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Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center |
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Pamela R. Kelley
As part of a community partnership
with Alaska Legal Services, Justice Center paralegal students
are working and learning in the Anchorage Legal Services office
while assisting with client intake, interviews and case assessments.
The service learning project is part of a course redesign that
will permit students to apply theoretical knowledge in work with
clients who may be unfamiliar with or intimidated by the legal
process. The project is being funded initially by a grant from
the UAA Center for Community Engagement and Learning.
Alaska Legal Services (ALS) assists
low-income individuals facing civil law problems. As a result
of significant funding cuts from state and federal sources, the
agency has been forced to reduce its staff and limit the number
of hours devoted to initial client intakes to approximately fifteen
hours each week. As a direct result of the limited hours available
for initial client screening, ALS sees fewer clients. Since the
ALS client base is populated by individuals who cannot afford
legal services from the private sector at all, individuals who
cannot see ALS in a timely fashion are effectively denied meaningful
access to the civil justice system.
PARL 235, a required course for
students enrolled in the Paralegal Studies Program, develops
student proficiencies in conducting the kinds of information
collection legal assistants perform in the law office environment.
Students receive traditional classroom instruction regarding
the foundations for interviewing, with an emphasis on the ethical
and professional responsibilities of paralegals acting as agents
for supervising attorneys. While staffing client intake and working
on housing cases at ALS, students conduct interviews with the
objectives identified through classroom instruction.
During the Spring 2001 semester,
PARL 235 students have been required to spend fifteen hours at
the Anchorage Legal Services office conducting client intakes
and subsequent interviews. Students work directly with ALS staff
on intake screening, interviews and case assessments. They also
work on housing cases under the supervision of ALS attorneys.
The student work during the project term will allow ALS effectively
to double the amount of time it can devote to intake services.
Through the use of student journals
and class discussion, students have also been participating in
structured reflection activities. For the most part, paralegal
students do not pursue poverty law as a career objective; therefore,
exposure to the obstacles facing poor people with legal problems
expands their views on how the legal system works as a problem-solving
enterprise. The client population served by ALS differs from
that encountered in the usual private law office environment.
For these individuals, there exist serious institutional impediments
to obtaining civil justice through the courts. This service learning
project permits students to apply theoretical knowledge in interviewing
to specific legal problems faced by ALS clients, some of whom
have difficulty in expressing the nature of their problems due
to language barriers. The students also gain knowledge of practical
restrictions facing the working poor who have legal problems
that cannot be resolved through ALS because they are simply not
“poor enough” to qualify for ALS representation.
The grant from the Center for Community
Engagement and Learning is supported by the Corporation for National
Service.
Pamela R. Kelley is the coordinator of the Paralegal Certificate Program.