Do you need help with a court issue or legal planning? Addison Public Library staff members help with attending Zoom court, finding and filing legal documents, and providing information about court rules and procedures. The library also offers online resources to find legal documents like wills, powers of attorney, or leases.
Addison Public Library Court Access
If you’re navigating the court system without a lawyer and would like individual help with court access and information, try the library’s new court access service. APL has been selected by the Chicago Bar Foundation and the Illinois Secretary of State office to provide court access help to our surrounding community. APL staff members Sara Lock and Lesley Cyrier serve as certified Court Library Navigators and have received specialized training on court forms, e-filing, remote court appearances via Zoom, and available resources. Here’s a news article with more information about this service.
Find links to court access resources or set up a 1-on-1 appointment at addisonlibrary.org/court-access.
Online Resources
APL offers online legal resources for finding templates of legal documents, such as wills, powers of attorney, or leases. These are updated more often than print books that have legal forms. You can access these resources with your library card.
Gale Legal Forms has professionally written legal forms that can be downloaded to your device or printed. It includes Illinois-specific forms and has an easy-to-use interface. You can search in the top search bar by entering a title or category of form.
Once you click the name of a legal form, you’ll see more information about that form and options to download to MS Word (Microsoft Word) or rich text. After downloading the form, you’ll be able to edit the form and fill in your own information.
The left side menu has several options for related information. Legal Definitions offer reliable definitions to terms you may not be familiar with. The Tax Forms page provides quick links to tax forms from the IRS and for each state. Helpful Topics has a list of subjects linked to a short article about each and can be a useful way to begin learning about a legal issue. The most popular legal form searches are the other left side menu. They include sample letters, which provide templates of legal letters on various matters.
Legal Information Reference Center offers tools and instructions to help address legal issues. It includes online full text for many top consumer legal reference books as well as legal forms. Most of the full-text legal reference books are from Nolo, a respected provider of legal information and forms for consumers and small businesses. Search for articles, books, journals, and more using the search tool. Explore topics such as business and corporations, family affairs and divorce, property and real estate, and wills and estate planning.
If you need help accessing any of our services or resources, call us or visit one of our service desks, and we’ll be happy to help! You also can schedule a 1-on-1 appointment with one of our staff members: addisonlibrary.org/appointments.