KCLL Klues: Washington State Legal Research

A popular radio program “This American Life” profiled stories of people representing themselves as their own lawyer.  A description of the episode from the site shows the nature of the program: “It’s tempting to act as your own lawyer, to argue your own cause.  Who better to defend your position than you?  This week, sotries of pro se defenses: some brilliant, some disastrous.  A man fakes his way into an insane asylum by pretending to be crazy, and then cant’ argue his way back out.  And another man uses vigilante justice to defend his sister’s honor, using a strategy he didn’t know he had in him.”  

The stories are divided into four Acts including: Psycho Dabble; Disorder in the Court; SWAK Down; and Underling Gets an Underling.  These episodes can be illustrative of various experiences individuals can have in the court system when they go it alone.   (Thanks to Joe Hodnicki for highlighting this episode)

If you are seeking to represent yourself in King County, a helpful resource is the “Pro Se Handbook” published by the King County Bar Association.   Or you can view a video entitled “Your Day in Court: How to Make your Voice Heard in King County” produced by the King County Superior Court.  You may also find many resources on our Resource Guide page and access to forms needed to proceed with your case.   If you still can’t find what you are looking for, give us a call at 206-296-0940.

The new Washington State virtual reference portal is now ready for use. If you need an answer to a question you can start at Ask-Wa. While the King County Law Library is not a member of the 24/7 portion of this service, you can connect to our Ask A Question service and email us anytime. We chat from 1-4 pm Monday through Friday and the State Law Library covers the 10-1 time frame. We are also listed on the Ask-Wa web site in the libraries link as one of the Partner Libraries. So when you have a question, don’t forget your Washington State libraries!

The confirmation hearing of Sonia Sotomayor will be broadcast live today and all this week on the Senate Judiciary Committee website.  Be sure to tune in later in the week for new Senator Al Franken’s first opportunity to question the nominee.   You can view an analysis of Judge Sotomayor’s notable decisions in a recent NY Times article.

KCLL can help you make the transition to e-filing!  If you have an existing word processing document or have created a new one while using one of our public PCs, you can save that document in .pdf format—-the electronic format you need to use for e-filing—-simply by printing it to the CutePDF printer.  If you have existing paper documents, we can convert them to .pdf format with one of our staff scanners.  In either case, you will also need a USB drive on which to store these new .pdf files.  The costs associated with these services are as follows:

To convert a paper document to .pdf format: $2.00 per document up to 50 pages

To purchase a new USB drive: $10.00

If you have any questions about our support for e-filing, please contact the Library staff at (206) 296-0940.

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In response to budget constraints, the Seattle Library is now open 8am-5pm Monday – Friday.  The operating hours for the library at the Maleng Regional Justice Center are unchanged (8:30am – 5pm, Monday through Friday).

Mandatory e-filing for attorneys in King County Superior Court begins today.  The Clerk’s Office has created some excellent tutorials to familiarize yourself with the process.  Take a look at them here. On the same web page they have a link to frequently asked questions.  They also have a tutorial for submitting working copies.