2026 Equal Justice Conference

Drafting a petition is a vital first step for survivors seeking protection orders. Yet, the petition process is often confusing and time-consuming—particularly for pro se survivors navigating this process without the guidance of an attorney or advocate. E-filing offers a meaningful solution to many of these challenges. This session will highlight lessons learned by courts involved in a national technical assistance initiative, best practices for trauma-informed e-filing design, advocacy engagement strategies, and real-world success stories.

California LSC Project Directors for discussion of LSC grantee forum

This session showcases an innovative intake portal developed in collaboration with Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC) and A2J Tech. Attendees will learn how to build AI-enabled portals while also gaining strategies for collaborating with tech partners and ensuring meaningful user adoption through iterative development, testing, and outreach.

The session will highlight key lessons learned from this project, emphasizing the vital role of requirement gathering, rigorous user testing, and collaborative partnerships in achieving impactful outcomes.

This session will provide information on how building and sustaining partnerships between legal aid organizations and local, state, and national community organizations can help improve legal services for low-income LGBTQ+ clients. Attendees will learn about successful ongoing and past partnerships as well as learn some principles and tips for building new partnerships and deepening existing partnerships with community organizations.

As the federal government has slashed investment in subsidized housing, preserving existing housing and their subsidies is more important than ever. Using a case study of representing public housing residents in Savannah, Georgia, who are facing the demolition of their homes, the session will teach advocates how to identify housing subsidies at risk and leverage tenant power to advocate for preserving subsidized housing in their community. The session will also discuss potential legislation and regulations which impact preservation work.