Back in the early days of the COVID pandemic, the courthouses closed. Court hearings were suddenly being held over Zoom, a service plenty of people still didn’t know how to use, if they even had a computer. “They didn’t know how to unmute themselves, or how to scan evidence in,” said Karen Miller, executive director of the Austin-based Texas Legal Services Center.
When many suddenly couldn’t attend their hearings, the Texas Legal Services Center thought of a self-serve computer kiosk, giving people a computer and camera to use with access to the center’s legal support. Almost three years ago, the nonprofit opened the first kiosk at the Little Walnut Creek public library, then a second one at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, and now operates 45 kiosks across the state, funded by the Texas Access to Justice Foundation. On Dec. 10, the center opened a third Austin kiosk at the Travis County Courthouse.
Post-pandemic, people still have technological barriers to being able to actively participate in their case. Money will always be a major obstacle for people in the justice system, with low-income individuals not receiving any or enough legal aid for 92% of their civil legal problems, according to a 2022 federal report. And in the state’s current political climate that intimidates many from seeking any sort of legal help due to their residency status in the U.S., the access gap to legal aid widens.
“To be able to have access to information and access to a lawyer, that’s priceless. That’s the difference between being housed and not housed.”
Betty Balli Torres, executive director of the Texas Access to Justice Foundation
Austinites facing evictions, seeking a restraining order, a divorce, custody of their children, a legal name change, or any other civil legal issue often must represent themselves without knowing how to defend themselves or assert their rights, Betty Balli Torres, executive director of the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, said.
“To be able to have access to information and access to a lawyer, that’s priceless. That’s the difference between being housed and not housed,” Torres said. “Most people don’t know how to advocate for themselves. They’ve never been to court.”
Austinites can use the legal kiosks to research and prepare for their case, virtually attend hearings, scan and print court documents, and speak with an attorney for free. Attorneys are on standby to talk about specific cases Monday through Thursday, 10am to 2pm.
The kiosks don’t require any proof of residency to use. Their services are limited to civil issues for which people typically don’t have representation, not criminal cases. Depending on the legal issue and their income, some individuals can qualify for free representation for their case through the Texas Legal Services Center, Torres said.
The Texas kiosks come alongside Trump administration cuts to several federally funded legal aid programs established to provide free representation for disadvantaged communities over the last year. Rural Texas legal aid offices have been particularly affected, Torres said, exacerbating the “legal deserts” that exist in counties with no in-person offices providing legal assistance.
“We had one legal aid attorney for every 7,000 Texans who qualify for legal services, and that was even before some of these grants dried up,” Miller emphasized. “So it’s really critical to have tools like [the kiosks] that can help make … legal aid offices a little more efficient. They can multiply their effect by meeting people in the communities where they already are.”
This article appears in December 26 • 2025.