new self-help center opens in Pasadena

Los Angeles Superior Court Los Angeles County www.lasuperiorcourt.org Contact: Public Information Office 213-974-5227 Public Information Officer: Allan Parachini

NEWS    

RELEASE

 

FOR RELEASE March 11, 2009

 

New Self-Help Legal Information Center Serves W. San Gabriel Valley Residents

 

PASADENA – As of today, thousands of San Gabriel Valley’s self-represented litigants will use the free legal workshops and services at the new Resource Center for Self-Represented Litigants in the Pasadena Courthouse to prepare their family law, housing and conservatorship cases. 

It is the 12^th Los Angeles Superior Court self-help, legal access center in the county, and the third funded primarily by the LASC and the state Administrative Office of the Courts. 

Following today’s 11 a.m. grand opening, self-represented litigants will use the center’s well-stocked inventory of court forms, do-it-yourself legal resources and computer-based legal information.  Supervising Civil Judge Elihu Berle keynoted the event, and Northeast District Supervising Judge Candace Beason welcomed guests.

The Resource Center, third floor, 300 E. Walnut St., Pasadena, is staffed by attorneys, paralegals, and trained volunteers, and will assist customers from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon on Friday.

Asian or Pacific Islander (API) clients at the Pasadena center will be uniquely served with legal information in Mandarin, Cantonese and other appropriate languages.  The API services are an initiative of the Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles, which operates nine of the courthouse-based, self-help legal access centers in the county.

       The Resource Center in Pasadena joins similar facilities in Los Angeles and Norwalk for self-represented litigants that are principally staffed by LASC employees, legal aid partners and JusticeCorps student interns.

        All 12 self-help centers were established by a collaboration of legal aid partners, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and the L.A. County Department of Consumer Affairs. Other courthouse-based, self-help legal access centers are located in Antelope Valley-Lancaster, Compton, Inglewood, Long Beach, Pomona, San Fernando, Santa Monica, Torrance and Van Nuys.

 

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