The American Judicature Society’s Pro Se Forum

For those of you interested in learning where to start to learn more about self-represented litigants in South Carolina, here’s my cheat sheet:

Resources

1. Online

A. South Carolina:

http://www.sccourts.org/forms/indexSelfHelp.cfm – The South Carolina Courts official site for Self Help Resources.
http://lawhelp.org/sc – South Carolina’s Guide to free legal services. LawHelp South Carolina is a project of South Carolina Legal Services and the Legal Services Corporation.
http://www.scb.uscourts.gov/prose_before.html – The United States Bankruptcy Court District of South Carolina offers information to those filing without an attorney, including a video Bankruptcy Basics Video Presentation for Pro Se Filers.

B. National:

http://www.selfhelpsupport.org/ – Members include judges, clerks, court staff, legal aid advocates, bar association representatives, law school faculty, researchers, and others who work to increase access to justice.
http://www.srln.org/ – The Self-Represented Litigation Network brings together courts and access to justice organizations in support of innovations in services for the self represented
http://devlegacy.ncsc.org/WC/CourTopics/ResourceGuide.asp?topic=ProSe – The National Center for State Courts’ Self-Representation Resource Guide.
http://www.ajs.org/prose/home.asp – The American Judicature Society’s Pro Se Forum.
http://www.lri.lsc.gov/prose/prose.asp – The Pro Se Section of the Legal Services Corporation Resource Library focuses on practices to help legal services programs empower low-income clients to help themselves through pro se advocacy.
http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/delivery/delunbund.html – The American Bar Association’s Pro Se/Unbundling Resource Center. This site has been developed as a project of the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services. It is designed as a resource to help lawyers, bar leaders, the judiciary, court administrators, scholars and the media better understand and critically analyze the issues involved in self-representation and unbundled legal services.

C. Other States:

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/ – The California Courts Online Self-Help Center which helps self-represented litigants find assistance and information, work better with an attorney, and represent themselves in some legal matters.
http://www.legalhotlines.org/ – AARP’s Florida senior Legal Helpline Honored by State Coalition.

2. Attachments

http://www.aallnet.org/products/HowToResearchLegalProblem.pdf – How to Research a Legal Problem: A Guide for Non-Lawyers published by the American Association of Law Libraries.

I’m sure there will be more to come, but this should give you a start!

And many thanks to probono.net for supporting many of these platforms.

-RFW