SimpleJustice Pro Bono Opportunities Overview

On SimpleJustice, there are several ways to connect volunteers to opportunities to get involved and for those seeking legal help to get connected to the right resources to solve their issue.

Individuals Seeking Legal Help

A help seeker user will be able to go through an online intake process designed to collect user information relevant to their legal issue and route them to the correct resources or agency for further review. 

Pro Bono Volunteers - Cases

Once approved to an organization and a community, a logged-in volunteer user looking to volunteer on a case may view available cases, express interest in volunteering on the case, and be assigned to a case. 

1. To view a case, a volunteer may navigate to Opportunities > Cases. From there, the volunteer will see a listing of cases with the communities for which they are affiliated. There are several options to filter the Case results based on their best match. 

2. The volunteer can then view details of the case and choose to select “I’m interested” if they would like to express interest in volunteering with a specific case. The user will also be asked to confirm that they want to view personally identifiable information on the case so they may conduct a conflict check.  Additionally, if they express interest in an opportunity that is associated with an agency for which they are not affiliated, a request will also be sent to connect the user to the agency. The agency will need to approve the connection for the volunteer to continue on to the next step. 

3. The user will then be taken to a 3-step process where they can review client information and confirm they do not have any conflicts of interest, view a case summary, and send a request to express interest in the volunteer opportunity. The user will get an email confirmation that their expression of interest was submitted to the agency. 

4. Once submitted, a user can view the cases they have expressed interest in and their status under Opportunities > Cases > Interested Cases. They can Withdraw interest in the case as well. 

5. Once a community agency administrator has reviewed the expression of interest, they can accept the expression of interest to the case, in which the user will be assigned to the case in LegalServer. The volunteer will receive an email notification and can then view their assignments under Dashboard > My Dashboard > My Cases, as well as view the updated status on the Interested Cases page. They will also be able to view count totals for open cases, cases worked, and outstanding case obligations.

The user may then also be able to login to LegalServer to work the case as a user. The default permissions for a user will be those of the Pro Bono Restricted Access role. For details, please visit this section on the LegalServer Help site. 

The user can also have their expression of interest rejected by the agency administrator, in which the user will receive an email about their rejection and be able to view this status on the Interested Cases page. A user will NOT be able to express interest in that case again once they have been rejected. 

6. During the lifecycle of a case, if a user enters time into LegalServer associated with their user name and the case, their cumulative time will appear on their personal Dashboard.

Pro Bono Volunteers - Clinics

Once approved to an organization and a community, a logged-in volunteer user looking to assist at a clinic may also view clinic details, express interest in volunteering at the clinic, and be assigned to a specific clinic event. 

1. To view a clinic, a volunteer may navigate to Opportunities > Clinics. From there, the volunteer will see a listing of clinic events associated with the communities for which they are affiliated. There are several options to filter the Clinic results based on their best match. 

2. The volunteer can then view details of the clinic and choose to select “I’m interested” if they would like to express interest in volunteering with a specific clinic. If they express interest in an opportunity that is associated with an agency for which they are not affiliated, a request will also be sent to connect the user to the agency. The agency will need to approve the connection for the volunteer to continue on to the next step. 

3. Once an administrator has reviewed the expression of interest and assigned the volunteer to a clinic, the volunteer will receive an email notification and can then view their assignments under their Dashboard > View my Clinics. They will also be able to view count totals for upcoming clinic events, elinic events attended, and outstanding clinic obligations.

Under Assigned Clinics and Events on this page, users can also see details about whether they have registered for a clinic (but have not yet signed up for a clinic event and so are not on the roster), are on the roster for a clinic, or have attended a clinic event.

4. The volunteer can then select the clinic for which they signed up in order to select Sign up for Clinic Events to login to LegalServer. 

They may also see details about upcoming clinic events and past clinic events.

From there, they can navigate to the Available Clinic Opportunities tab and select a Volunteer to  confirm themselves as a volunteer for an event, as well as opt-in for a reminder for the clinic. The volunteer can also withdraw from an event by selecting the “Withdraw” option under the clinic listing on their “Clinics I’m Registered For” tab.

Pro Bono Volunteers - Trainings 

Once approved to an organization and a community, a logged-in volunteer user looking to attend a training may view available trainings, express interest in attending the training, and receive information about the training, including CLE credit details. 

1. To view a training, a volunteer may navigate to Opportunities > Trainings. From there, the volunteer will see a listing of trainings with the communities for which they are affiliated. 

2. The volunteer can then view details of the training and choose to select “I’m interested” if they would like to express interest in attending a training. Additionally, if they express interest in an opportunity that is associated with an agency for which they are not affiliated, a request will also be sent to connect the user to the agency. The agency will need to approve the connection for the volunteer to continue on to the next step. 

3. The user will then be asked to enter in a few details and will receive an email confirmation that their expression of interest was submitted to the agency.

4. Once submitted, a user can view the trainings which they have expressed interest in and their status under Opportunities > Trainings > Interested Trainings. They can Withdraw interest in the training as well. 

5. Once an administrator has reviewed the expression of interest, they can accept the expression of interest in the training, in which the user will be affiliated with the training in LegalServer. The volunteer will receive an email notification and can then view their assignments under Dashboard > My Dashboard > My Trainings, as well as view the updated status on the Interested Trainings page. 

6. At this point, the volunteer will also be able to view details about CLE credits and case or clinic obligations that will need to be fulfilled in relation to that training. The volunteer’s Dashboard will be updated to reflect these details, along with any community or organization dashboards with which they have an affiliation.