"Help Available Online for Those Who Can't Afford a Lawyer"

An Article by columnist Philip Carrizosa

September 1, 2004

It wasn't that long ago that a person coming to a courthouse for help with a legal problem would get turned away empty-handed.

Workers in the clerk's office would refuse to help fill out forms or give much of any help, saying they were not permitted to give legal advice of any kind.

At times, it was difficult to tell whether the clerks were really following the rules or simply couldn't be bothered with someone who had the temerity to show up without a lawyer.         

So it was heartening last week to see the launch of www.LawHelpCA.org, a new Web site dedicated to helping the millions of Californians who cannot afford an attorney and who need help getting through the court system.         

The site, which most judges and lawyers can easily reach through a link on the state court's Web site, www.courtinfo.ca.gov, is quite remarkable for the scope and depth of legal information it provides the user.

On the home page, information on 12 topics is provided, ranging from landlord-tenant to immigration to seniors to estate planning to disability issues. And, perhaps most importantly, the site has a wealth of information about family law issues such as divorce, support, custody, visitation, paternity, foster care and guardianships.

As Chief Justice Ronald M. George pointed out at a press conference Friday in San Francisco, in some counties neither side has counsel in more than two-thirds of the family law filings. That usually means trouble in delay and dissatisfaction on the part of the litigants as well as the courts, which have been ill prepared to deal with pro per litigants.

Even better, the site prompts users to enter their county or ZIP code to get information that has been localized to your neighborhood. For example, entering the ZIP code for East Palo Alto provides a woman seeking a divorce with a guide to seeking a contested or uncontested divorce as well as a list of family law facilitators for her particular county and a way of finding attorneys to handle such cases. Some sites even provide instructions and forms users can complete online, ready for filing.

The Web site was created by the Public Interest Clearinghouse, California Indian Legal Services and other agencies, and it was tested with legal groups across the state during the past 10 months.

The LawHelpCA.org site is separate from the California Courts' Web site, but the two complement each other nicely. One of the best things about the California Courts' Self Help Center is that it provides a Spanish mirror site. Parts of the site are also available in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese, and eventually full translations and more languages will be provided.

There are also videos available in many counties that show viewers exactly how proceedings are handled in domestic violence, divorce and child custody cases.

To be sure, most poor people can't afford to have computers in their homes, much less speedy Internet access. But most public libraries provide computers with Internet access, and LawHelpCA.org says it is collaborating with One Economy, a company working on bringing high-speed Internet connections to low-income housing.

The Council of California County Law Librarians has also provided a link to its Web site, which permits computer users to ask questions and get answers, in real time, from law librarians around the state.

According to organizers, the new Web site should help lawyers, too. For example, a public defender who discovers hor her client also has eviction, support and custody problems can refer the client to the Web site for help in those areas.

At Friday's press conference, it was encouraging to see so many judicial and bar leaders present. George ducked out of a Judicial Council meeting next door to give his remarks, and State Bar President Anthony P. Capozzi and incoming president John Van de Kamp journeyed from Fresno and Los Angeles.

As George noted, the idea is to provide "meaningful access, not just access" to the courts and legal services. And, in the end, both the litigants and the courts should benefit.

It's a far - and welcome - cry from the old days of "I'm sorry, I can't help you."

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