Page 215 - 2021bogOrientationManual

meets the legal needs of vulnerable populations in Louisiana. To learn more about the
awards and recipients, visit this link.

Statewide Task Forces

The ATJ staff works with five statewide substantive law task forces to provide practice
area-specific forums for discussion among civil legal aid and volunteer attorneys. The Task
Forces include: Elder Law, Family Law, Housing and Consumer Law, Public Benefits Law, and
Child in Need of Care. Members of these groups also develop CLE programming to address
topic-specific poverty law training needs of the legal services and pro bono organizations.

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 and administered it from 2003 to 2020.
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 the Louisiana Bar Foundation and the Louisiana Bar Association has allowed the
non-profit civil legal aid providers to participate in the 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.

Within the last three years, the system was moved to a hosted data center in coordination with
the application’s developer. The program participants received new features and, with committed
funding by the Bar Foundation for a three-year period, will receive annual upgrades to their
system without the necessity of a full conversion. These system changes significantly reduced
the necessity of ATJ staff involvement in oversight and management of the system. ATJ staff
worked with program participants to ensure a smooth transition to their full administration and
oversight. The participants now contract with a third party provider to assist with the system’s
more limited management.