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Would your community benefit from a legal self-help center? If so, read on to learn how you can cooperate with others in your local legal community to apply to open a Michigan Legal Help affiliated self-help center this year! This will let you bring the resources of the Michigan Legal Help website to even more people by giving them access to computers and staff who can help them navigate the website and answer questions about legal processes.

Michigan Legal Help Self-Help Centers: Request for Proposals. Bar associations, courts, libraries, existing self-help centers and other government or nonprofit entities are invited to apply to open a new local self-help center site that uses the Michigan Legal Help website as a primary resource.  Existing self-help center sites may also apply in order to expand and become an official affiliate of the Michigan Legal Help Program. The deadline for submitting a proposal is June 28th, 2013.

These legal self-help center sites will receive staff training and support, and are eligible for some start-up funding, if needed. All sites will be affiliated with the Michigan Legal Help website, which is an up to date, trustworthy, innovative, statewide, user-friendly website.  Currently, the website contains basic content in the areas of family, housing, protection from abuse, consumer, public benefits, income tax and expungement law. It also provides links to help persons locate a lawyer if they wish to retain one, and to local self-help centers and community resources. Planned expansion of the site includes additional areas of content, the implementation of LiveHelp, a chat-based resource, and the addition of Spanish language content.  Even with relative quiet marketing, the website is receiving broad use since it launched in August, 2012, with over 140,000 visitors and 600,000 page views to date.

In 2012, four local self-help centers directly affiliated with the Michigan Legal Help Program were opened; all are doing brisk business. Several other pre-existing self-help centers also use website materials. However, there are many locales where no formal self-help center yet exists and many of our state’s residents are not yet able to access the help they need when faced with a legal problem and many courts are struggling to handle large numbers of unrepresented litigants on a daily basis. Should you choose to submit a proposal, you will not only represent an important local resource, but your experience will contribute significantly to the development of self-represented litigant resources in Michigan as a whole.   Illinois, for example, has been able to open a local self-help center in each one of its counties.

Please consider whether you would like to collaborate with others in your community and apply to develop a self-help site for your county or region.  I look forward to hearing from you and am available for any questions or concerns you might have as you move forward. 

The attached Request for Proposals contains many details, but feel free to contact me with any questions. I can be reached by phone at 734-998-6100 ext. 152 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Angela Tripp

Co-Managing Attorney, Michigan Poverty Law Program
Project Manager, Michigan Legal Help Program
220 E. Huron Street, Suite 600A
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Justice Marilyn Kelly (Michigan Supreme Court, Ret.) spoke about the Michigan Legal Help program to a national audience during the recent mid-year meeting of the American Bar Association in Dallas.  She explained how the program assists self-represented persons in Michigan and why judicial leadership in creating and maintaining such programs is important.

In 2010, then Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly established the Solutions on Self-Help (SOS) Task Force to promote coordinated, quality help for persons who have to represent themselves in simple civil legal matters.  In doing so, she said the effort was needed to help close “the justice gap” for the increased number of self-represented litigants who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.

In her speech, Justice Kelly said she hoped her participation in the Task Force helped demonstrate judicial commitment for the effort.  She encouraged the audience of legal aid funders to get judges visibly involved in their programs to assist the self-represented.  She also noted that many judges and other individuals from the court system participated with legal aid, legal self-help centers, lawyers, librarians and others in the SOS Task Force.  She said that collaboration built broad support for the project, allowed resources to be centralized rather than duplicated and laid the groundwork for future expansion.

Justice Kelly detailed the work of the Task Force, which ended in December of 2012, and explained that its work continues through the Michigan Legal Help Program, particularly its innovative website and affiliated self-help centers supported by the Michigan Poverty Law Program.  She said that the Task Force’s efforts in related areas, such as training materials for courts and libraries, policy improvements and working toward more understandable and consistent forms throughout the state were also important.  Justice Kelly quoted recent statistics, including about 250,000 page views in the first few months of website operation, and positive feedback from users and commended the many people in Michigan and around the nation working to improve resources for the self-represented. 

Do you have a legal claim that is less than $5,000? If so, you may be able to handle this matter on your own in Small Claims Court. In small claims court, the parties cannot be represented by attorneys, and you aren't allowed to have a jury trial.  Your case may be decided by a Judge or by a Magistrate.  This toolkit has articles and instructions for handling your small claims case from start to finish. It also has an online interview that you can use to complete the court forms you need to start your case.

If someone has filed a small claims case against you, this toolkit can also help you with articles about small claims court and defending a case in small claims court.  Learn more at http://www.michiganlegalhelp.org/self-help-tools/consumer/i-have-small-claims-case.

Residents of Detroit and Wayne County who are unable to afford an attorney now have a new place to go for assistance – the Michigan Legal Help Self-Help Center of Wayne County.  Located in downtown Detroit at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, Room 1911, the Self-Help Center is staffed by navigators who can help visitors use the new Michigan Legal Help website (www.MichiganLegalHelp.org) to gain information about how to handle simple civil legal matters.  The Self-Help Center is open Tuesdays and Fridays from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm.

The Michigan Legal Help Self-Help Center of Wayne County was selected to be part of a pilot project overseen by the Solutions on Self-Help Task Force.  The project includes the Michigan Legal Help website and several affiliated local pilot self-help centers (including Centers in Oakland, Allegan and Oscoda counties).  The Task Force was established in 2010 by (then) Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly to improve and coordinate resources for self-represented persons in Michigan.       

“We were pleased to be selected as a Michigan Legal Help Self-Help Center site,” said Hon. Maria Oxholm, Presiding Judge for the 3^rd Circuit Court’s Family Domestic Division.  “Wayne County courts have some of the highest caseloads in the state, including some very economically-depressed areas of the state. This means that our judges see a staggering number of self-represented persons each year, typically individuals who simply cannot afford to hire an attorney.  A staffed self-help center will help these persons as well as the courts to more efficiently resolve their legal problems”

“The Third Circuit Court and collaborating partners applied to be a Michigan Legal Help Self-Help Center site because we are committed to serving those in need and empowering self-represented persons to handle their legal issues properly in our courts,” added Hon. Megan Maher Brennan, Judge for the 3^rd Circuit Court’s Family Division.   “We believe that this Self-Help Center will make a positive difference in the lives of people who cannot hire an attorney to represent them.”

The Michigan Legal Help Self-Help Center of Wayne County is an Internet-based self-help center that makes use of the free legal information available at www.MichiganLegalHelp.org.  In addition to the website, self-help center staff (called ‘navigators’) will be available to help visitors find what they need on the website, answer questions about court practices and processes, and answer simple questions about forms that are available on the website.  Navigators cannot give legal advice.

The Michigan Legal Help website was created to make legal information easier to understand and to show people who need to handle simple legal matters themselves how to navigate the court system properly and efficiently. The website contains articles explaining specific areas of law, toolkits, forms and instructional checklists.  Many court forms can be filled out online using a simple question and answer interview format.  The website can also help users look for a lawyer in their area if they need more assistance.  The website also includes information about local community services and details about the court(s) where a website visitor’s legal issue may be handled.

Currently, there are specific sections regarding family law matters, protection from abuse, housing issues, consumer law problems, and expungement. Family law matters include divorce, custody, and child support.  Consumer legal issues covered are suits regarding debts, small claims, installment payment plans and garnishment.  The housing section deals with leases, security deposits, landlord/tenant issues, mobile homes, eviction and subsidized housing.  Expungement provides information about setting aside an adult criminal conviction or a juvenile adjudication.  Although it does not cover all areas of law, new content will be added frequently.

“We are excited to be working with so many community partners in Wayne County,” said Project Director Angela Tripp. Tripp is the project director for the Michigan Poverty Law Program, which was selected by the Task Force to create and manage the pilot website and self-help center project.  Tripp said, “These stakeholders include judges and staff from the Wayne County Courts, Friend of the Court, Administration, and Clerk’s office, and representatives from the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, Man Power Mentoring, Inc., the Detroit Public Library, the Wayne County Family Law Bar Association, the Arab American Bar Association, Legal Aid and Defenders Association, the William Booth Legal Aid Clinic, and the Eastern District of Michigan’s Probation Office. This community-based approach to operating a self-help center is based on the model which Illinois Legal Aid Online has used successfully for more than a decade.”

The Michigan Legal Help web site and affiliated local self-help centers are part of the overall work of the Solutions on Self-Help Task Force to promote coordinated and quality assistance for persons representing themselves in civil legal matters in Michigan. The Task Force is a statewide collaboration of judges, courts, lawyers, bar associations, nonprofit legal aid agencies, legal self-help centers, libraries and many others. For more information about the Solutions on Self Help Task Force and it other projects go to www.sostf.org.

Michigan Legal Help is funded by the Michigan State Bar Foundation and The Legal Services Corporation.