ADVANCING CONSTANTLY (ASK-A-LAWYER

In The 21st Century)

I am reminded of the immortal lines in PATTON when George C. Scott said, “We are advancing constantly, and we’re not interested in (just) holding on to anything.” This sentiment fully embraces the OBA’s philosophy in assisting the public with a fundamentally new approach to the ASK-A-LAWYER (AAL) Program.

First, some history to put this in perspective. The luxury and privilege of participating in Tulsa’s AAL program for 34 consecutive years has given me the opportunity for observations otherwise not apparent or available to one-time volunteers. There was a time (30 years ago) when Tulsa would have 20 phone lines open for AAL; all of them would be busy constantly during the day. (I recall first being assigned to phone #17.)

The old OETA studio on North Sheridan was in some ways a time capsule for the mid-20th century. Analog phones with mechanical switches on the wall constantly ‘clacking’ as calls would come in reminded me of something out of the 1950’s. While we enjoyed the cooperation and help of the OETA for over 30 years, we could see that ‘times were indeed a-changing.’

As the person responsible for preparing the final report to the OBA yearly, I had the unfortunate opportunity to watch our call count drop from over 1000 calls per the 12-hour program to less than 1000 calls for the first time. (Around 15-18 years ago) In subsequent years, I watched the count drop to 900, 800, 700, etc., all the way to barely over 250 calls per program.

Something had to be done for this program to survive. New technology combined with a bold new vision came together in 2022. No longer would we be beholden to the OETA for location, phones, phone lines and advertising. The TCBA proposed a radical departure from the past. The TCBA Bar Center would ‘host’ the program here with our own VOIP protocol iPads, headphones and inline microphones.

The money saved by severing our relationship with the OETA allowed funding to not only buy the equipment needed, but also pursue an aggressive marketing campaign. In 2022, this new program launched with 8 ‘phones’ available here in Tulsa. We saw a basic 60% increase in calls as compared to 2021. While elated with this significant improvement in just one year, we were convinced that further progress could and would be made.

Fast forward to 2023. On May 1st, we had 10 lines open for the first time in well over 15 years. As the phones would ring sequentially, phone #1 would get the first calls, with phone #10 getting the last calls. I positioned myself on phone #10 so I could observe how busy the first 9 phones would be throughout the day. What happened instead was that my phone (#10) rang constantly throughout the day without so much a 1-2 second break between calls!

Every phone was literally busy all 12 hours nonstop without a break of a few seconds in between calls! I am convinced that 15 phone lines would have been just as busy had we had that many. There were calls we could not get to due to more demand than we had supply for!

Some of you may be asking, ‘what’s the point’ of all this information from me. The point is we can return the AAL program to the success we once enjoyed decades ago by answering 1000 calls or more again in a single day!

The 2023 final report for Tulsa’s AAL program showed an 84% increase in calls from 2022. (Remember that 2022 showed a 60% increase from 2021) This is why I repeat:

WE ARE ADVANCING CONSTANTLY AND WE’RE NOT INTERESTED IN HOLDING ON TO ANYTHING!

Dan Crawford, Chair