By Barbara Engstrom, Executive Director King County Law Library
Every day I count myself lucky that I am living in Washington state where there are so many wonderful organizations doing their best to ensure that pro-se litigants have access to resources that help them successfully navigate their cases. Being in King County, I am particularly grateful to Kristina Ralls and the King County Family Law Facilitators program for creating concise and easily accessible form packets for those dealing with family law issues. You can see the breadth of their handiwork at their How-to Resources for Family Law page. In addition to their web presence, the facilitators also run a walk-in Family Law Helpdesk in both the Seattle and Kent courthouses from 9 a.m. to noon every day. At the helpdesk, after a short consultation, patrons are given forms and instructions responsive to their legal issues. As you might guess, the helpdesks are very busy. They lack the capacity to assist people with drafting their forms.
KCLL’s Family Law Forms Drafting Lab
For many patrons, the facilitators’ instruction packets are sufficient to successfully navigate their cases on their own. At the law library, however, we often work with people who find understanding and successfully filling out the forms to be a major stumbling block. To help bridge this gap, the law library partnered with the KCBA Neighborhood Clinics to launch the Family Law Forms Drafting Lab. Our vision is to build on the services that the Family Law Facilitators are providing and help fill the gaps that are beyond their staffing capacity. We encourage Drafting Lab patrons to visit the help desk to discuss their family law issue and obtain the appropriate form packet. After completing as much of the packet as they can on their own, we invite them to visit the Drafting Lab.
One of our goals for the Lab is to ensure that it is very accessible. The walk-in Labs are held in the Seattle branch of the law library on Tuesdays from 9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. No appointment is required. There’s no income qualification and people are welcome to visit multiple times as they work through the stages of their case.
We often hear from patrons that they want to come to the Lab, but they can’t make it during the scheduled hours. Beginning in January we are beta testing an online version of the Lab. Patrons will schedule a video appointment and then meet with an attorney over Zoom. The online version of the Lab is on Thursdays from 3-8 p.m.
A Day in the Life of a Drafting Lab Volunteer Attorney
Currently our three wonderful volunteer attorneys are Kristian Kofoed, Liz Steen, and Rosemarie LeMoine. Rosemarie recently made a pitch for volunteers at the KCBA family law section meeting. Here’s her recap of a volunteer shift at the Lab:
The intake librarian greets the folks who come in for the clinic and gives them a simple form to complete. They don’t need an appointment; it’s first-come, first-served.
There’s a room where we meet with the client, with a computer, a printer and a pre-paid card we can use to make copies on the law library’s copier, for free. (Lane Powell and Perkins Coie donated money for the printer and copies.)
If I need court pleadings, I go with the client across the hall to the clerk’s office and get those.
I try to say hi to the facilitator at the Family Law Help Desk each Tuesday, at the beginning of my volunteer shift, so she/he knows they can send folks up to me.
I have taken clients to ex parte, to check on where they should file their motion, to the clerk, to ask about whether they can file something in the court file. Sometimes, I go to the prosecutor’s family support office when I have a client who needs that type of help. I took one client to the DV advocates’ office — I always introduce myself and explain that I am the volunteer attorney at the Law Library clinic — and the court staff is so responsive, so helpful.
Each client gets 20 minutes, but if no one is waiting, I’ll take as long as I need to help them.
They can come back as often as they need to.
No income rules — but almost all the time, clients have been low-income, and some even homeless. And they appreciate the help so much! One day, I went to volunteer, worrying about our bathroom remodel and whether it would be done by Xmas. My first client was homeless, with big legal issues. It really put my petty worry to the ground.
As Rosemarie notes, the people who come to the Lab are very grateful for the help. In 2025 the Lab provided 375 individual sessions with well over 200 new clients.
Liz Steen is a regular volunteer at the Tuesday afternoon Lab. After seeing how impactful the form drafting help was for the folks able to make it into the Seattle walk-in Lab, she started brainstorming ways to bring the Drafting Lab to Kent and to help patrons outside of the physical library space in Seattle and the daytime operating hours. Liz is the prime driver of the new virtual Lab with evening hours.
We would love to expand our offerings to a walk-in Lab in Kent in addition to the virtual Lab. For attorneys who are closer to Kent, this could be a perfect opportunity, especially considering free parking at the Maleng Regional Justice Center.
Volunteer at the Drafting Lab!
While familiarity with the basics of family law is helpful for the Drafting Lab, it is certainly not required. In fact, many of the questions are quite basic and are often answered by simply reading the question on the form back to the person. Often the questions deal with general procedural issues that are not family-law specific. Both KCBA and KCLL provide training for attorneys to get them up to speed on the clinic and on best practices. We are hoping to get a cohort of attorneys for a substitute pool to cover gaps in the Drafting Lab schedule and to volunteer at the virtual Lab. Our attorneys who are currently working with the Drafting Lab have found it very enjoyable and rewarding. The patrons are grateful for the assistance. If you would like to volunteer or know someone who you think would like to help, please let us know. Contact the law library at services@kcll.org.
