Page 253 - 2024 Orientation Manual

Access to Justice Committee

The ATJ Committee brings together civil legal aid providers to collaborate and address issues
impacting their efforts to provide access to legal services to low-income Louisianans. Detailed
below are the subcommittees, through which many issue-specific projects are completed:

Disaster Planning Subcommittee, Chair Ann Gregorie

The Louisiana State Bar Association (LSBA), in conjunction with the American Bar Association
Young Lawyers Division (ABA/YLD) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),
coordinates the statewide disaster plan for legal assistance when disaster strikes in Louisiana. As
part of this plan, the LSBA maintains a webpage, www.lsba.org/dr, as a portal for disaster
information that is activated once the disaster plan has been enacted. The subcommittee also works
with Louisiana Appleseed to maintain a Disaster Training Manual, a guide for attorneys who
volunteer to aid disaster victims. Additionally, the LSBA houses and maintains the toll-free
disaster hotline (1-800-310-7029) stipulated in the statewide disaster plan.

As provided in the disaster plan, the subcommittee meets regularly, activates the LSBA Disaster
Response website when needed, hosts disaster-related legal trainings, implements and recruits
volunteers for the ABA/YLD hotline, and monitors the needs in Louisiana to determine statewide
disaster response strategy. The disaster plan and hotline protocols were updated both in response
to COVID-19 and the 2020 hurricanes, as well as after Hurricane Ida. With this new iteration,
hotline calls were forwarded to Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, allowing those who qualify
for legal services to be quickly and efficiently ushered through Southeast Louisiana Legal
Services’ intake process. Those who do not qualify for legal services are then put into a database
for LSBA Young Lawyer Division volunteers to return their call and provide brief legal advice
and information. When there is no ongoing disaster, the disaster hotline 1-800 number directs
callers to the appropriate civil legal aid based on the caller’s zip code.

In 2022, the first Disaster Law Collaboration Summit was held in Baton Rouge. The Summit
brought together Louisiana’s disaster response and recovery organizations with the state’s civil
legal aid providers to share their expertise and learn about the critical role civil legal aid plays
before, during, and after disasters. Hosted by the Louisiana State Bar Association's Access to
Justice Program (LSBA) and Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS), the Summit took place
over two days. The first day’s programming focused on the critical role civil legal aid plays and
how disaster response organizations can collaborate with legal aid providers to enhance recovery
and resiliency efforts. The second day of the Summit offered seven hours of legal training for
Louisiana attorneys and legal aid organization staff who provide disaster response legal assistance.
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The second summit is being planned and will take place on June 20-21 in Lafayette.

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