shlep: the Self-Help Law ExPress

“The courts have also vastly expanded their services for people representing themselves in court matters. The Las Vegas self-help center, he said, has an average of 10,400 visitors each month, including 6,200 walk-ins. And about 281,000 legal forms are downloaded from the self-help center’s Web site each month as well, he said. Clark County Legal Services is swamped, he said, serving about 1,000 clients a month. And Justice Nancy Becker is creating a pro-se (self-representation) training manual for court staff so they can better help people.

“‘Needless to say the pro se situation creates additional demands on the court system and we’re trying to meet it because it’s not going to go away,” Rose said. “If people have contact with the court, a lot of them are going to be pro se and how we deal with them and how we can help them means a lot’.”

 

 Click for the Clark County Family Court Self-Help Center website.  It’s great to see particpation by both the Clark County Bar Association and students from UNLV Boyd School of Law.  Boyd law students, as part of a 60-hour community service requirement, provide self-help classes for the Center on topics such as family law, bankruptcy, guardianship, small claims issues, custody/paternity.  The Self-Help Center teaches a class on preparing for a hearing.  The Center also has a list of attorneys willing to take family court cases on an unbundled basis [I wish the list were identified as such on the Center’s list of services, and not simply as attorneys willing to take family law cases.]  As it should be, “There is no income or asset qualification for access to the services of the Family Law Self-Help Center.”  The Nevada Supreme Court Council for Pro Se Assistance has compiled a list of pro se resources across the state.