Legal Support Team Office
It is important to have a wellorganised and co-ordinated office to run complex legal support.
These ideas and suggestions are based on the S11 Legal Support Team at the World Economic Forum Protests in Melbourne 2000 and also from many large global justice actions in the USA.
The same ideas and principles apply to small actions and events.
Your Activist Legal Support Office may well be in a tent or vehicle if the action is taking place outdoors or in an isolated area.
Research
- Information on courts, jails, police stations including phone numbers, addresses, hours/days open, and person to speak to or ask for when calling and if they're friendly or helpful. Also get directions for both public transportation and driving
- Action contact information: convergence centre, medical team, communications team, etc.
- Medical contact information: phone numbers and addresses of local hospitals and free clinics
- Information on what streets will be closed, what detours are available, etc.
Office layout
It's a good idea to think about how you would like the office set up before you do it. Some things to think about:
- Where to put wall charts so that all volunteers answering phones can see them
- How to arrange multiple desks with multiple phone lines that enable all people answering phones to talk without bothering and hear without being bothered
- Finding a quieter space for the computer that's not too removed from the rest of the office
Wall charts
The legal office can use wall charts as part of the information sharing system. The update charts should be on the wall and accessible, so the info coordinator can update them. If your office doesn't have much wall space, you can make small charts for the contact info and tape them to each desk. Here are the charts you'll need to have before the action starts.
- Street and jail update charts
- Government contact numbers phone, fax, addresses, email and websites, if available of jails, courts, judges, mayor, police, police commissioner, prominent state and city officials, influential private citizens
- Legal contacts Liberty the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties, community legal centres, any other civil liberty organisations
- Legal team contact numbers (note which numbers should not be given out)
- Action contact numbers convergence, safety team, communications team, medical team etc.
- Medical contact information local hospitals, free clinics, street medic centre
- Fundraising information - where people can send money for the legal team
- Where is everyone? Have a chart of courts and jails and post it with the names of lawyers and legal team members that can be moved to show where they are.
Call logs
- Make sure you have lots of notebooks on hand at least two for each volunteer and legal team member.
- On the inside cover, write a sample entry to remind volunteers of the information that is absolutely necessary.
- On the back cover, write a key for highlighted categories.
- Find a safe place to keep the notebooks.
Maps
- It's helpful to have a very large map on the wall with location of blockades, one way streets, detours, locations of jails and courts, etc. marked clearly.
- Have lots of regular street maps (preferably marked as well) to send with legal teams and runners who need to navigate the city.
Contact lists
There are some contact lists that shouldn't be posted on the wall, but to which members of the legal team should have easy access. The information might be in a database, but it's helpful to have it printed out, too, particularly since whoever needs them will often have to call down the list. These lists include:
- Volunteer contact information
- Lawyer contact information
- Legal observer contact information.
Office supplies
- Pens, highlighters, markers
- Butcher paper or 3' X 5' pads
Documents
All documents should be copied electronically on disk, on the hard drive, and on a zip disk if possible. Hard copies should be produced and copied according to the particular need for each document.
- Arrestee Tracking Sheets (numbers depend on how many people are arrested; most should be sent with the legal team member going to do outtake at the jail but some should remain at the legal office for people who we might miss).
- Arrest Watch forms: to hand out to Legal Observers or to activists wanting to arrest watch for other activists.
- Police Complaint Reports (have hundreds at the legal office, at the convergence, at the jail when people are being released) These can be picked at at your local station or you can use Statuary Declaration forms.
- Printed reports from databases (each desk should have at least one copy of arrestee database, which will have to be printed each time it is updated; each desk should have at least one copy of the legal support person database.
- Copies of any media releases (one or two copies of this will be adequate, one for the flak and other legal team members working on media).
Databases
Secure and well-maintained databases can be crucial for keeping track of mass arrests, injuries or police complaints. Database for arrestees:
- Legal support person with contact info
- Date and time of first and subsequent contacts with legal team
- Asked to see legal team/lawyer? How many times? When?
Lawyer database:
- Contact numbers for attorneys
- Each attorney's availability/schedule
Legal observer database:
Legal support person database:
- Legal support person name
Photocopies
Volunteer responsibilities
- Sign a non disclosure agreement
- No sleeping at the office (except if you're working a graveyard phone shift)
- If you're in the office, you are working
- Know security protocol and follow it
- Let people know what you'd like to do, what you don't mind doing, what you need from them
- Let people know if you're tired, discouraged, stressed, or burnt-out
- Let people know when you need information or help accomplishing a task.
Legal team responsibilities to volunteers
- Maintain a healthy office environment
- Make sure volunteers aren't stuck doing work they hate
- Keep volunteers informed about office procedure and what's happening in the streets
- Check in to see how volunteers are feeling and how office procedure can be improved
- Do an exit interview when volunteers leave to see how they felt about their experience and what they would change about office procedures.
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