Often times people need an attorney for civil matters, but they cannot afford one, and they end up representing themselves in legal matters. A new court self-help center in York County has been set up to guide people going through this.
“You don’t know the right way to do it and you know not everybody has the money for a lawyer,” that’s what brought Ashley Wehrly to the center at the York County Judicial Center. She needed help changing a custody agreement, but did not know where to start. “The legal jargon is very confusing it’s like a third language that I don’t understand.”
Megan Dietz runs the center. Her goal is to point people who are facing civil matters in the right direction. “The packets themselves have a step by step guide of how to fill out the forms, how to file the forms, and how to serve them on the other party. It also gives you an overview of how the process works, some of the factors judges take into consideration and a checklist,” said Dietz. “I can’t even tell people which packet they need. I can only tell them about what we have, explain what each packet does and allow them to choose what would best serve their purpose. The emphasis being on that self-help. We want to provide some tools and let them take them and use them by themselves.”
For the York County Self-Help Center website along with self-help forms and packets click here