What We Do And How You Can Work With Us

  • Each section below is a part of State Support’s mission. Click each one to learn what we do and how you can participate.

    Please let us know if there are other ways you think State Support can support your work and our clients. We look forward to working with you!

  • People have more success navigating the legal system and solving their problem after learning more about their legal issue.

    • Find legal resources for yourself and your clients at our website: LawHelpMN.org.

    • Order printed booklets to share with the people you serve.

    • Let us know if you have ideas for legal education materials!

    We manage the LawHelpMN.org website for the public. This includes publishing fact sheets and booklets, managing a library of other legal education materials, 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, money and debt, family, immigration, work, and taxes.

    We also publish booklets about family, housing, and debt 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.

  • Efficiently connecting clients with legal aid programs saves clients time and maximizes program resources.

    • Find legal clinics or other legal providers for your clients at LawHelpMN.org

    • Help a client find a Legal Kiosk in their area.

    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 “Providers & Clinics” 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 staff administer the Legal Kiosk Project which gives those without their own device access to LawHelpMN.org’s referral tools and other resources. Legal Kiosks also allow people without a computer to attend online court hearings and print court forms for free (at some locations).

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

    Legal Education‍ ‍

    ‍Providing advocates with continuing legal education and skills-based trainings enables them to better serve clients.

    • Find or post resources that might be helpful to you or your colleagues at ProJusticeMN.org

    • Participate in the listservs through ProJusticeMN.org by sending questions about cases (no client names), issues you see in your practice, or other areas of concern.

    • Send us ideas for trainings.

    • Volunteer your services as a trainer – it’s a great way to share your knowledge with other advocates and practice your presentation skills.

    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 happen online through Zoom. You can see upcoming trainings here.

    If you miss a live Zoom training, you can usually watch them later in our On Demand CLE portal.

    Our statewide conference is usually held in greater 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

    System-Wide Support

    Increasing coordination and preventing duplication across the system maximizes program resources.

    • Subscribe to our blog at MNlegalservices.org

    • Follow us on social media.

    • Send us recaps about your successful litigation and advocacy to share with your colleagues.

    • Provide job listings for us to publish and promote.

    • Share news with us about staff awards or news coverage for your program.

    Our activities in this area include housing statewide volunteer resources on ProJusticeMN.org, 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.

  • By accessing brief legal services online, more clients get legal assistance to help them solve their problem.

    • Refer clients to our do-it-yourself document assembly tools on LawHelpMN.org

    • Send us your ideas for new document assembly tools on LawHelpMN.org or help us review them for accuracy.

    • Refer clients to volunteer legal advice on MNLegalAdvice.org

    • Sign up as a volunteer and provide legal advice on MNLegalAdvice.org

    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/forms. 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.

  • For Advocates: www.projusticemn.org
    For Clients: www.lawhelpmn.org
    Online Legal Advice: www.mnlegaladvice.org
    State Support: www.mnlegalservices.org