Volunteer to help at county pro se law center

Staff at Flathead County's self-help law center will soon double, thanks to a program activating AmeriCorps volunteers to provide badly needed intake and referral services to low-income Montanans seeking legal aid.

Flathead County will receive one of six AmeriCorps volunteers assigned to self-help law centers across the state, according to the Montana Supreme Court's Office of the Court Administrator.

"Having a second, basically full-time person is just going to expand our ability to serve clients tremendously," said Kandy Satterlee, the resource officer at Flathead County's self-help law center.

The center - which opened in January 2008 to help guide the pro se, or self-represented litigant through the complexities of the legal system - serves about 40 people a week.

But every week Satterlee also receives approximately 80 phone calls and 60 or so people who show up seeking assistance, she said.

"Right now I'm booked out to Oct. 10 or 11," Satterlee said. "It's going to help tremendously to have a second person."

The AmeriCorps volunteer assigned to Flathead County is expected to begin work in early October following orientation in Helena later this month, said Flathead County District Court Administrator Bonnie Olson.

The volunteer will be paid a stipend while contributing 1,700 hours of service over the next 11 months, she added.

"We're hoping to sort of reach out to some of the northwest counties and let people know what's available," Olson said.

The program - created by the Montana Legal Services Association, the Montana Supreme Court's Self-Help Law Program, and the Montana Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection and Victim Services - will be funded by a grant run through the state.

Funds also have been provided to activate six AmeriCorps volunteers to support the Montana Legal Services Association's centralized intake system, help screen walk-in clients, enter data, assist front-line staff, and work on an Internet site that gives live help on legal issues.

The program also assigns a volunteer to the Montana Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection and Victim Services, where the AmeriCorps member will address consumers' legal concerns regarding identity theft, landlord-tenant issues, credit issues, and unlawful business practices.

The AmeriCorps volunteers will be able to provide direct services, outreach, and volunteer recruitment efforts.

While in the past students from Flathead Valley Community College and other organizations have volunteered at the county's self-help law center, participation in the new program is expected to greatly improve the number of low-income Montanans and pro se litigants served.

"This is a never-ending issue for us," said Flathead County Clerk of Court Peg. L. Allison. "We're constantly looking for volunteers, people who are interested in the courts, family issues, and doing volunteer work."

Court officials opened the center after noticing a prodigious rise in the number of Flathead County's pro se litigants, due in part to an increase in population and caseload.

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

In the late 1980s, it was an oddity to see a family law case opened by a person representing themselves. 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, she said.

The center most often sees people who need help with divorce, parenting plans, name changes, juvenile emancipation, step-parent adoptions, probate cases and landlord-tenant issues.

Resource officers at self-help law centers are authorized only to define terms, explain the process, supply the correct forms, and tell people where to file them. Dispensing legal advice is a privilege reserved only for attorneys.

The self-help law center - located on the third floor of the Justice Center - does not address criminal cases, the responsibility of the public defenders' office or bankruptcy.

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