第八巡回法院将未被充分利用的法律图书馆转变为蓬勃发展的自助中心

Back in the day—before March 2020, 当流行病开始在佛罗里达州肆虐时，加拿大首席大法官授权停止所有非必要的商务旅行，法官和法院工作人员定期冒险出城参加委员会会议或教育项目.  If the distance was great and the journey involved taking planes, travelers were often stuck in limbo, sometimes a quite long limbo, due to layovers or delays.  This is precisely what happened to two Eighth Circuit travelers—Mr. Paul Silverman, the trial court administrator, and Ms Bridget Baker, 2016年6月在路易斯维尔举行的全国法院管理协会会议结束后，他们正准备返回盖恩斯维尔:他们的飞机延误了, and they had a lengthy wait ahead of them.  Sometimes, these interims feel like a dreaded squandering of time.  然而，其他时候，这些被迫的停顿可能是有利的——甚至是惊人的成果.  And that was the case for Mr. Silverman and Ms Baker.  As they sat in the airport, casually talking about work-related matters, lo and behold, 他们想出了一个主意，把他们很少使用的法律图书馆——一个典型的空房间——改造成一个急需的自助中心——现在是一个熙熙攘攘的地方, vibrant, and useful space.

Every county in Florida used to have a law library, 根据佛罗里达州法规939，由所有刑事案件的部分法庭费用资助.185.  However, across the nation, 由于资金来源的减少和使用的减少，法律图书馆——存放法律资料和进行法律研究的资源——正在关闭, judges, attorneys, legal scholars, 还有一些人更喜欢从他们的个人电脑或工作电脑上获取数字化的合法资源.  而且因为法律图书馆通常不会为自我辩护的诉讼当事人提供帮助, they are not especially helpful to this demographic.  To survive, 法律图书馆一直在重新评估为用户服务的最佳方式，并最明智地利用他们的空间.

Before Ms Baker’s and Mr. Silverman’s airport epiphany, 阿拉楚阿县有一个法律图书馆，有足够的资金支付一个县资助的工作人员职位和法律资料的收集.  该县还有一个基本的自助计划，由一名县资助的雇员负责, 谁负责所有的案件管理，让法官们审理自辩案件，并处理与全国所有自辩诉讼当事人有关的电话和电子邮件——一项“艰巨的工作”,” Ms Baker emphasized.  Brainstorming with Mr. Silverman in the airport, 贝克女士想知道是否有可能以某种方式将这两种功能结合起来，创建一个实用的中心, cost-effective, and in-demand.

They did the math: the law library was spending $20,这些法律材料的硬拷贝很少对外开放.  如果他们停止订阅，他们可以立即省钱.  Before they could make any changes, however, they had to get the support of the library board of trustees.  所有人都同意这是一次彻底的改变——但因为贝克女士有一个深思熟虑的计划, they approved the idea.  Ms Baker and Mr. 西尔弗曼还必须得到县里合作伙伴的支持:首席法官, clerk of court, state attorney, local bar association, and city commission.  “It was not hard to persuade them,” Ms Baker said, “as they are all committed to helping Alachua County citizens.”

自助中心设在盖恩斯维尔的阿拉楚阿县家庭和民事司法中心, Florida

因此，2016年6月在机场诞生的这个想法在2016年10月变成了现实, when the self-help center opened for business.  The center has three full-time staff: a director, Ms Annemarie Schuller (a county-funded position); a court specialist (a state-funded position), who provides support to the pro se judge (all family pro se cases are heard by a single judge in Alachua County); and an administrative assistant (this position is supported equally by law library and county funding).  Funding is used primarily for salaries, but some is used for electronic research tools, specifically FastCase, 舒勒女士形容它相对用户友好，是一个很好的研究工具.

Self-help center staff cannot give people legal advice, tell them what forms to fill out, represent them in court, or tell them how to present their case.  However, 工作人员可以告诉他们在哪里可以获得他们需要的表格(要么在网上，要么从法院书记员办公室), which is conveniently located right downstairs); answer procedural questions; explain how to move the case forward; help the self-represented litigants set a hearing with the pro se judge; inform them about additional court requirements; and review their files before scheduling a court event to ensure the correct forms have been filed.  “We can also do some hand-holding,” Ms Schuller added; “We can offer some comfort and help take some of the worry and stress out of the process.” 

贝克女士表示，自助中心运作效率很高.  Staff work closely with the pro se judge throughout the process, overseeing the case management details for all the family pro se cases; they set the docket, attend hearings, draft orders.  “Our goal is to help people at the front end do things correctly, which streamlines the process, helps the self-represented litigants, and helps the judge,” Ms Schuller noted. 

Self-Help Center staff can explain procedures; help self-represented litigants set a hearing with the judge; inform them about additional court requirements; and review their files before scheduling a court event to ensure the correct forms have been filed

中心工作人员最常被要求帮助的问题是使用最高法院表格处理家庭法问题.  其次是郡法院相关事宜，如房东/租客和小额索赔, and probate issues.  Since the center opened, 面谈和电话请求的数量从3次增加到近3倍,800 in 2017, to 7,100 in 2018, to 9,100 in 2019.  平均而言，员工每天要帮助30至40名自我辩护的诉讼当事人.

自助中心的工作人员已经帮助第十二巡回法院重新启动了法律图书馆, so the Eighth Circuit’s model is clearly replicable.  当被问及他们会给其他想要实现类似转变的人什么建议时, Ms Baker explained, “Solutions often exist in resources you already have.  对我们来说，甚至不需要额外的资金——只是重新分配和重组.”