Steve Marcus
Deputy Court Administrator LaDianna Gamble stands at the self-help center that is scheduled to open next week at the Regional Justice Center.
Monday, November 30, 2009 | 2:00 AM
The opening of a civil law self-help centre at the county courthouse next month comes at a time of economic downturn and could not come at a better time.
The center, scheduled to open Dec. 7 on the heavily used first floor of the Regional Justice Center, was established to guide people seeking to represent themselves through the court system.
And judging by the situation, the center could become the most popular location in the 17-storey courthouse once the public becomes aware of its services.
“We're really responding to a need in the community,” said Clark County Court Deputy Administrator LaDianna Gamble, “What we've seen is an increase in evictions, an increase in foreclosed homes, and an increase in people not knowing where they stand.”
For example, Gamble said, more than 70 percent of people who go to justice court end up dealing with things like evictions or legal action from payday loan companies themselves. Many of these people have never had to deal with a civil lawsuit before.
The center helps them learn how the system works so they can navigate legal issues without a lawyer, she said.
The county commission in August approved a contract to use court fees to pay the nonprofit Legal Aid Society of Southern Nevada $273,830 a year and employ one attorney and four bilingual paralegals at the center, which also will have a mediator present to help find solutions outside of court.
Officials plan to display pamphlets and legal documents at the centers and even offer advice on proper courtroom etiquette, such as what people should say and do when they appear before a judge.
There will be computers and workstations that litigants can use to view and file court documents electronically, which is important because local courts will require electronic filing starting in February.
Officials also plan to launch a self-help website where people can fill out legal documents over the internet before submitting them to a community justice center.
A back room at the court's self-help center will be set aside for people to discuss personal cases with paralegals, and eventually private attorneys will be asked to volunteer to review cases brought to the center.
Gamble says the self-help concept aims to provide legal information to members of the public in the simplest way possible, in a way they can understand.
This is not a new concept – it has been implemented in other cities and is modelled on family court centres that have been running successfully for several years.
Gamble believes the court center will help alleviate some of the hectic workload at the clerk's office, which has had to field questions from the public about civil cases aside from the usual filing duties.
But Gamble said the new center should speed up due process in the court system for litigants: Showing people how to file documents correctly could reduce delays and get cases resolved more quickly.
In the end, everyone is a winner.
200 Lewis Avenue Las Vegas,
Nevada
Jeff Jarman is a senior investigative reporter at The Sun.
