Washington

Modification of Child Support Orders; Enforcement of Visitation Rights; Customer Service (King County)

Description

Operating since January 1995, the Self-Help Legal Resource Center is located in the lobby of Seattle's Division of Child Support. Non-lawyer staff provide free legal resource lists, court forms, and instructions to DCS customers who want to go pro se (without an attorney) into King County Superior Court to file a child support modification or a contempt motion to enforce existing visitation rights. Packets with forms and instructions for respondents are also available. Customers must have an open collection case at DCS to be eligible, and King County Superior Court must have jurisdiction to hear the case. A support enforcement officer trained as a facilitator deals with walk-in customers. Most customers receive packets by mail after leaving a voice-mail message at the Center.

A Pro Se Committee, which includes in-house attorneys, oversees the operation of the Resource Center and the activities of in-house volunteers who are members of pro se workgroups at the King County Courthouse and the Northwest Women's Law Center.

King County includes the city of Seattle and is the most populous county in Washington State. It is also the most urban county. There are no plans to put Legal Resource Centers in other DCS offices at this time.

Results

In 1998 (the most recent period for which data are available), the Resource Center averaged 146 customer contacts per month (62% noncustodial parents, 35% custodial parents, 3% other). Staff distributed an average of 79 modification packets and 10 visitation enforcement packets per month to eligible customers. We recently retired our own visitation enforcement packet and adopted one created by the Northwest Women's Law Center. We continue to maintain and distribute our own packets for child support modification.

Funding

The project uses regular federal matching funds.

Replication Advice

The content and format of domestic relations forms is controlled by Washington State law; consequently, non-lawyer staff were able to create most of the materials used. It has not been necessary to have lawyers involved in the day-to-day operation of the Resource Center. However, it is very important to have lawyers willing to edit and approve the materials used, oversee the training of facilitators, and be available for questions from staff.

The anticipated demand for visitation enforcement packets never materialized. We conclude that although people complain frequently about visitation problems, they must not see court enforcement as a realistic solution, particularly if they have to do it themselves.