The Pontiac Public Library is pleased to offer access to the Livingston County Legal Self-Help Center.

The LC Legal Self-Help Center is a free legal information service available via the internet.  You can access this website via your home or work computer, or if you do not have internet access, you can access the Legal Self-Help Center from the Pontiac Public Library and its free public-use computers during regular library business hours.

To access the Livington County Legal Self-Help Center: CLICK HERE 

What is Self-Help?

Self-help is when you take a legal dispute to court and you represent yourself.  While it is better and easier if you have a lawyer, you do not need to have a lawyer to take your case to court.  Some legal matters are simple, and if you have the right legal information and forms, and you know how the court system works, you can handle the case yourself.  The Legal Self-Help Center is here to help you.

The self-help center focuses on:

• simple divorces
• child support/child visitation
• domestic violence orders of protection
• landlord/tenant mattters
• information in more than twenty-five different areas of the law
• links to other free legal resources

The legal self-help center is:

• a place to help you learn how to represent yourself in court in simpler legal matters when you cannot find an attorney to represent you.
• a place where you can get free legal information about Illinois law.  Legal information tells you whether you can bring your dispute to court, where to find the Illinois law that applies to the dispute, where to find the legal forms you can use and how the legal process works.  Legal information does not tell you whether you should bring your dispute to court or whether you will win.
• a place where you can get information about free or low cost legal services in your area.

The legal self-help center is not:

• your lawyer and does not provide specific advice on your legal problem.  Specific legal advice is when a lawyer tells you whether you should bring your dispute to court and what are your chances of winning.