Resources and Assistance

You want to start a Family Law case or one has been started that you now have to respond to. What are you going to do, and where are you going to turn for help?

You have several alternatives available to you to assist you in handling your case:

• You can contact an attorney for legal advice or to represent you by seeking referrals from friends or relatives, looking in the telephone book, or calling a Lawyer Referral Service .

• If you are the parent seeking the payment of child support you may ask the District Attorney to bring an action or file enforcement or modification proceedings in an existing case. The District Attorney can help you with child support only and not with any other family issues such as custody, property, or a divorce. If you want custody or visitation orders in addition to child support, you must file your own divorce or paternity case. Contact the District Attorney Family Support Division.

• You can contact a paralegal to prepare documents, but remember that a paralegal is not licensed to practice law and cannot give you any legal advice, especially about important rights you might have.

• You can represent yourself (otherwise known as being "in pro per").

 
• There is an old saying that has passed into folk wisdom that the person who represents himself or herself "has an ass for a lawyer and a fool for a client." This is neither unkind nor harsh. It is a shorthand and memorable saying that contains the following ideas:
  
  
• Lawyers spend three years in law school and much effort studying to pass the bar exam to reach a point where the state will allow them to practice law. At that point they are still not effectively equipped to represent others, but must acquire practical knowledge of the law and the courts through years of practice to become good at what they do.

 
• Family Law is a complex enough area of the law that the State Bar has authorized it to be one of the Certified Specialties. A difficult examination is given that requires a significant amount of Family Law experience and knowledge to be able to pass. There are plenty of lawyers who practice Family Law effectively without having sought to become Certified Family Law Specialists, but to do well in Family Law it has to occupy a significant portion of their practice. California Family Law changes so rapidly and often that a lawyer who only handles a few Family Law cases a year will not have the knowledge that a lawyer who handles it on a daily basis does.

 
• A Pro Per certainly cannot be expected to have the knowledge of even the nonspecialist lawyer, but if you represent yourself the court must treat you as if you do have that knowledge. "Ignorance of the law" -- and of court procedures -- is not an excuse for not handling your own case in the way that the law and court rules require it to be done.

 
• Assuming you can acquire enough knowledge about the law governing your situation and about the court procedures to enable you to process your case through the system, you still face the main reason a Pro Per has "a fool for a client." The most difficult handicap for a Pro Per to overcome is that you lack the perspective to be objective about your own case.

 
• Marital dissolution proceedings, child custody issues, questions of monetary support, and even the division of property raise emotions in the people whose lives will be affected by the outcome that make it difficult for them to be objective even when they have an attorney to advise them and conduct the case.

 
• Will you know when you are better off settling or compromising an issue or the whole case than you would be if you reject a settlement and put your fate in the hands of the stranger wearing the black robe?

 
• If you reject a settlement and try all or part of the case, will you know what to say -- and more importantly, what not to say -- in presenting your case? Will you know what evidence you need in order to prove your case and how to obtain that evidence? Will you know which issues and evidence are important and which are not? Will you know what evidence is admissible (allowed to be presented in court under the Evidence Code) and, if it is not, how to make it admissible? This list of questions could go on and on.

You are at risk when you represent yourself in a court of law. If you cannot afford to obtain counsel to represent you, at least seek some form of legal advice before you set forth on your own.

Despite all the warnings, you have made the decision to represent yourself. Is there anywhere to find out some the things you need to know in handling your own case?

• You can purchase self-help resources at various booksellers and borrow them at public libraries. The Los Angeles County Law Library is located at 301 W 1st St. between Broadway and Hill in downtown Los Angeles across the street from the Central Civil Courthouse, and there are branch law libraries in some of the District Courthouses. There are also law libraries located in various law schools in the area. Some general public libraries that do not specialize in law books may have legal self-help books.
 
• You may look up online various provisions of the Family Code and other California Codes that may pertain to your case at the website maintained by the California Legislature. In representing yourself you should be aware that merely knowing the language of a code section may be insufficient knowledge since the court is also directed by published cases decided by California appellate courts that guide in interpreting those code sections.
 
• Here are links to two of the most frequently used codes in a Family Law court:

 
• Family Code (table of contents)
• Code of Civil Procedure (table of contents)
 
• In representing yourself you will also be responsible for knowing the California Rules of Court and the Los Angeles County Court rules that apply to the conduct and processing of Family Law cases. (Other rules of court than those specifically geared toward Family Law cases may also apply, so you may have to familiarize yourself with more court rules than the ones directly linked above.)
 
• If you decide to represent yourself you will be expected to prepare and present your case like a lawyer and you will not be given special consideration even if you are opposed by a trained Family Law attorney representing the other party. Once more, it is a good idea to seek and obtain competent legal advice and representation if you can afford to do so.
 
• You can obtain legal forms in the Clerk's Office at each County Courthouse. You can also download current forms from the Judicial Council's website. Many of the forms that are commonly used are directly linked on other pages of this website.
 
• If you are not represented by counsel and your case involves issues of child support or spousal support, you are encouraged to seek the assistance of the Family Law Facilitator for

• help in selecting the correct forms to use
• making sure your papers have been filled out correctly and completely
• calculating child support
• assistance in arriving at an agreement with the other parent on issues of support, and general assistance with information needed in obtaining or defending against a child or spousal support order