorneys curious about family law, attorneys wanting to try a bit of document drafting, litigators with super packed litigation schedules but wanting to volunteer, and attorneys new to the profession.
