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KCLL Wins National Award for Outreach

The Workshops

We launched Civil Lawsuits Without Tears in March of 2018. It was the first workshop in our then new Self-Represented Litigants (SRL) Workshop series. That series now includes three civil procedure workshops, four family law workshops, a small business law workshop and a power of attorney workshop. Plans for a landlord/tenant workshop are in the works.

When we made that first launch we were confident we had created a new, practical, and sustainable mechanism for helping the self-represented litigants we work with become better prepared for their day in court. It was “new” for several reasons. It leveraged partnerships with volunteers from the local bar and the LLLT community, local public libraries like SPL and KCLS, and other community centers. It married face-to-face classroom instruction with follow-up content support on our website. It brought instruction out to where the self-represented litigants live and work in surroundings they are more familiar with. It was “practical” because KCLL staff worked closely with our volunteer instructors to choose content that was focused on the specific areas of civil procedure that most often confound self-represented litigants. It was “sustainable” because the load or weight of content development, instruction, and marketing was spread across all partners.

We had also hoped that workshop attendees would find the content understandable and immediately useful; that they would appreciate being able to attend the workshops in the local libraries or community centers they were already familiar with, and that access to the blank forms and research links on our custom SRL workshop website would continue to provide support down the litigation road.

To date, over 400 self-represented litigants have attended at least one of the workshops. We are hard at work searching for additional volunteer attorneys to help us develop and present relevant content and have plans for expanding the number of public library branches at which the workshops are hosted. Feedback from attendees has been very positive and they often return to KCLL for further research help.

The Award

The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) is a nation-wide professional association for law librarians who practice in pubic, academic and private firm law libraries. AALL sponsors a number of juried awards that recognize outstanding achievement in various aspects of law library management and services. This year, AALL added a new award called the Excellence in Community Engagement Award. This award focuses on community engagement and public relations and was created to “ …recognize and acknowledge outstanding contributions achieved by the Association’s members in raising the visibility of the profession and its Association.” In February of this year, LeighAnne Thompson and Stephanie Wilson from the Seattle University School of Law Library nominated our Self-Represented Litigants Workshop series. In March, we were overjoyed to receive this communication from Sally Holterhoff, chair of AALL’s Excellence in Community Engagement Award Jury:

“…your library’s Self-Represented Litigant (SRL) Workshops have been selected as one of two recipients of an inaugural AALL Excellence in Community Engagement Award. Congratulations on this honor. Our jury felt that your project does an outstanding job of reaching people in your community at their point of need with practical information. With these workshops, you are involving the legal and library communities in partnering to address the information needs of self-represented litigants and to help them successfully navigate the legal system.”

Many Thanks

We are very grateful to our SRL workshop partners, without whose help the workshop series would not have been possible. KCLL is indebted to the following individuals and organizations for their contributions to the workshop series and is excited to continue the collaboration to support and improve the education of self-represented litigants in King County:

  • Jeff Cowan, Esq.
  • Anthony Gibbs of Moceri Law Group, PLLC
  • Debbie Williams, Esq
  • McKean Evans of Pivotal Law Group
  • Stephanie Wilson, LeighAnne Thompson of the Seattle University School of Law
  • The law student volunteers of the Seattle University School of Law Access to Justice program
  • David Witus, Esq.
  • Jennifer Ortega of Legal Technician Division, PLLC
  • Sarah Bove of Legal Technician Division, PLLC
  • Valerie Wonder and Nika Pratsitsilpsiri of the Seattle Public Library
  • Jose Garcia and Andy Wickens and the staff of the  Kent branch of the King County Library System
  • Julia Gibson and the staff of the Shoreline branch of the King County Library System
  • Maria Arcorace and the staff of the Burien branch of the King County Library System
  • Mason Wiley of the U. Heights Community Center

If you are interested in learning more about our workshops – or the possibility of facilitating them, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us here or  call us at (206) 477-1305.

Announcing New Subscriber Benefits

Big changes are afoot in the law library’s subscriber program, making it one of the best deals around.

Beginning on November 15th subscribers receive the following new subscriber-only benefits:

 

“Let Us Do Your Research!”

With this new service you can hand off your research question to our skilled reference staff and we will provide a research memorandum with references to applicable law and resources.

Research services are billed at a rate of $100 per hour, in 15 minute increments.

More information can be found HERE.

 

One Hour of Additional Westlaw Time

You may have noticed that the law library significantly expanded our Westlaw subscription in 2017. In addition to our previous coverage of primary law from all state and federal jurisdictions, Washington Practice, law reviews and jury verdicts, we now have state and federal court filings, and the bulk of the West treatise collection.

Current rules limit all patrons to two hours of Westlaw time per day. As a subscriber you will now be able to request an extra hour of Westlaw time. Just come to the desk to request your additional hour.

 

Three Free Document Deliveries Per Year

Give us your known citation to a case, statute, law review or other document in our collection and we will deliver a copy to you electronically. Restrictions on the size of documents will apply.

More information can be found HERE.

This is a $60 dollar value based on current subscriber pricing!

Living with Conviction: Sentenced to Debt for Life in Washington State

Join Deborah Espinosa, documentary photographer and attorney, as she celebrates the conclusion of her collection, Living with Conviction: Sentenced to Debt for Life in Washington State at the Kent branch of the King County Library System on Friday, December 15th from 4pm – 6pm.

 

Living with Conviction: Sentenced to Debt for Life in Washington State will feature individuals sharing their personal stories of struggling to survive and thrive under court-imposed fines, fees, costs, and victim restitution, aka “Legal Financial Obligations” or “LFOs,” which accrue interest at a rate of 12%. Living with Conviction is the creation of documentary photographer and attorney, Deborah Espinosa. She believes that the purpose of law is to serve our communities and to level the playing field, and thereby create a more just society. The only way to know if a law is serving us is to listen to those most impacted. This project does just that. 

Deborah’s photographs will be on display in the Kent library from December 2nd to December 14th.

The Kent library is located at 212 2nd Avenue North, Kent, WA 98032. Questions about this program and Deborah Espinosa’s collection should be directed to Carla McLean, Librarian for Adult Services .

The Library Welcomes Two New Board of Trustees Members

The King County Law Library would like to welcome its two newest Board of Trustees members: The Honorable Susan Amini and Miriam R. Gordon, Esq.

Judge Susan Amini was appointed to the King County Superior Court bench on May 2, 2013, by Governor Jay Inslee. Judge Amini was born in Iran and developed a love for the American legal system early in life. Judge Amini is the first judge of Middle Eastern descent in Washington State history. A graduate of the University Of Maryland School Of Law, Judge Amini began her legal career as a public defender for Associated Counsel for the Accused in south King County. Four years later, in 1994, she opened her own law practice in downtown Bellevue, focusing first on criminal defense but later expanding into family and immigration law. She represented clients from over fifty countries in matters ranging from complex dissolution and custody disputes to asylum and Violence Against Women Act petitions. In 1994, Judge Amini also began serving as a Pro Tem Judge in King County.

In addition to her legal career, Judge Amini has served as a Hearing Officer for the Washington State Bar Association and as a trustee of the King County Bar Association. She also has served as a trustee of the Overlake Hospital Foundation, as a Human Services Commissioner for the city of Bellevue, and as a Rotarian. In 2010, she was honored by Northwest Asian Magazine as a Woman of Color Empowered.

Miriam R. Gordon is an Associate Attorney at Lasher Holzapfel Sperry & Ebberson. Specializing in Family Law, Ms. Gordon’s practice emphasizes marital dissolutions, property division, maintenance, parenting plans, child support, and post-dissolution issues. Ms. Gordon received her B.A. in 2008 from Brown University and her J.D. in 2013 from the University Of Washington School Of Law. In addition to her legal practice, Ms. Gordon is a member of the King County Bar Association and a Young Lawyer Division Volunteer.
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