OTLA Trial Lawyer Winter 2021

11 Trial Lawyer • Winter 2021 makes sure they know they’re bypassing a process and we want to get them in as quickly as possible, so it is clear the change in their scheduling is a reward not a punishment. Either myself or the other trainer in my office meet with them on Zoom. If they do not show up in the first five minutes, we send a text message to see what’s going on. If they don’t show up after 10 minutes we cancel the consulta- tion. If they want to reschedule, the next consultation is paid. We use Filevine and Vinesign to allow the clients to sign up and set up their files. We store the contents of their files in Dropbox. Our email addresses are through Gmail. My assistant sends out a welcome email. It gives clients instructions going forward. Each of our clients goes through IMPACT training with the trainer in our office. That includes all of the tools I have seen help clients testify clearly, recover from trauma and advocate effectively in the future. We have two trainings housed in Thinkinfic. One gives people parameters and answers frequently asked questions related to legal claims, the other is IM- PACT training. We give people access to those, and through those courses, they provide the information we need to get started with their legal claims. We send out a welcome box with taste, smell and feel symbols for the chal- lenge the person is choosing to overcome. Many of our clients continue to wear the necklaces we send long after our work together to honor their own work in overcoming trauma. They begin IMPACT training and provide us with information we need for the legal claims. Once they certify in IMPACT train- ing, they transition into ongoing sup- port. Our team communicates on Voxer throughout because we find the voice system to be more connecting in a dis- tance office than writing. I meet with staff every week on Zoom to check in on their progress and support them. Applying this to you I had a 72-year-old client say re- cently she was excited about getting back into her psychology practice because she was so comfortable on Zoom and knew she was safe doing telehealth. I have had multiple clients who live hours away, make minimum wage, and provide pri- mary care for children. For them, driving to a law office for a consultation in a different city is usually prohibitively dif- ficult, but jumping on Zoom while the kids run in the background is possible. Online practices provide access to justice, and no one is too old, too poor or too anything else to access our ser- vices when we are willing to meet them where they are. Technology provides access to justice, not barriers. It is time to rethink our entire justice system and how our loyalty to systems that have not worked in the past does not serve us now. In-person services have done moderately well in serving white, cis, hetero, upper-middle- class, able-bodied, mentally normative men. We know they have excluded many of the rest of us. Many feel we are being forced to consider expanding online services, but my belief is that this is a gift. It is pos- sible to make online services better than in-person, not just because it costs less. It also allows services to be accessible to more people and to more groups who are typically excluded from access. Make your online practice better than in per- son. It’s definitely possible. Meredith Holley helps employees stop sexu- al harassment and toxic work environments without losing their jobs. She founded Eris Conflict Resolution, 207 E 5th Ave., Ste. 254, Eugene, OR 97401. She is an OTLA Guardians member at the Rising Star level. She can be reached at 458-221-2671 or [email protected].