LAFLA’s self-help legal access centers provide legal information, forms, and guides to self-represented litigants in unlawful detainer, family law, and restraining order proceedings that are filed within the Los Angeles Superior Court system. Currently, these centers focus on providing urgently needed access to unlawful detainer answer clinics and form assistance for restraining order-related filings.
LAFLA’s incredible and hardworking staff aims to provide self-represented litigants an informative and impactful experience throughout the process. Joanna Knee, one of LAFLA’s self-help center attorneys, stresses that although LAFLA staffers are available to offer guidance on forms, self-represented litigants are encouraged to “fill everything out as much as they can.” Joanna says that this effort “really helps people understand the cases they are going through and gives them a better sense of preparedness.”
LAFLA’s self-help remote services offer a breath of fresh air, connecting self-represented litigants with an actual person on the phone, instead of a robotic automated system. LAFLA’s self-help managing attorney, Mark Hu, works with staff to answer phone calls and give assistance as soon as possible—sometimes even on the spot. Some common calls include divorce, custody, unlawful detainer (eviction), and restraining order related questions. When self-represented litigants hear words of comfort from our staff, they know they are in safe hands to continue a conversation that seeks to strengthen their understanding of their paperwork.
It is a point of pride for LAFLA’s self-help centers that LAFLA can be seen as a place where attorneys and support staff go above and beyond. Self-represented litigants that have a legal question in our legal areas of service, are welcome to contact LAFLA’s self-help hotline at 213-235-0060.
[Pictured above, left to right: LAFLA Self-Help Senior Legal Secretary Bich Huynh and court staffer Erika Martinez]
