User’s Guide

Ver. 1.1, August 2015

See www.michiganlegalhelp.org/usersguide for updates.

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About Michigan Legal Help……………………………………………………….. 4

Start Here: The Home Page………………………………………………………... 5

The Toolbar……………………………………………………………………………. 6

Find What You’re Looking For……………………………………………………... 7

The Subject Areas………………………………………………………… 7

The Search Box……………………………………………………………. 8

Filtering Search Results…………………………………………………… 9

Selecting Your County……………………………………………………………… 10

Legal Information Content………………………………………………………… 11

Toolkits………………………………………………………………………. 11

Articles………………………………………………………………………. 12

Common Questions……………………………………………………… 13

Definitions………………………………………………………………...… 13

Checklists…………………………………………………………………… 14

Court Forms………………………………………………………………… 15

Completing Automated Interviews………………………………………………. 16

Referral Information Content……………………………………………………… 17

Notes…………………………………………………………………………………… 18-19

Table of Contents

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About Michigan Legal Help

• You must have basic computer skills.

• You can use a smart phone, tablet or other mobile device, but not all features may

work on them.

• You don’t have access to a computer.

• You’re looking for legal advice or representation.

• You’re in a rush and not willing or able to read the information carefully, or answer the

questions in the interviews completely.

• Educates members of the public about their rights & responsibilities under the law.

• Teaches website visitors how to navigate the court system when they must handle a

legal problem without a lawyer.

• Guides users to local resources, such as lawyers, self-help centers and community or-

ganizations.

• Contains legal information, not legal advice. It’s not a substitute for hiring a lawyer.

Michigan Legal Help.org...

• An innovative user-friendly legal self-help website at www.MichiganLegalHelp.org and

affiliated local Michigan Legal Help Self-Help Centers.

• The result of a statewide collaboration of judges, courts, lawyers, bar associations, non-

profit legal aid agencies, legal self-help centers, libraries and many others.

• Managed by staff at the Michigan Poverty Law Program, a joint effort of Legal Services

of South Central Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School that provides sup-

port services to legal aid programs and other poverty law advocates in Michigan.

The Michigan Legal Help Program is...

When using Michigan Legal Help...

The Michigan Legal Help website can’t help if...

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Start here: the home page

Use the Self-Help

Tools to take you

to the area of the

law you want to

learn about.

Watch this

video to learn

about the

website.

Use Organizations

and Courts to

connect to re-

sources in your

community.

Read updates

about self-help

resources on the

website and

throughout

Michigan.

Read the

Privacy Policy

and the Terms

of Use for the

website’s dos

and don’ts.

Watch videos for general guidance

in areas such as

using the website

or going to court.

Use these

buttons to

change the

language to

Spanish or

English.

Use LiveHelp to get help

using the website or if

you have other ques-

tions.

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The Toolbar This toolbar is at the top of every page on the website. Use it to navigate the website with-

out going back to the home page.

Use this to take you

to the Home page

from anywhere on

the website.

Use Self-Help Tools take you to

the area of law you want to

learn about.

Use Organizations & Courts to

connect to resources in your com-

munity, such as a local self-help

center or information to help if

you want to find a lawyer.

Use this button

to take a sur-

vey about the

website.

Use the search bar to find

information about your

legal problem.

Both “Self-Help Tools” and “Organizations & Courts” have drop down menus. You can click

on the heading to go to page with a list of the subjects in that area. You can also hold your

mouse over the heading to see the drop down menu for that area. You can click on a sub-

ject in the drop down menu to go directly to that subject.

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Find What You’re Looking For You can search by looking at the subjects in the Self-Help Tools or by typing information into

the search box.

The Subject Areas Information is organized by subject areas. Each subject area is identified throughout the

website with a title and an icon.

Selecting a subject area under the Self-Help Tools heading or the dropdown menu in the

toolbar will take you to a list of content available in that subject.

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The Search Box

You can search by typing your legal problem into the search box. This works best if you use

a short phrase instead of a complete sentence. For example, use “security deposit” instead

of “My landlord hasn’t returned my security deposit.” Hit enter or click the magnifying glass

to start the search.

If your search is successful you’ll get a list of results. You can filter the search results by the

type of content or by the legal issue. Just click the content or legal issue in the column on

the right side of the screen.

… or by legal

issue.

You can choose

to filter by con-

tent type...

The results

are here.

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Choosing a filter will shorten your list of content. Filtering by content type lets you see only a

certain type of information, such as Articles. Filtering by legal issue shows information about

the selected topic, such as Garnishment. The column on the right side of the screen shows

how many items there are of each type of content and how many items there are in each

legal issue.

Filtering Search Results

You can tell what filter is used because it has a (-) in front of it. Click the (-) to undo the filter

and see all the results.

You can filter by both content type and legal issue in one search.

Sometimes after you’ve filtered by one legal issue, you can choose another one to narrow

the results.

The results can

be filtered again

by legal issue.

These results have been

filtered by Content Type

to show only Toolkits.

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When you pick a piece of content you must choose a county. Choose the county you live

in, or the county where your legal issue occurred or is already in court.

Choosing the right county means you can find county-specific resources: Find a Lawyer;

Community Services; Self-Help Centers and Court Information. It also means you see any

content that is specific to your county.

After you’ve chosen a county, your choice will be in the upper right hand corner. That box

is also a drop down menu you can use to switch to a different county. That county stays se-

lected until you change it or close your browser.

Selecting Your County

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Legal Information Content There are several types of legal information content on Michigan Legal Help: Toolkits, Arti-

cles, Common Questions, Definitions, Checklists, and Forms.

Toolkits A Toolkit is a group of content that gives you legal information about a particular issue.

Each Toolkit contains Articles, Common Questions, Checklists, and Court Forms related to

the issue. It also contains reference resources related to your county and the legal issue you

chose: Find a Lawyer, Community Services, Self-Help Centers, and Court Information.

Toolkit guides use a series of questions about your issue to direct you to the proper toolkit.

Not every subject area has a toolkit guide.

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Articles Articles give general information about legal issues. If you click on the title of an Article,

you’ll see a brief description of the article. Click on the description to open the Article. It is

a good idea to read articles to learn more about your legal issues.

When you open an Article, you’ll see “Contents” at the top. You can click on a topic to go

directly to that part of the Article. Or, you can read the entire Article from top to bottom.

The referral resources — Find a Lawyer, Community Services, Self-Help Centers and Court

Information — are on the right side of the page with every Article.

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Common Questions Toolkits also contain Common Questions. These give short answers to very specific ques-

tions. Common Questions are found below the description of the toolkit.

You can see the answer to a question by clicking on it.

Definitions If a word or phrase is underlined, you can see its definition by holding the mouse over it.

The word

“landlord” is un-

derlined.

The defini0on

appears when the

mouse is held

over the word.

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Checklists Checklists are printable step-by-step instructions that help you handle your legal issue, usu-

ally when you need to follow a specific process to finish your legal matter.

The checklist first appears as a set of steps. Under each step are the words “Read more”

with an arrow. Click “Read more” to see detailed instructions and information in each step.

If you click the word “print” at the top of the checklist, the Checklist opens in a new tab. It

appears there without the detailed information in each step. When you print the checklist,

the detailed information will print, and the document might be longer than you planned.

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Court Forms There are two types of court forms: Automated Online and Fillable PDF Forms. Click on a

Form in a Toolkit to see a brief description of it. Click on the description to go to the Form.

For the Automated Online Forms, you will be sent to the LawHelp Interactive website to do

an “interview.” This website will open in a new tab or window. Your answers to the interview

questions will automatically help complete the form. After you answer the questions, your

finished forms will be ready for you to print.

You can also save your answers and forms after you’re done with the interview. This lets you

come back later and complete or update information in the form. To access a saved inter-

view, return to the Form on the Michigan Legal Help site and click on the description again.

When you arrive at the interview on the LawHelp Interactive site, enter your user name and

password.

When you are finished with your interview, you can return to Michigan Legal Help by going

back to the tab or window where it should still be open.

The Fillable PDF Forms have blanks you fill in. The forms will download or open in a new win-

dow, depending on the settings on your computer. After you fill out the form, you will have

to print copies, sign, and file them with the designated court.

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Completing Automated

Interviews

When you are taken to LawHelp Interactive, make sure the interview is the one you want.

You can get started right away or you can sign up to save your work. It is a good idea to

sign up to save your work.

The interview might take more time than you have to finish it. Or you may be missing some

information you need to finish it. When you sign up, save your login and password because

there is no way to get them back if you lose them.

When you’re done with your interview, you can review the completed form before you

print it. If something isn’t right in the form, go back to the interview and change your an-

swers. You can do this until you close the window. If you signed up to save your work, you

can come back and do it at any time.

When you are finished, return to the Michigan Legal Help website, open in another tab or

window on your screen, and look at the checklist for your issue to see what to do next.

Referral Information Resources Referral information tells you how you can connect to resources in your community that

may help you solve your legal issue. There are four categories of referral information: Find a

Lawyer, Community Services, Self-Help Centers, and Court Information.

Find a Lawyer gives you a list of lawyer referral services and free legal services offices in

your county. Self-Help Centers tells you if there is a staffed Center in your area where you

can get additional help. Community Services are organizations that may be able to help

you find non-legal solutions related to your legal problem. Court Information gives you con-

tact information about the court where you will need to go for your legal problem.

You can filter your county-specific results by legal issue. This lets you find, for example, law-

yers that may help you with your eviction. Choosing the right county means you can find

the right resources for your area.

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Michigan Legal Help is also

available in Spanish. It looks and is

organized just like the rest of the

website, except it is in Spanish.

Some content may not be

translated yet.

To see the content in Spanish,

click the Español button in the

upper right corner. Click English to

change it back to English.

Not all forms and interviews are

available in Spanish, yet. Some

might never be.

Ayuda Legal de Michigan

LiveHelp

LiveHelp is an online chat service. Visitors to

Michigan Legal Help can use it to get help

finding information, and answers to questions

that do not require legal advice.

LiveHelp Agents are only online during limited

hours. Clicking the LiveHelp icon during the

off-hours will let you email a question.

LiveHelp agents cannot give you legal ad-

vice. LiveHelp agents cannot tell

you what you should do.

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Michigan Legal Help is funded by:

Michigan State Bar Foundation

Legal Services of South Central Michigan

Legal Services Corporation