While the library remains closed to the public, staff is working on alternate ways to reach out to the community and provide access to legal information. This past month, we were happy to partner with local legal aid organizations for a Virtual resource fair, held on Jan. 22, 10am-2pm. This event was held on Zoom and featured speakers from Inland Counties Legal Services (ICLS) , Inland Empire Latino Lawyers Assocation (IELLA), Riverside Superior Court Self Help (Self Help), Riverside County Department of Child Support Services (DCSS), and a staff member from our team. The intent of the resource fair was for participating organizations to share who they were, what their organization does, and how to access services.  

Highlights from the presentations are:

• IELLA offers advice for those who are self-represented and a resident of Riverside or San Bernardino County. You do not need to be a legal citizen but, monetary guidelines will apply.
  Among their services is the One Step Further program for teen parents and Record Clearing services. They offer a new service: guardianships and limited conservatorships. 
• ICLS is free and services in Riverside and San Bernardino to income-based clients. ICLS offers free services because of partnerships with funders. Some services offered are immigration services with domestic violence, “U” visas and housing.
• Self help provides assistance with limited civil lawsuits, small claims court, and family law. They are available 8am-2pm Monday-Friday. Please note, they are getting a high volume of phone calls. You can also make appointments online at https://www.riverside.courts.ca.gov/appointments/ . They also provide forms in packets on the court’s website but they will not fill out forms for you.
• DCSS can modify and enforce court orders for parentage, child support and medical support. At this time, they can accept kiosk payments in the lobby and received documents dropped off. They have 3 main offices and 6 satellite locations. There is a LiveChat feature on their website
• Riverside County Law Library provides remote access to select legal databases. Access is a combination of login information provided by staff or setting up a separate temporary profile for specific databases. Staff is available for reference requests via telephone and online Monday- Friday 9am-4pm.

As services change with Riverside County’s Covid-19 restrictions we would like to offer this program again, to provide the most up-to-date information to our community. We are also looking into offering the program in Spanish or with translations. While adapting to Covid-19 restrictions, we remain committed to our goal of facilitating access and use of available legal and information resources.

You can watch recordings of the presentation on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/RCLawLib and if you’d like a copy of the presentation slides, please contact library staff at lawlibrary.riverside@rclawlibrary.org

Written by: Jenna Pontious, Public Services Librarian