Page 260 - 2019 Orientation Manual

boards of public interest legal organizations, and pre-conferences focused on areas of interest, such
as Children in Need of Care (CINC) training, are provided.

Louisiana Civil Legal Aid Awards

In 2015, the LSBA introduced two new awards at the Louisiana Justice Community Conference
recognizing excellence and ingenuity in the civil justice community. The Legal Service Excellence
in Advocacy Award recognizes an individual advocate who has displayed the highest levels of
dedication, passion and professionalism in representing vulnerable clients. The Legal Service
Innovation Award recognizes an individual attorney or organization that has developed an
innovative program or service that effectively meets the legal needs of vulnerable populations in
Louisiana.

Statewide Task Forces

The Projects and Training Counsel works with five statewide substantive law task forces to provide
a practice area-specific forum for discussion among civil legal aid attorneys and volunteers. The
groups also develop CLEs that address poverty law training needs of the legal services providers
and the pro bono organizations, in the areas of housing, consumer, elder, family, and public
benefits law. Additionally, the ATJ staff has supported the work of the community by developing
trainings in areas for which organizations receive grant funding, such as Child in Need of Care.

Statewide Uniform Case Management System

In an effort to provide better exchange of information, reduce duplicative development of reports
and increase uniformity of client information for state and national reporting, the LSBA developed
a single, uniform case management system. The statewide case management system, Prime, allows
all participating provider organizations to use the same system for seamless transmission of data.
This technology assists our nonprofit partners with the ability to maximize their work with minimal
resources.

The support of Louisiana Bar Foundation and the Louisiana Bar Association has allowed the non-
profit civil legal aid providers to participate in a statewide case management system (SCMS) at no
cost. In addition to the two Legal Service Corporation funded programs, Lafayette Volunteer
Lawyers, Southwest Louisiana Bar Foundation, Baton Rouge Bar Association Pro Bono Project,
and The Pro Bono Project of New Orleans, Central Louisiana Pro Bono Project and the Shreveport
Bar Association Pro Bono Project now use the statewide system. Representatives from these
organizations compose the Statewide Case Management (SCMS) Steering Group which
collectively determines the course taken with this work.

With the approval and agreement of statewide case management partners, the Louisiana Bar
Foundation provided funding for the purchase of the newly revised case management application.
Included in the decision was a move to a hosted data center in coordination with the application’s
developer. The programs received new features and committed funding by the Bar Foundation for
a three-year period. In addition, an important component is the ability to receive annual upgrades
to their system without the necessity of a full conversion. The conversions began on March 20
and concluded on April 18. All eight partners are now using the new case management system.

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