Back in the early days of the COVID pandemic, the courthouses closed. Court hearings were suddenly being held over Zoom, a service plenty of people still didn’t know how to use, if they even had a computer. “They didn’t know how to unmute themselves, or how to scan evidence in,” said Karen Miller, executive director of the Austin-based Texas Legal Services Center.
When many suddenly couldn’t attend their hearings, the Texas Legal Services Center thought of a self-serve computer kiosk, giving people a computer and camera to use with access to the center’s legal support. Almost three years ago, the nonprofit opened the first kiosk at the Little Walnut Creek public library, then a second one at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, and now operates 45 kiosks across the state, funded by the Texas Access to Justice Foundation. On Dec. 10, the center opened a third Austin kiosk at the Travis County Courthouse.
Post-pandemic, people still have technological barriers to being able to actively participate in their case. Money will always be a major obstacle for people in the justice system, with low-income individuals not receiving any or enough legal aid for 92% of their civil legal problems, according to a 2022 federal report. And in the state’s current political climate that intimidates many from seeking any sort of legal help due to their residency status in the U.S., the access gap to legal aid widens…