2nd Self-Help Legal Access Center Opens

After more than 20 years of representing the poor, Carmen Ramirez has given up her job as a legal aid lawyer to help lead a county project aimed at teaching people to navigate a court system that can be intimidating and difficult to understand.

Now all she needs is a desk. And a sign promoting the new self-help legal center she directs in Oxnard’s La Colonia district. And maybe a coffee maker.

While the center was still being set up Tuesday when it opened for business, Ramirez said it’s only a matter of time before it starts helping people--especially Spanish-speakers in the predominantly Latino community--find their way through a legal system often viewed as a cold and complex bureaucratic maze.

“Many people have this feeling that the courts are mysterious; they don’t know where to go or who to ask for help,” said Ramirez, who for the past 16 years headed Channel Counties Legal Services, an Oxnard-based poverty law firm.

“We’re trying to make the courts accessible to the community by giving people information so they can negotiate the system themselves,” she said. “We’re just trying to get people to buy in to the system and that’s a very healthy thing.”

The new center, modeled after one established earlier this year at the Ventura courthouse, is part of a larger campaign by the Ventura County courts to make its facilities more user-friendly, especially to the growing number of people who represent themselves in legal matters.

The centers do not dispense legal advice. Rather, they serve as legal clearinghouses, providing information and guidance on everything from how to deal with traffic tickets to how to obtain guardianships.

More serious cases are referred to a variety of sources, including free legal clinics and social service agencies. Criminal matters, such as felonies or consumer fraud, are referred to the appropriate offices of the district attorney or public defender.

Since the Ventura center was launched in January, more than 5,500 people have sought assistance. The program has been so successful that last week it earned a prestigious statewide award from the Judicial Council of California for improving courts’ administration.

Ultimately, court officials hope to establish satellite centers in communities across the county.

“In an ideal situation, everybody who needs a lawyer would have a lawyer,” said attorney Tina Rasnow, coordinator of the Ventura Self-Help Legal Access Center. “But that’s not always possible and this is the next best thing. We do not take the place of a lawyer here, we help people learn how to help themselves.”

Ventura County court officials believe the self-help centers are unique in the state. In addition to offering legal guidance, they also provide community education programs on the court system and work with local schools to expand early intervention programs.

The effort is not inexpensive. It will cost nearly $300,000 to start and operate the Ventura center in the first year. But county officials believe they will get a good return on that investment through better preparation of people for the court process, and more importantly giving them a voice in the justice system.

“Really, what we’re trying to do is make our courts more accessible, more understandable and more relevant to the people who use them,” said Sheila Gonzalez, top administrator of the Ventura County court system. “We feel it’s a positive step to demystify the system and help people see that the courts are a place where business gets resolved, not a place to be feared.”

Court officials say the self-help centers are actually part of a larger mission to improve public access to the court system that has been in the planning stages for several years.

Bringing Rasnow and Ramirez on board, however, delivered a giant boost to that campaign, said Judge Charles Campbell, presiding judge of the county’s court system.

And now, longtime social activist Alice McGrath has joined the effort, working with the courts to round up volunteers for the centers and other outreach programs.

“You don’t get those kinds of people to come in if you’re just doing some fly-by-night stunt,” said Campbell, who along with Gonzalez came up with the idea for the self-help center. “This is important.”

It’s definitely important to Carmen Ramirez. While it was tough leaving Channel Counties after being there for so long, she said she felt it was time to try something new. Tucked into a tiny office in a city-owned building in the poverty-choked Colonia neighborhood, Ramirez said she intends to extend court services and programs to the same type of clients she helped as a legal aid attorney--those with little money or access to the justice system.

There is still much work to be done. Many of the court materials are only available in English, but court translators will help create much of those documents in Spanish. The same goes for instructional videos that guide people through the court process.

Ultimately, Ramirez wants to work with court officials to extend the self-help effort to other areas of the county.

“I’m excited about doing this and I definitely want to do this for a while,” she said. “I like helping people, that’s why I became a legal aid attorney. And we’re definitely going to help people here.”

FYI

The Self-Help Legal Access Centers in Ventura and Oxnard are open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Ventura center is on the first floor of the county courthouse, 800 S. Victoria Ave., and can be reached by calling 654-3962. The Oxnard center is at 1500 Colonia Road, Suite 20, and can be reached at 483-4842.