About I-CAN!™ Legal

I-CAN! is a kiosk and web-based legal services system designed to provide convenient and effective access to vital legal services for lower income people. I-CAN! modules create properly formatted pleadings; provide court tours; and educate users on the law and the steps needed to pursue their matter.

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I-CAN! modules were designed for individuals with little knowledge of computers. A "video guide" takes the users through a series of tutorial-type questions. Answers are chosen by touching a computer screen and are then "mapped" to the appropriate judicial forms.
I-CAN! minimizes the information a user must type by providing multiple choices when possible. Videos for court tours and safety tips (e.g., for Domestic Violence) are a part of many modules. Users can get instant assistance from a Help Center by touching an icon on the screen.

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For a complete list of forms that I-CAN! is able to fill out, click here.

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I-CAN! modules operate on touch-screen kiosks and workstations at locations easily accessible to low income persons such as courthouses, legal aid offices, community centers, women's shelters and libraries. Click here for the locations.

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No. I-CAN! is free. However, court filing and service fees will be charged by the court or Sheriff unless the court grants a fee waiver. Also, some locations charge for printing.

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Yes. Many modules have been translated into Spanish and some into Vietnamese. It is a requirement that the judicial forms be submitted in English. So when a person puts non-English information into I-CAN!, that information is left blank on the form but is printed on a separate page so it can be translated and written onto the form later.

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I-CAN! was developed by the Legal Aid Society of Orange County and was jointly sponsored by local, state and public agencies and private organizations including:

• Legal Services Corporation
• Judicial Council of California
• State Bar of CA - Legal Services Trust Fund Commission
• Superior Court, County of Orange
• Orange County District Attorney - Family Support Division
• Orange County Public Library System
• Disneyland
• City of Irvine
• City of Fullerton

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Absolutely. LASOC and its funders are committed to making I-CAN! freely available to the courts, LSC and IOLTA-funded organizations, and their service partners - as long as they do not charge for its use. Also I-CAN! can be customized for use outside the Orange County area.

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Cost varies based upon factors such as the number of legal forms, the complexity of the questions, the number of data elements to be collected and the cost of IT development resources. If you would like to fund a module, a language-specific version of a module, or a video, please contact AJ Tavares.

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I-CAN! uses Microsoft web and database technologies. Specifically I-CAN! uses CSS to create the basic page layouts, running on ASPX pages. Microsoft's ASP and .NET technologies along with Visual Basic, C#, and JavaScript code to dynamically create screens and validate information entered. IIS 6.0 is the web-server, and SQL Server database software to store user information and to map the data collected to the forms. Active PDF Toolkit is used to map the data to documents, and Adobe Acrobat to add form fields to blank versions of the PDF documents. Net Meeting enables the Help Center capability, and Media Player is used to stream the "video guide" and court tour videos. I-CAN! servers run Microsoft Server 2003 operating system and relies on Unicode to display I-CAN!'s Spanish, Vietnamese, Portuguese, and Somali language modules.

A PC with Internet Explorer 5.5, Netscape, Firefox, and most Mozilla 4.0 browsers or greater can run I-CAN! and Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP operating system versions are supported, Adobe Reader 4.0 or greater is required for the forms printing, Reader 5.0 is recommended. Apple Mac support is available for the newest modules.

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Bob Cohen
Executive Director
Legal Aid Society of Orange County
2101 North Tustin Ave
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(714) 571-5232

E-Mail Contact

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