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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Virtual System Provides "Justice You Can See" in NV

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Monday, March 31, 2008   

Las Vegas, NV – Important legal deadlines can be missed if it takes you a month to sit down with your lawyer. But a new system will allow rural Nevadans to participate in face-to-face meetings with attorneys who are miles away.

Jim Vilt, directing attorney for Nevada Legal Services' Las Vegas office, says until now, low-income residents of southern Nevada towns tended to wait for their lawyers to come to Pahrump for monthly outreach sessions. However, thanks to a new video Internet connection, he says they can now see a lawyer almost any day of the week, using a system called "Virtual Attorney."

"Our goal is to wire rural Nevada so that they have comparable services, getting people the right to see an attorney. There are a lot of folks out there who could benefit from this."

The first-of-its-kind system is now open at the family center in Pahrump to serve people from Esmeralda, Lincoln and Nye Counties. If it works well, more Virtual Attorney sites could be added throughout rural Nevada.

In addition to a television camera and monitor, the system also utilizes a fax machine and computer programs, including PowerPoint. It's a combination of tools that, as Vilt explains, allows attorney and client to go through legal problems and paperwork, point by point.

"What distinguishes it from a telephone is that they're able to show documents to the attorney, which is very important in the work we do, so we can actually follow along with them and understand it. It also allows us to do a split-screen effect and, on the computer, walk a person through how they complete a form that's in their hand."

Vilt says typical legal cases in rural Nevada range from property issues to family court, to disputes over social services.



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