In 2023, Legal Services State Support received a grant from the Mayo Clinic to
(1) develop materials for community organizations to help clients spot legal needs and
(2) find resources and present those materials statewide to address barriers in getting legal help for low-income Minnesotans.

After partnering with The Landing MN to develop and test our materials, we’ve made them available here:

Connecting Your Clients with Legal Aid in Minnesota

Legal Aid Resources in Minnesota Quick Reference

Trainings

Legal Services State Support is offering trainings to community organizations statewide on the basics of Legal Aid. Here’s what you'll learn:
1) What legal aid is, does, and doesn't do;
2) How to know whether a client has a legal issue;
3) Who to call for help; and
4) Where to find accessible legal resources.

Our training format can be flexible to fit your organization’s needs. Here’s what we can offer:
1) A live presentation to your organization, via Zoom or in-person (if possible);
2) A recorded presentation and materials; and/or
3) A train-the-trainer session so your organization can present to its own staff.

Let us know if you have any questions or concerns at lawhelpmn.outreach@gmail.com.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan while working full-time for a qualifying employer. Qualifying employers include not-for-profit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, which includes Minnesota’s free legal services providers. Serving as a full-time AmeriCorps volunteer also counts as qualifying employment for the PSLF Program. This information is shared here to raise awareness about a program that benefits many members of our legal services community. PSLF only applies to Federal student loans, it does not provide forgiveness for private loans.

On Oct. 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced a temporary period during which borrowers may receive credit for payments that previously did not qualify for PSLF. Learn more about this limited PSLF waiver at the Student Aid.gov website. The temporary waiver period expires October 31, 2022. The temporary waiver expands the past periods of repayment that previously didn’t count for PSLF. It also allows different types of federal loans, including FFEL, Perkins, or other federal student loans to count, if they are consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan to qualify for PSLF.

These resources provide additional information about PSLF and the temporary waiver:

1) The PSLF form, via the Studentaid.gov PSLF form tool
2) Federal Student Aid site to figure out what kind of loans you have (have to login with ID)
3) PSLF Coalition is hosting monthly webinars and has an FAQ about the temporary waiver

State Support hosted a webinar on January 11, 2022 about PSLF, LRAP and the waiver, you can view the recording here.

LRAP MN provides financial help for public interest lawyers, to learn more about their application process and eligibility, visit their website lrapmn.org.

For other problems or issues with student loans, including private lenders or complaints about student loan servicers, the Minnesota Department of Commerce has information about the Student Loan Borrower Bill of Rights.

People have more success navigating the legal system and solving their problem after learning more about their legal issue. We manage the www.LawHelpMN.org website for the public. This includes publishing fact sheets and booklets, managing a library of other legal education materials on LawHelpMN.org, and partnering with the State Law Library to offer LiveChat navigation assistance to LawHelpMN.org users.

State Support houses the Education for Justice program, which publishes hundreds of fact sheets in English, Spanish, Hmong, Somali, and many in other languages. We use clear language to convey legal information in many areas of civil law including housing, government benefits, youth and education, seniors, consumer, family, immigration, work, and taxes. We also publish booklets about family, housing, and consumer topics with more detailed information. These resources are all available online and in print, and are used throughout the state by legal aid offices, courthouses, law libraries, and public libraries. Each year we partner with subject matter experts to review and update this content.

Item By accessing brief legal services online, more clients get legal assistance to help them solve their problem. Our activities in this area include online document assembly tools and a statewide online legal advice website.

State Support offers document assembly interviews (including some in Spanish) guiding members of the public and attorneys through a series of questions to produce a legal document. These are available at LawHelpMN.org/formhelper. These interviews cover common issues regarding family law, health care, abuse and harassment, debt, housing, and government benefits. Each year, members of the public and attorneys assemble thousands of legal documents using these tools.

Minnesota Legal Advice Online, available at MNLegalAdvice.org, allows members of the public to submit a legal question online to be answered by a volunteer attorney. The online format removes geographic barriers, so members of the public across the state have access to legal advice from attorneys in the Twin Cities metro or other parts of the state. Hundreds of people receive legal advice through the website each year.

Efficiently connecting clients with legal aid programs saves clients time and maximizes program resources. Our activities in this area include online intake, the LawHelpMN.org legal provider directory, a case placement tool on our advocate site, ProJusticeMN.org, and the LiveChat navigation assistance mentioned above.

State Support’s online intake system currently includes all Coalition programs and a few additional programs. In the online intake system, the user enters his county and legal issue and answers question about eligibility, income, assets, and opposing party. When the user completes the interview, the system sends an electronic file with the intake information to the corresponding program.

LawHelpMN.org also offers a “Find Legal Help” directory of all legal service providers in Minnesota. This directory is sortable by county, provider type, and legal issue. The user can view the directory in an A-Z listing by organization, or can search by county and subtopic to see a listing of organizations that may be able to help with their legal issue in their county. State Support maintains several clinic calendars on LawHelpMN.org that aggregate relevant clinics for different topics across the state.

State Support strengthens the advocate community in two ways: through skills-based & legal education, and through system-wide support.

I. Skills-Based & Legal Education

Providing advocates with continuing legal education and skills-based trainings enables them to better serve clients. Our activities in this area include 15-25 poverty law continuing legal education (CLE) trainings per year and a biennial statewide conference, coordinating listservs and practice groups, and managing a library of practice resources on our advocate website, ProJusticeMN.org.

Most of our trainings are available by webinar. Some of these are in-person with a webinar broadcast, and our in-person trainings are often followed by a practice group meetup. You can see our upcoming trainings at mnlegalservices.org/register-for-a-training. We also offer on-demand trainings, available at mnlegalservices.org/on-demand. Our statewide conference is usually held in Alexandria, Minnesota, and is open to all legal services programs. State conference is a great way to connect with your colleagues across the state and get CLE credits in various areas of poverty law.

There are over 2,000 members of ProJusticeMN.org, including legal aid staff, pro bono attorneys, law students, and other advocates. The ProJusticeMN.org library has training materials, practice guides, trial manuals, sample pleadings, interview guides and settlement checklists, and other resources to help advocates representing low-income clients.

We run 11 active e-mail listservs through ProJusticeMN.org to foster knowledge- and information-sharing among statewide colleagues in similar practice areas:

Consumer
Criminal Expungement
Elder Law
Family
Foreclosure Defense
Health Care Legal Partnership
Housing
Minnesota Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)
Social Security
Volunteer Coordinators
Welfare

II. System-Wide Support

Increasing coordination and preventing duplication across the system maximizes program resources. Our activities in this area include housing statewide volunteer resources on ProJusticeMN.org, coordinating bimonthly meetings of the legal aid provider network, publishing a blog and monthly e-newsletter with legal aid news, maintaining a staff directory of all legal aid providers across the state, and posting available legal aid positions. This website highlights our work in this area and serves as an umbrella site for the Minnesota Legal Services Coalition.