How To Use The Michigan Legal Aid Site


DISCLAIMER

  • We are providing the information on this site as a public service.

  • We try to make it accurate as of the date noted in the materials.  Sometimes the laws change.  We cannot promise that the information on this site is always up-to-date and correct. 

  • We do not intend this information to be legal advice.  By providing this information, we are not acting as your lawyer.

  • Self - help information can solve many legal problems, but if you believe you may need legal advice, you should contact a lawyer.

  • Information on how to find free or low cost legal services in your area is provided in articles throughout our legal information library

NOTE: This help page assumes that you have a very basic understanding of how to use a web browser (including, for instance, how to use the 'go back one page' button, or where to type in a url). If you do not, we want to help as best as we can anyway. Click here to be redirected to a site that can help you gain the basic web browsing skills necessary in order to navigate michiganlegalaid.org.

 Navigating the Site: The Main Components
Main Button

At any time during your navigation on the site, you can press the button above (which will always be at the top of your browser window) in order to return to the homepage

We are currently working to make michiganlegalaid.org more accessible to individuals who speak languages other than English, or speak English as a second language. At the bottom of the page is a link to our multilingual homepage, where you can search for articles in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

 On the homepage (www.michiganlegalaid.org) you will find the following:

ArticlesOrganizations
The Article Bar and the Organization Bar are both described in detail below
Automated Court Forms:
 
On the homepage you will notice the following paragraph, and the subsequent link to the automated court forms page. Throughout the entire site, any text which is typed in red ink and underlined is a link to a relevant webpage.

"In addition you will find a selection of self help materials including
automated Michigan court forms which you can complete with step by step
online assistance."

More on using these printable online court forms is available below.
"About michiganlegalaid.org" and "Feedback"

Located at the bottom of every page are links to an about us page and information on how to e-mail feedback questions and comments you may have.

While the staff at michiganlegalaid.org is receptive to advice on how to make our site work better, we cannot answer any specific legal question that you may have. The purpose of the site is to provide as much free content as possible for your own use so you can solve your own legal problems or at least become better educated on the isses without necessitating the hiring of an attorney or seeking direct legal advice.

The 'feedback' e-mail on the homepage is only used for advice you may have for us, or technical question you may have about finding relevant resources. We cannot give you any specific legal advice. For more information, read the disclaimer above.

Access to Justice

atjbutton

The Access to Justice Campaign is a partnership of the State Bar of Michigan, the Michigan State Bar Foundation, and the state's civil legal services providers. The goal of the Access to Justice Campaign is to raise funds to improve access to justice for low-income people with civil legal needs in Michigan.

Your donations are greatly appreciated; they make this site possible. You can donate by entering the secure website for the ATJ program by clicking on button above, or the same button on the homepage.


Finding Articles
Searching For Articles

By entering key words and phrases you're intersted in, you can pull up relevant articles to further educate yourself on how the law works.

If you are familiar with a web search engines like google, yahoo, or msn, you already know a little about how searching for articles works. Unfortunately our site does not work exactly like internet search engines in that they are not sorted by relevancy, date, etc. Don't get frustrated if, for example, you type in "social security" and the first 5 articles that come up deal with a child's right to an education and disaster relief. Be patient and make sure you look through all of the articles that come up when searching.

In order to find relevant articles, the best way to begin is by doing a single word search. Searching for information on tenancy, debt, credit, foodstamps, and so forth is better than searching "how to I get food stamps."

Due to the nature of our search tools, this may not be adequate. If you are looking for information on guardianships and nothing relevant comes up, try searching 'guardian.' If your search still produces nothing, contact us.

Once you have found a search term that produces results, a screen that looks like this will come up:

Articles Search
  1. Your search term is displayed at the beginning of the page
  2. All works on the page have a title and a brief description of its contents ("Child Custody in Michigan - Initial Determination" being the title, with the description below) and the type of work that it is in brackets (in this case a [Dynamic Doc]). Dynamic Docs are pages that follow the same structure throughout the site and are created by the staff at michiganlegalaid.org.
  3. The second type of resource present on our page are PDF files. PDF files require Adobe Acrobat reader in order to be viewed. If you do not have this on your computer, a free version can be downloaded here.
  4. The third type of resource are outside HTMLs, or URLs. Clicking on them will redirect your to a site outside of michiganlegalaid.org. We are not responsible for the materials on sites linked on michiganlegalaid.org.

Browsing the Article Library

If you are not looking for a specific article, you can search our library to find all of the articles in a certain legal area. These areas are:

Inside of these folders are often subfolders for subtopics (you will notice the folders for automobile, bankruptcy, consumer laws, debt and debt collection, etc. when you click on 'consumer'). These are a great way of narrowing your searching down to find more relevant articles.

Finding Organizations
Searching by Zipcode

By putting your Michigan Zipcode into the search bar, you will pull up a list of organizations in your area that can help in addressing certain legal issues.

You will oftentimes get a big list of organizations after typing in your zipcode, and usually only one of them is a local legal aid office among that list. The rest are usually a combination of related services and relevant statewide programs who may also be helpful in resolving your legal problem.

Organization List

If you already know the name of the legal organization you wish to contact, you can browse our library in order to find their contact information on our site. Unfortunatley we cannot promise that this organization information is up to date, though we strive to have updated information on the site.

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