Legal Center Will Help Do-It-Yourself Litigants

Who needs lawyers?

Lots of people don’t want one, or can’t afford one, and they flood the courts, showing up representing themselves in matters from divorce to landlord-tenant disputes, adding to the inefficiency of an already overburdened court system.

This week, Los Angeles County will open a self-help center at the Van Nuys courthouse at which would-be litigants without lawyers can get information, guidance and lots of hand-holding--almost everything but outright legal advice--for free.

Pushed by the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the legal aid community and private lawyers, the walk-in center will be the first of its kind in Los Angeles to offer a wide range of help in areas such as family law, housing law, small claims and even name changes. It is part of a trend across the state to help give “pro per litigants,” or those representing themselves, better access to the courts.

“We’ll be able to help people help themselves . . . for all kinds of things you have to go to court on the civil side,” said Neil Dudovitz, executive director of San Fernando Neighborhood Legal Services, the nonprofit group that will administer the new center opening Wednesday.

If the Van Nuys center is successful, more full-service self-help centers may be established elsewhere in Los Angeles, said Janice Kamenir-Reznik, who heads the county’s pro per task force. “We hope it will be a model for the county.”

In the last few years, the state Legislature established a Family Law Facilitator program that has been providing lawyers, for all counties, to help pro per litigants with child support, spousal support and insurance problems. With funding from the Judicial Council, which is the policymaking arm of the California Supreme Court, family law information centers have opened in downtown Los Angeles, Norwalk, and Sutter and Fresno counties. Full-service self-help facilities, like the one in Van Nuys, have opened in Ventura County.

There is a self-help legal access center at Monroe High School in North Hills, but that facility is open for only a few hours a day, three days a week. That center, also administered by Neighborhood Legal Services, does not provide any help with family law, an area--which includes legal separation, divorce and child custody--that experts say has more pro per litigants than any other area of law.

According to a 1996 Judicial Council report, more than half of all family law cases have at least one litigant without a lawyer, and their numbers are believed to be on the rise. Another big area for pro per litigation is unlawful detainers, or evictions.

“There’s a desperate need to help citizens who need legal assistance but don’t have the financial means for lawyers,” said B. Terence Harwick, a facilitator for the Van Nuys Justice Community task force. Though the Van Nuys center will be open to everyone, organizers expect low-income people to be the primary users.

For litigants without lawyers, the legal system can seem Byzantine, made more perplexing by all the paperwork and strange-sounding legal terms. Sometimes, simply using the right forms can be a challenge.

Glenda Molina, supervisor of the Van Nuys court’s office clerks, estimated that 80% of the pro per litigants she sees fumble their paperwork.

“Let’s say it’s a paternity [issue]. They’ll use divorce forms,” Molina said. Even when correct forms are used, she said, “they’re incomplete. They’re illegible.”

She has seen cases in which people who file for divorce fail to understand that they need to follow up with more paperwork to make it final. Some people have been surprised years later to find they are still married.

“They think they have a divorce, but they don’t,” Molina said.

‘The Clerks Get Very Frustrated’

People without lawyers also bog down courts, peppering staff members with endless questions and returning repeatedly because they don’t do things right the first time.

“The clerks get very frustrated,” said Michael J. Farrell, supervising judge of Van Nuys Superior Court. “Things take so much more time when we’re dealing with pro pers who don’t know what they’re doing.”

But after they receive information and support, pro per litigants “feel better prepared and they’re better able to process their cases,” which increases court efficiency, said Aviva Bobb, family law supervising judge for Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The Van Nuys center, at the corner of Sylvan Street and Sylmar Avenue, near the courthouse, is funded by a $300,000 county grant, said Caron Caines, the project coordinator and an attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services. The center’s two full-time, on-site attorneys and administrative assistant will be supported by volunteers from the legal community and student interns. Those working to bring about the project credit Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky for securing the funding.

Organizers emphasize that the center’s attorneys won’t be dispensing legal advice, but that they will answer questions and offer guidance--even reviewing completed forms to make sure they’re filled out correctly. The staff will refer litigants with complicated legal problems to legal aid or to private attorneys.

“Our goal is that, as a result of all this, when the judge makes a decision, it’s a decision based on real facts and the law--not because of a form someone has filled out incorrectly,” Dudovitz said. “As a result of that, the community will have greater confidence in the justice system.”