FAQs for Program Coordinators

We are using a combination of 3 products to manage the Legal Kiosks. Deep Freeze is used to keep the Legal Kiosks in “Kiosk Mode” which limits the function of the PC. We also use Deep Freeze to control an overnight maintenance window where updates are pushed to each Legal Kiosk. Monitoring and management is handled by our remote monitoring and management tool N-Central. We use Sophos Intercept X to manage endpoint security and any requested usage restrictions. We also have the following security measures:

• Program security ensured by disabling USB drives, disk drives, network-based storage, and unauthorized user actions
• A secure environment created by allowing limited IP addresses, URLs, and intended software functionality
• A centralized, cloud-based management console
• Splashtop: a remote connection software that facilitates remote work with legal services staff

The applications available on a Legal Kiosk depend on the project. Our most common Legal Kiosk applications include the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), Adobe Acrobat Reader, and Zoom. Other video conferencing applications are more challenging to maintain from a security standpoint. These other platforms, such as Teams and Webex are still usable through their web interface and there is virtually no difference from the perspective of the user.

We are committed to providing fair and equal access for anyone that wants to use a Legal Kiosk. All Legal Kiosks are mounted to either a desk or a cart that is height adjustable. Learn how to adjust the height of a cart. Learn how to adjust the height of a desk. Some Legal Kiosks have a printer and scanner. These printers and scanners can be configured to magnify text, read the content aloud, and select options using gestures. Learn how to set up and use the printer and scanner accessibility software. If you are deaf or hard of hearing you can turn on closed captions and a live transcription. Learn more from Zoom. We are in the process of rolling out Jaws Screen Reader and ZoomText to enlarge sections of the screen for those that are visually impaired. These softwares works in conjunction with a speech synthesizer by speaking what is on the computer screen aloud.

We are pleased to provide a software solution for managing Legal Kiosk reservations online. This allows members of the public as well as service providers to book a Legal Kiosk in advance. This can be helpful if a user has a meeting or court hearing and they want to make sure they have a place to attend. Our solution is optional and allows host sites to manage their regular hours, holiday closures, and public reservations easily with an account. Host sites that choose not to manage reservations online can accept reservations by phone or choose to accept walk-ins only. Please refer to our support article to learn more about managing Legal Kiosk reservations online.

In most of our Legal Kiosk projects, the host site will supply the paper and the project budget will supply toner and toner refills. Printing is always free for users.

The Legal Kiosk interface is intentionally designed to function with the specified hardware and software. There are many security, usability, and functionality settings configured that would not function properly with other computers. For example, one important feature of the Legal Kiosk is that it will wipe itself clean of any saved files and search history between users. This keeps important personal and legal information secure and private. Using existing printers creates similar challenges as Legal Kiosks are locked down and secure to prevent foreign software and viruses from corrupting the machine. For this reason, printers that are not provided by the program will not function and cannot be supported. 

The Legal Kiosk monitor is a Dell OptiPlex 5480 All-In-One that allows for users to engage with the Legal Kiosk using a keyboard and mouse or as a touchscreen.

Legal Kiosks can be connected to stable Wifi or hard wired. Internet must not have a captive portal.  A captive portal is a pop up that comes up right after you connect to a WiFi network that either asks you to login or agree to the end-user agreement for the WiFi. Captive portals will prevent regular connection and updates in the same way. Legal Kiosks CANNOT be connected to a captive portal. Hot spots can also be implemented for locations where stable Wifi and broadband are challenging.

All Legal Kiosks are monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our network operation center manages and pushes operating software and security patches with our remote monitoring and management tools. All Legal Kiosks go into maintenance mode each night between 10PM and 6AM at which time patches and updates are applied. Faronics Deep Freeze is used for delivering the Legal Kiosk experience and locking devices down for kiosk-specific use. Ending a Legal Kiosk session reboots the device and clears out any user data that may have been entered by the end user. Endpoint security is leveraging up to date next generation endpoint detection and response tools which are monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All alerts are reviewed and acted upon by our network operation center team. All of our systems for Legal Kiosk support, Deep Freeze, remote monitoring and management tools and our security platform are protected by multi-factor authentication with only the staff involved in the Legal Kiosk project having access. All access is logged.

Legal Kiosks are computers mounted to a desk. The size of the desk will depend on what you want to make available and the availability of the host sites. Review the furniture options here. The Legal Kiosk monitor itself is 13.54" in height x 21.25" in width x 2.07" in depth.