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Delaware Courts: How-To Center (DE)

courts.state.de.us/How%20To

You'd be surprised how much you can accomplish in the legal system without a lawyer. The online Delaware Courts How-To Center tells citizens all they need to represent themselves in routine legal procedures, such as name changes, and provides background about more complex procedures, such as workplace or family issues.

The site is divided into five areas:

• Civil Matters, including such matters as landlord/tenant disputes, licenses and registrations, name changes, guardianships and workplace issues
• Criminal Matters, such as bail bonds, pardons, juvenile courts, and common pleas
• Family Matters, such as custody, divorce, child support and protection from abuse
• Traffic Violations, as they are handled through Maryland's Justice of the Peace and Traffic Courts
• Appeals Procedures, which provides documents explaining administrative and high court appeals

Each topic is covered in detail on separate pages, some in PDF format.

Demystifying the Court System

The site also has links to resources for legal assistance, detailed explanations of how each of the five different types or levels of courts works in Delaware, transcript resources and costs, and policies on access to records and confidentiality policies.

Two grids take advantage of one of the things the Web does best – compress links many resources in an easy-to-follow form:

• One handy grid with links to the many different kinds of fees associated with each courts
• Another grid links to the rules and amendments for various kinds of courts and other judicial bodies.

There are also links to court opinions, calendars, forms and jury procedures.

For those who would prefer to get their information in question/answer format, there is an FAQ covering many of the topics covered elsewhere on the website. A little redundancy is often a good thing.

Altogether, this is a very empowering, straightforward, comprehensive yet concise set of pages that gives citizens all they need to understand and use their court system. Some topics that rely heavily on PDF documents require that the citizen either have a lot of patience or have access to a high-speed Internet connection.

Self-Help Center Complements Web

Not relying on the Web alone, the State of Delaware has opened an in-person Self-Help Center in New Castle County. Modeled after existing Resource Centers in Delaware Family Courts, the purpose of the Self-Help Center is "to increase access to justice self-represented litigants" and "to help guide them through the legal process and to with the emotional challenges resulting from their legal circumstances," according to the website.

Here are some of the services available at this one-stop shop:

• Information desk
• Court forms, instructions, educational materials, and legal self-help books
• Books addressing the emotional aspects of people's cases
• Listing of family law attorneys (indicating specific practice areas, fees and other information)
• Notary services for court forms
• Computers with Microsoft Word and Internet access, high speed printer, photocopy, fax machines
• Television and VCR for free viewing of court-related videos

The idea is to have everything in place so self-represented litigants may prepare for cases at one location, the description states. Unfortunately, the page on which this service is described fails to give the street address, hours or telephone contact information for this resource.