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Montana Legal Services Association
• Extremely large, sparsely populated state
• 145,000+ square miles
• 600 miles wide (or the same distance as Indianapolis, IN to Washington, DC)
• Population is app. 950,000
• 6.2 persons per sq mile / app. 12 cows per sq mile
Montana Legal Services Association Facts
• Only provider of civil legal services in Montana: serves 56 counties and 7 Indian Reservations
• App. 45 staff, only 15 casehandling attorneys
• 3 main offices, 2 satellite offices, 5 one-person offices
• Annual Budget – App. 3 million
Montana Legal Services Association
Service delivery challenges in Montana
• Service providers are not always located anywhere near the people who need them.
• Traditional walk-in service delivery model does not work.
MLSA meets the challenge through……….
• Community Education and Outreach!• MontanaLawHelp.org, MontanaProBono.net,
www.MTLSA.org• Legal Tips of the Week• Brochures and Flyers• Yearly Outreach Calendar Activities• Special Outreach Efforts
Staff: One attorney, one VISTA, and a community outreach committee including staff from various MLSA offices and law units
MontanaLawHelp.org
• General legal information for low to middle income people
• 11 law topics• Contact information for courts, legal services, and
social service agencies across Montana• LiveHelp – real time information retrieval
assistance
Legal Tips of the Week
• Short, general legal information summaries.
• Emailed to over 27 local newspapers across the state and 2 local access television stations.
• Posted on MontanaLawHelp.org and www.MTLSA.org.
• Picked up and distributed by social service agencies.
Brochures and Flyers
• Brochures on over 50 subjects.
• Flyers about MontanaLawHelp.org, the HelpLine, the Self-Help Law Unit and clinics, and more.
• Posted on www.MTLSA.org.
• MontanaLawHelp.org contains similar articles.
Yearly Outreach Calendar
• Each month has outreach activities.
• Includes direct mailings of brochures, flyers, palm cards, etc for specific projects or activities. Example: send out general MLSA overview of services brochure to courts, libraries, social service agencies across the state.
• Includes writing articles, presentations, etc.
Special Outreach Efforts Coasters
• Direct clients to find answers to legal questions on MontanaLawHelp.org
Special Outreach Efforts Librarian Outreach
• Legal resource guides• Presentations at statewide librarian association
meetings• Survey
Special Outreach Efforts Teen Outreach
• Presentations to high school students.
• In development with the State Bar of Montana: materials for teen educators statewide to teach about the court system, general legal information, and how to get legal assistance.
Benefits of Outreach
• Public has access to general legal information
• Potential MLSA applicants can sometimes solve their problems with the resources that are available through outreach. This allows MLSA staff to serve more people who have more complex problems.
• People who have more complex problems are better educated initially about their situations and legal remedies, freeing up time for MLSA staff.
More benefits of outreach
• People have access to legal information no matter where they live.
• Gives staff more resources for clients.
• Outreach tools, which are easily updated when the law changes or new content is developed, allow MLSA to respond quickly to client needs.
For More Information:
Christine MandiloffCommunity Legal Education Attorney406/442-9830 x 18 [email protected]