CONFIG_STANDARDS.txt

STATE PLANNING CONFIGURATION STANDARDS Final Task Force Report
- Board Approved
November 2001
LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION


STATE PLANNING CONFIGURATION STANDARDS
Final Task Force Report - Board Approved

I. PREFACE
This document-- Legal Services Corporation State Planning
Configuration Standards -- presents in one place a comprehensive
compilation of the standards LSC recipients and Designated State
Planning Bodies (DSPB's)1 should consider and that the Legal
Services Corporation will use in considering the configuration of a
state's legal services delivery system.2
Determination of the most appropriate configuration of programs
in a given state is a part of the broader state planning process
and cannot be divorced from consideration of the overall goals of
the state delivery system, the state's past performance, current
status, and progress towards and plans for achieving those goals.
The Legal Services Corporation expects its grantees in each state
and territory to work with one another and with a broad spectrum of
other equal justice stakeholders3 to develop comprehensive,
integrated statewide civil legal services delivery systems which
are responsive to the most compelling needs of eligible clients and
client communities, ensure the highest and most strategic use of
all available resources, maximize the opportunity for clients
throughout the state to receive timely, effective and appropriate
legal services in the present and in the future, and operate
efficiently and effectively.4
1 A "Designated State Planning Body" is an entity that has been
established and charged with responsibility for coordinating state
legal services delivery planning. Such planning entities are
generally composed of an array of civil equal justice delivery
stakeholders, including but not limited to representatives from the
state bar association, state IOLTA funding entity, staffed legal
services programs (LSC and non-LSC), the pro bono community, client
organizations, clients and others with an interest and commitment
to effective delivery of civil legal services to poor and
vulnerable people in the state.
2 For LSC's policies regarding internal review of configuration
recommendations, see Legal Services Corporation Reconfiguration
Review Process, September 21, 2001.
3 State planning processes, including the participants, will
vary from state to state, and LSC does not require the same process
or participation in each state. However, LSC continues to encourage
broad civil equal justice stakeholder participation at the state
level and expects its grantees to do the same.
4 For a fuller articulation of these goals, see LSC Program
Letters 98-1, 98-6, and 2000-7, and Strategic Directions 2000-2005,
adopted by the LSC Board of Directors on January 28, 2000.
While LSC will continue to utilize a variety of approaches, LSC
views service area configuration as a key structural component of a
comprehensive set of strategies employed to promote the creation
and sustainability of comprehensive, integrated state civil equal
justice communities. LSC has and will continue to require its
grantees and encourage DSPB's to critically examine the degree to
which the configuration of LSC grantees in any given state promotes
these ends.
The determination of the configuration that will best serve
clients throughout a particular state ultimately involves a
balancing of factors and the application of judgment to a host of
considerations. Each state is different, and in a number of states,
intra-state regions differ significantly as well. Some standards
relevant to decisions affecting configuration can, in context,
suggest different conclusions, depending upon the state or
geographic region involved. Each state's configuration must be
viewed on the totality of the circumstances.
LSC values the judgments of designated state planning bodies
that have addressed the question and will normally give great
weight to those judgments that have been developed through an
inclusive, thoughtful, and client-centered process. LSC will only
adopt a different configuration based upon good and substantial
reasons clearly articulated in writing and tied to the specific
standards enumerated herein.
These standards shall guide the state planning process on
reconfiguration and shall serve as the criteria for decisions of
LSC. Under these guidelines, LSC will exercise its statutory
responsibility to insure that grants and contracts are made so as
to provide the most economical and effective delivery of legal
assistance to persons in both urban and rural areas.5


II. LSC's Statutory Responsibility
LSC operates under a statutory mandate to make funding decisions
that maximize the effective and economical delivery of high quality
legal services to eligible clients throughout the state within a
comprehensive, integrated delivery system. This duty can be
effectively carried out through a process that recognizes the
importance of creating enduring capacities at the state level to
support legal services delivery systems.
In some states, it may be possible to develop and implement
statewide initiatives to improve service delivery, increase
resources and enhance the
5 Legal Services Corporation Act, Section 1007(a)(3).
capacity of the system to meet the civil legal needs of
low-income people throughout the state without altering service
areas or historical relationships. In other states, the very
development and implementation of such initiatives may require
reconfiguration of organizational relationships and service
areas.


III. Configuration Standards
In making a determination as to whether the configuration of
LSC-funded providers set out in the state plan will maximize the
effective and economical delivery of high quality legal services to
eligible clients throughout the state within a comprehensive,
integrated delivery system, both in the present and in the future,
LSC will review the strategies outlined in the state plan against
the following standards:

1. The Configuration of LSC-Funded Program Will Maximize Access
for Clients Throughout the State


a.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state facilitate the development and sustainability of a
delivery network that, within financial resources and subject to
appropriate priority decisions under 45 C.F.R. 1620, provides
low-income persons throughout the state, to the extent reasonably
possible, broad, prompt, and relatively equitable access to the
legal services it furnishes regardless of such obstacles as
physical or mental disability, age, geographical isolation, race,
gender, sexual orientation, culture, or language?


b.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state take into account the socio-cultural and economic
affinities in place that are most relevant to the legal issues
facing low-income clients and client communities?


c.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state take into account the geographic, physical, and
historical distinctions and affinities within the state or
territory of most relevance to clients and their
communities?




2. The Configuration of LSC-Funded Programs Will Maximize
Effective Legal Services to Clients Throughout the State.
a. Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs within
the state, within financial resources and subject to appropriate
priority decisions under 45 C.F.R. 1620, promote relative equity in
the availability of the full range of client service capacities
necessary to meet the full continuum of client legal needs
regardless of where in the state clients live?


b.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state enhance opportunities to attract attorneys and
paralegals who can provide expertise, skills, cultural relevancy
and cultural competencies necessary to address the most pressing
legal needs of clients?


c.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
promote the likelihood that all providers will have relatively
equal access to the resources, expertise, information and
experience necessary to provide high quality legal services
consistent with state and national standards of provider
performance?


d.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
facilitate the efficient statewide coordination of legal work and
provide an efficient means of establishing and maintaining a
statewide capacity to provide training, monitor developments,
disseminate relevant information and provide expert assistance
necessary for the delivery of high quality assistance?


e.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state facilitate the ability of legal services providers
to coordinate their efforts to expand client access to the courts,
enhance self-help opportunities for low-income persons, and provide
effective, culturally relevant, systematic and comprehensive
outreach and preventive legal education and advice to the
client-eligible population in the state?


f.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state take into account the location and configuration
of governmental, judicial, human services and other relevant
regional delivery planning areas in the state?


g.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state facilitate the ability of legal services providers
and other civil equal justice partners to coordinate their research
and their efforts to stay abreast of developments in the delivery
of legal services?


h.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state facilitate efforts to secure new funding for, and
where appropriate allocate current funding to new projects and
experimental models for serving clients or strengthening system
capacities?


i.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state facilitate uniform and consistent approaches to
accountability to clients, client communities and
funders?




3. The Delivery System Will Be Designed and Configured to Make
the Highest and Best Use of Available Resources.


a.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state facilitate the coordination of resource
development efforts to maintain existing resources and to generate
and leverage additional resources, including such efforts as
unified approaches to major potential public sources, liaison with
and maintenance of existing statewide resources, and coordinated
technical assistance for local fundraising?


b.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state provide, to the extent reasonably possible,
relative equity in the investment of civil equal justice resources
(federal, state, private, and in-kind/pro bono) throughout the
state?


c.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state facilitate the coordination of efforts and a
capacity to utilize new and emerging technology to promote
efficiency, coordinate and collaborate with other entities, improve
quality and expand services to clients regardless of where they
reside or other access barriers they experience?


d.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state maximize the potential for effective and efficient
administration and minimize the potential for duplication of
capacities, services, systems and/or administration?


e.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state facilitate strong coordination and collaboration
with, and a high degree of involvement in services to low-income
clients by, the private bar throughout the state? Will it maintain
and enhance state and local bar relations? Will it promote, where
appropriate, the sharing of urban-based private capacity with the
needs of rural and isolated clients?


4. The Delivery System Will Be Designed and Configured to
Respond Effectively and Efficiently to New and Emerging Client
Needs and Other Changes Affecting the Delivery of Legal Services to
the Poor.


a.
Area of Inquiry-- Does the configuration of programs
within the state enhance the likelihood of achieving the intended
goals and objectives of a comprehensive, integrated and
client-centered legal services delivery system including, but not
limited to service effectiveness/quality; full range of legal
services to address most pressing legal needs of eligible clients;
efficiency; equity and ease in terms of client access; greater
involvement by members of the private bar in the legal lives of
clients; and client-community empowerment?


b.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state facilitate efficient, ongoing assessment of
demographic trends, changes in laws and public programs affecting
low-income persons?


c.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state operate to ensure that there is a regular review
of system capacities and resources throughout the state and
adjustments in their deployment to respond to new and emerging
client needs, legal trends and other changes affecting the delivery
of legal services to the poor?


d.
Area of Inquiry--Does the configuration of programs
within the state operate to ensure within available resources that
all components of the delivery system have sufficient resources and
support to adjust to changes in client needs, staff or
funding?


e.
Area of Inquiry-- Does the configuration of providers
within the state promote the system's ability and capacity to
develop, nurture, promote, recruit and retain strong and effective
staff and leaders who are diverse and culturally
competent?