SRLN Brief: Examples of Legal Aid On-Line Intake and Triage Projects (SRLN 2016)

Over the years, legal aid programs developed complex intake protocols and decision trees to help manage their crushing caseload. Initially, these screening tools were simply paper documents that intake staff could use. Then, as telephone hotlines developed, far more complicated decision trees were developed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of hotline attorneys. And today, many programs are creating on-line intake and triage systems that are integrated into their informational webpages and/or case management systems. LSNTAP has put up an Online Intake and Call Center with information. Some examples of online intake and triage systems include the Northwest Justice Project's CLEAR OnlineIllinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO)Massachusetts Legal Resource Finder, Idaho Legal Aid, Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, and Pine Tree Legal Assistance of Maine. There are many additional projects underway with support from the Legal Services Corporation's TIG grants. Given the extremely dynamic nature of this field, an excellent resource to learn more about what is going on in the field is watch the LSNTAP hosted presentations on triage and LSNTAP published an Online Triage and Intake Toolkit (opens as PDF), see the A2J Author Page on On-Line Intake, as well as presentations from conferences such as Equal Justice 2014 Online Intake and Triage Systems, What's New and What's Next (opens as PDF).

If you have an example of on-line intake and/or triage not included here, please let us know at [email protected].