Self-help law center opens Monday

Flathead County?s self-help law center will open Monday afternoon, and officials expect business to be brisk.

?We have had so much interest already. I have a feeling we?re going to be very busy,? Flathead County Clerk of Court Peg. L. Allison said.

The center, designed to help guide the pro se, or self-represented litigant through the complexities of the legal system, will be staffed full time by a licensed paralegal with the authority to define terms, explain the process, supply the correct forms and tell people where to file them.

The resource officer will not be able to dispense legal advice; that privilege is reserved only for attorneys.

?Our goal is to have clients use forms available online, complete them online, print them out and get them approved and ready for submission to the court,? Allison said, adding that the center will serve all county and city courts.

The center has a computer program that, through a series of questions, identifies and completes forms for divorce proceedings.

For other cases, the center?s resource officer, Bobbi Bonnington, will help self-represented litigants identify the correct forms and procedures from the state law library.

Bonnington said she expects most of her initial work to revolve around divorce and parenting-plan issues. But the center soon could see an influx of self-represented litigants involved in landlord-tenant disputes, probate cases and small-claims court.

?This is going to be kind of an evolving process as we find out what the need is,? said Bonnington, who has already been contacted by people seeking help.

She expects to be so busy that the first few days could be filled with scheduling appointments.

The center will not address criminal cases, Allison said, explaining that those are the responsibility of the public defenders office.

?It?s the civil cases where the need is right now,? she said.

The center, however, will have a list of attorneys and mediators offering free services to the center?s clients.

The decision to open the center was reached after officials noticed a prodigious rise in the number of Flathead County?s pro se litigants.

?When you have an explosion in population, it?s not surprising the caseload coming through the courts would rise proportionately,? Allison said last month. ?But we?re seeing an increase in pro se litigants on top of that.?

While no statistics specific to Flathead County exist, family-law cases provide an insight into the growing number of people deciding to represent themselves, she said.

In the late 1980s, it was an oddity to see a family-law case opened by a person representing themselves, she said. In the 1990s, pro se litigants became more prevalent. By 2000, 20 percent of the cases coming through family court had at least one party representing themselves.

Today, that figure has climbed to approximately 50 percent.

And family-law cases aren?t the only ones with an increase of pro se litigants. People involved in other civil cases are beginning to represent themselves as well, she said.

The center, which has been carved out of the Justice Center?s third-floor law library, will be funded by a line item Gov. Brian Schweitzer inserted into in the state Supreme Court?s fiscal 2007 budget.

The budget earmarked $500,000 for the state Commission on Self-Represented Litigants to use at its discretion through fiscal 2008, which ends June 30, 2009.

The commission, of which Allison is a member, decided to use the money to open, staff and supply two self-help centers ? one in Flathead County and one in Yellowstone County.

?And if the opening of the center in Yellowstone County is any indication, we?re going to be absolutely buried,? she said.

The state money also will be used to hire a full-time attorney based in Helena to draft new forms friendly to the pro se litigant, revise old forms and act in an advisory role to the two self-help centers.

The center?s objective is to decrease the court?s workload, hopefully allowing the system to run more smoothly, and improve people?s access to justice, some of whom can?t afford an attorney or whose case is too minor to attract an attorney?s interest, Bonnington said.

?What I would eventually like to see is this in every county across the state,? she said.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com