The Fayette County Legal Help Center offers free legal information for people who are handling certain legal matters on their own. The center opened in March 2022 and is the first of its kind in Kentucky,
The Legal Help Center offers information on a variety of legal topics, including divorce, expungement, child support and simple probate matters.
The Kentucky Access to Justice Commission launched the Legal Help Center in partnership with the Fayette County Office of Circuit Court Clerk, Fayette County Family Court judges, the Fayette County Law Library trustees, the Administrative Office of the Courts and Legal Aid of the Bluegrass. The Fayette County Bar Foundation provided funding to purchase computers and a printer for the center.
How Legal Help Center Works
The Legal Help Center is staffed with KAJC staff and volunteers from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. ET each Thursday. While volunteers do not provide legal advice, they do offer legal information, which includes helping patrons locate and fill in the correct legal forms on a variety of topics.
Many of the forms that patrons need can be completed through guided interviews. The guided interviews are user-friendly, with the patron simply answering a series of questions. Once the interview is complete, the program generates the required court documents. Guided interviews are available on these matters:
- Dissolution of marriage (no minor children)
- Motion to modify child support
- Petition for order of protection
- Small claims court complaint
- Petition for probate
- Petition for expungement (for misdemeanor, violation or traffic infraction conviction)
- Motion for waiver of court costs and fees
- Affidavit of Indigency
- Petition for Name Change
- Dispense with Administration
Volunteer
The Legal Help Center is seeking attorneys and law students to volunteer during the center’s hours of operation. Volunteers will be given an orientation on how the center operates and the scope of services provided. For more information, contact Glenda Harrison at
glenda.harrison@kyaccesstojusticecommission.org.
kyjustice.org
KAJC and Kentucky's four civil legal aid programs launched another self-help legal resource in March 2022 when the revised website, kyjustice.org, went live. The site provides information on various civil legal topics, including family law matters, criminal expungement, housing and consumer issues. It also offers answers to common legal questions, a tool that screens for legal aid eligibility, and an interactive county-by-county resource map.