Press Release
Probate and Family Court Department

CONTACT:

David A. Schwartz, Pro Se Coordinator (617) 788-6600

FOR RELEASE ON: January 27, 2003

PROBATE AND FAMILY COURT POSTS INFORMATIONAL
MATERIALS IN JUDICIARY'S "SELF HELP CENTER"

          Probate and Family Court Chief Justice Sean M. Dunphy has announced that sixteen of the Court's informational publications are now available on the new Self Help Center on the Massachusetts Judiciary Web Site. To access this information, users should go to www.state.ma.us/courts and click on "Self Help Center". The site contains information created by the Administrative Office of the Probate and Family Court to help unrepresented litigants obtain legal assistance and representation and to navigate the court system. All materials are posted in two formats. The HTML versions provide live links to other sections of the Judiciary web site and to outside sites and are compatible with devices that allow the physically challenged to make use of material on the Internet. The PDF versions match the paper pamphlets available in the courthouses and are easily printed.

          Included in the initial posting of the Self Help Center are the pamphlets entitled "Looking for Legal Assistance?" which provide listings of free legal resources, bar-sponsored lawyer referral services and legal aid organizations in each of the state's fourteen counties. Chief Justice Dunphy said "For various social and economic reasons, many individuals are initiating and defending cases in the Probate and Family Court with no legal assistance. As a result, litigants, and sometimes their children, lose valuable legal rights. My goal is to encourage people to obtain legal advice, if not full representation, before filing and during the pendency of a case. These pamphlets, originally published in June 2001, provide the information that people need to begin the search for the level of assistance with which they feel comfortable".

          The other pamphlets available in the Self Help Center are "Before Asking For Help..." which lists the types of assistance that court-users can expect from staff at the Registries of Probate and "Before Going into Court...", ten tips on how to prepare for an appearance in the courtroom. In the coming months the Self Help Center will become a collection of a wider range of information which is helpful to individuals who do not currently have legal representation. It will include materials currently available in printed format from the Probate and Family Court, information posted elsewhere on the Judiciary web site and links to information on web sites sponsored by other organizations.