NCJ Number
84356
Editor(s)
R Warner
Date Published
1980
Length
364 pages
Annotation
This self-help volume contains over 30 articles designed to help citizens understand the legal process and handle their everyday legal problems without the assistance of a lawyer.
Abstract
The history and philosophical basis of the law are explained, with emphasis on the variety of ways that the regulation of human conduct has been handled in different eras and cultures. The use of mediation to reduce dependence on lawyers and courts to achieve justice is discussed, as is the use of computers to promote genuine popular participation in the legal system. Practical advice is given on how to conduct legal research, file for a divorce, organize a small business, and deal with landlords. Other guidelines cover estate planning, the use of small claims court, protection from illegal searches and seizures, and the handling of automobile accident claims. Further sections deal with laws related to writers, agreements for persons who are unmarried but are living together, changing a name, and to the use of solar energy. Specific self-help law programs are described, including a self-help divorce office, training drug addicts and others in social survival skills, incorporating a nonprofit organization, and protecting the parental rights of divorced fathers. Legal information programs, which are community groups and organizations that provide free legal information and materials in specific areas of the law, are described in the areas of tenants' rights, battered women, the rights of artists, and others. Addresses of resource organizations and an annotated bibliography presenting reviews of about 200 self-help law publications are provided.