Open Source Template & Drupal

The Open Source Template (OST) community of statewide legal aid websites includes twenty-three legal aid sites throughout the United States.The OST is open source software that is configured for use by legal aid organizations.

Since 2000 the organizations that have used the OST have maintained web presences aimed at improving and expanding service delivery to low-income clients.

An earlier version of the Open Source Template was based on the Zope framework. In 2008, work began on an upgraded Open Source Template based on the open source software, Drupal. To differentiate this version, the software is called "Drupal for Legal Aid Websites" or DLAW.

The Open Source Template based on Drupal (OST/Drupal) is potentially useful by a wide variety of legal aid organizations in the United States, and internationally.

You can read more about DLAW features, download the latest version, or find out about optional hosting and maintenance options.

DLAW is built on the solid foundation of Drupal, the popular open source content management framework. It includes selected and vetted contributed modules developed by the world-wide Drupal community. Pure & unmodified Drupal core and contributed modules ensure an upgrade path and compatibility with the rest of the Drupal world. If you are a Drupal expert, you can also add selected components of DLAW to an existing Drupal distribution. We have developed additional open source DLAW modules, features and pre-built themes specifically for legal aid websites. The DLAW includes an "install profile" that pre-configures new DLAW installations with settings appropriate for legal aid websites.