Court help is a click away

When Chad Manning and his wife, Ileana, wanted to divorce they'd given the matter a lot of thought for nearly a year, knew exactly how they wanted to split their assets and agreed on a custody arrangement for their son.

What the couple didn't want to bother with was a lawyer.

The pair turned to Utah's Online Court Assistance Program to handle their uncontested divorce quickly and inexpensively.

"I went through all the forms and put in all the information — we kind of did it together, " Chad Manning said. "It was simple and easy."

The only glitch was that the Draper resident couldn't get the program pages to line up correctly on a printer and had to come to the Matheson Courthouse to get a copy, which cost $20.

Manning said the actual divorce, not counting a custody-related class he and his wife attended, ended up costing $106 and was completed in 12 days.

Utahns are discovering — and using — the online court assistance program for uncontested divorces, landlord-tenant disputes and, more recently, for protective orders.

The program, which began in late 2000, is available at many courthouses throughout Utah as well as public libraries.

Individuals also can call up the program on home computers by accessing utcourts.gov and clicking on the assistance program.

The program is designed to walk people through the paperwork.

Unlike computerized efforts in other states, Utah's program prompts users with questions that make it more likely that the documents are filled out correctly and completely. And unlike the generic legal forms available on the Internet, these documents are specifically tailored to Utah's laws.

Once the papers are filled out, they can be filed at a state courthouse for a $20 fee, which can be waived for those who can't pay.

The program was developed to help low-income people, residents in rural areas and those who simply don't want an attorney.

The statistics tell the story:

During 2001, the first full calendar year it was in existence, 2,705 people filled out papers on the system for a divorce, and of those, 1,340 were filed. That increased to 4,812 users the next year, with 1,545 divorce documents filed in court.