Regional Self-Help Center

Superior Court of California, County of Butte - 030179

Abstract Number: 030179

October 2003

The Superior Court of California, County of Butte, collaborated with Glenn and Tehama Counties to launch a regional self help center model to provide legal information and court documents to self-represented litigants in all three counties. Butte County's self help center sought to maximize the use of limited resources by providing services through videoconferencing to customers in Butte, Glenn, and Tehama Counties, three semi-rural counties in Northern California. The Superior Court of California funded this self help center pilot project to assess how counties that separately cannot afford to pay the salary of an attorney at a legal self help center can pool resources with neighboring counties and use videoconferencing equipment to offer high quality services to pro se litigants throughout the region. Butte County's self help center offers assistance in small claims, unlawful detainer (eviction), guardianships, name changes, civil harassment, family law, adoptions, civil complaints and answers, with many other topics to be developed as the program progresses. All three self help centers provide internet access to customers where they can access California's online Self Help Center (in English) at: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/ and (in Spanish) at: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/espanol/.

All three centers hold regular office hours to serve walk-in customers in addition to offering workshops on popular legal topics. The workshops are offered four days a week and coordinated between the Butte, Glenn and Tehama County offices where customers in all three locations are given the opportunity to interactively participate in the workshop sessions broadcast using videoconferencing equipment. Butte County's office is in the process of standardizing the presentations to ensure a more uniform delivery for a specific subject area. Guest presenters offer sessions on special topics which self help center staff record for future use by customers. In addition to using videoconferencing for interactive workshops, this project also uses the videoconferencing equipment to share translator expertise between locations as well as to facilitate meetings between staff at remote locations. This enables the managing attorney, located in Butte County, to provide support and supervision to staff in Glenn and Tehama Counties.

Butte County's center is staffed by a managing attorney and a paralegal assistant as well as volunteers and interns. The Glenn and Tehama centers are staffed by paralegals as well as volunteers and interns. The Center is working toward qualifying the program to give volunteer attorneys continuing legal education (CLE) credit for their volunteer work with the self-help centers.

Contact Information:

Suzanne Clark Morlock
Managing Attorney
Butte County Self Help Center
1 County Center
Oroville, CA 95965
Phone: (530) 532-7188
Email

Additional Information:

• Judicial Council of California, "Model Self-Help Centers Pilot Program."

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