LSC podcast looks into empowering individuals with legal tune up

Guests from a Wisconsin program creating web platforms that help users solve legal problems discuss their Legal Tune Up tools on the latest episode of Legal Services Corporation’s “Talk Justice” podcast, released in March. Lee Rawles, assistant managing editor at the ABA Journal, hosts the conversation with Erica Nelson, executive director of LIFT Wisconsin, and Jessie Lutter-Long, LIFT Wisconsin’s justice coordinator. 

LIFT, or Legal Interventions for Transforming Wisconsin, was formed by lawyers and nonprofit leaders who wanted to create resources to address the access to justice crisis in their state.
Leveraging the state’s public databases like Wisconsin Circuit Court Access, commonly referred to as CCAP, they have developed free, web-based tools that allow users to identify and solve some of their civil legal issues without assistance from a lawyer.

“It is sort of the bridge between the need for more lawyers and the ability of an individual to search and do some of the work around civil legal issues on their own,” says Nelson. “So, it’s really an innovation to empower individuals, give them a little bit more agency and democratize the data that’s out there.”

“It’s really directed towards low-income folks who can use this tool because they can’t otherwise afford an attorney to address their problems,” Nelson continues.

Currently, LIFT’s Legal Tune Up can help Wisconsinites with things like removing an eviction record, removing a criminal record, modifying their child support order, applying to have their suspended driver’s license reinstated and responding to small claims cases.

Lutter-Long explains that many litigants end up without legal assistance because they don’t have enough time to find help, they don’t know how to get help, or they make too much to qualify for legal aid, but not enough to afford attorneys’ fees. Then, navigating their problem or responding to a claim on their own is too overwhelming, so they often default.

The Legal Tune Up tool lets people know they have an issue, provides the form they need to fill out, pre-populated with as much of the information as possible, and then sends it in for them, she explains.

“It is such a big deal,” says Lutter-Long. “If we can just take that 60% default rate and decrease it just a little bit, it’s such a big success for people.”

Talk Justice episodes are available online and on Spotify, YouTube, Apple and other popular podcast apps. The podcast is sponsored by LSC’s Leaders Council.