Conference Background and Agenda
"Unbundled" Legal Services Attorney Panels: Program Profiles and contacts
Increasingly, courts and assisted pro se programs are collaborating with the bar on the creation of panels of attorneys willing to provide discrete task services to pro se litigants.
Interested in adding a profile? Please contact us at acrawley@mdjustice.org.
- Mecklenburg County - The court- assisted pro se program has created a useful analysis of existing practice in North Carolina with multiple references to the practice of other states. The manuscript was written by Megan Anderson as part of recruitment efforts for an "unbundled" legal services panel.
- Maricopa County - Program operated by Superior Court of Arizona.
- Contra Costa - A Northern California Bar organization operates this program. This organization also offers a webpage for the public that explains what limited representation means, and provides answers to basic questions about "unbundled law."
- Northwest Women's Law Center - a private, non-profit organization serving Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho
- North Carolina - Mecklenburg County Self-Serve Center and Unbundled Attorney List operated by the 26th Judicial District
- Nevada - Clark County Family Law Self-help Center operated by the Eighth Judicial District in Clark County, Nevada
- California - Overview of California Programs from the Administrative
Office of the Courts
- California has an extensive court-based self-help program. Two of the programs, the Family Law Facilitator program and the Family Law Information Centers are provided for by statute. Those programs are described in pages 4 - 8 of the paper . There are links to the statutes, evaluations and articles on the programs. The rule of court setting out the ethical guidelines for those programs is found at: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/rules/appendix/appdiv5.pdf. The minimum standards for an attorney serving as family law facilitator is found at: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/rules/titlefive/title5-1-16.htm#TopOfPage.
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Based on the success of these programs, many courts have been establishing self-help centers, either on their own, or in collaboration with legal services and other human services programs. Descriptions of some of those programs. While operated by other attorneys, the programs provide legal information, not advice, and do not establish an attorney-client relationship.
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The disclosure form for the facilitator's office is found at: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/forms/documents/fl940.pdf.Most court based programs provide some similar form of disclosure. One program has litigants initial 5 separate lines clarifying the nature of the relationship. There is also generally some sort of signage that indicates that the attorney providing assistance is not the litigant's attorney and that a confidential relationship is not being formed.