HARLINGEN — Soon, the Harlingen Public Library might be offering residents a system giving them free legal aid to help them in court.
As part of its Virtual Court Access Project, the Texas Legal Services Center is planning to install its new Legal Access Kiosk at the library, offering residents free legal aid and information while helping them conduct legal research and attend online court hearings.
“(The Virtual Court Access Project) is an innovative approach to ensuring access to justice,” Karen Speed Miller, executive director of the Austin-based Texas Legal Services Center, stated. “(VCAP) will provide each location with the necessary equipment to facilitate the program including webcams, headsets, printers and scanners. Based on the pilot results, we anticipate that it will become widely available throughout Texas.”
Later today, commissioners are expected to support the project.
“I’m excited about our partnership with the Texas Legal Services Center to provide our community with a Legal Access Kiosk,” Mayor Norma Sepulveda, an attorney specializing in immigration law, stated Tuesday. “The kiosk will provide low-income and pro-se individuals who may not have access to reliable internet the ability to participate in their court hearings virtually.”
‘Paramount importance’
At City Hall, Commissioner Daniel Lopez is working with organizers to launch the project here.
“It cannot be understated the paramount importance of public access to legal resources,” Lopez, an attorney who serves as the Cameron County Commissioners Court’s litigation counsel, stated. “We will be placing the kiosk at the Harlingen Public Library to give all citizens access to this amazing tool. Though the kiosk is meant for low-income, self-represent litigants who will be given priority for use, all residents may use it.”
The Texas Legal Services Center’s project, funded through the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, would offer its services free to the city.
“The indirect costs will be to provide minimal on-site staff support, power and internet access for the kiosk,” Lopez stated.
Model project
Organizers are planning to launch the project in 25 cities across Texas, Lopez stated.
“The Legal Access Kiosk is a place a resident can go to access free legal information, access information on legal aid, conduct legal research and attend their court hearings online,” he stated. “The purpose of the kiosk is to give people with low-incomes, specifically those representing themselves, the ability to effectively participate in virtual court proceedings online and to improve their ability to benefit from Texas courts.”
To help launch the project, Lopez is working with Commissioner Ford Kinsley, who pointed to the Minnesota Legal Services Coalition’s ground-breaking $3.5 million program, which installed legal access kiosks at 250 sites across the state to help residents access remote legal services during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It looks like a good, sound addition for people of limited means who don’t have the capacity for a lawyer to do legal research that can help them represent themselves,” Kinsley said.
How it works
The Texas Legal Services Center’s kiosk would feature equipment including a desk, computer, web camera and scanner to help residents access legal aid.
As part of the project, the station would include free access to legal information before and after hearings through the Texas Law Help Live Chat service while offering on-call remote technical support and virtual court navigator to help users with minor technical issues, Lopez stated.
“The equipment at the kiosk will allow the user to participate in remote legal hearings, move the desk up and down at the push of a button, be wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair, have a user interface designed for easy use and ADA compliant and have a document scanner for use in hearings,” he stated.
Organizers could not offer a timetable for the kiosk’s installation.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to properly reflect the current executive director of Texas Legal Services Center. A quote was also updated for clarification.
