If You Don't Have A Lawyer
Information for Self-Represented Litigants (SRLs)
The information contained here is offered to help you represent
yourself in the District Court if you do not have a lawyer.
The
information offered here is NOT legal advice and may not apply to every
situation. It is STRONGLY
recommended that you have a lawyer to consult with or to represent you.
Most of the information contained in this page pertains to family law
cases, e.g. divorce, parentage (paternity), and child support.
Courthouse staff CANNOT give legal advice. “Legal advice”
is explaining the law to you, explaining how the law may apply to your
case, or telling you what to do in your case. “Legal advice” also
includes telling you what to put in the blanks of pleading forms.
PLEASE DO NOT ASK COURT STAFF FOR THIS KIND OF HELP.
If you are the Petitioner, Plaintiff, Respondent, or Defendant in a
court case, and you do not have a lawyer to advise and represent you, you
are a “Self-Represented Litigant” (“SRL”).
You may also be referred to as a “Pro Se Litigant”.
“Pro Se” means appearing for yourself.
“Litigant” means a party to a lawsuit.
If you are representing yourself, you
will be expected to be familiar with, and follow, the statutes (laws) that
apply to your case as well as the Rules of Civil Procedure, including the
Local Rules, and Rules of Evidence.
You will be assumed to know both the law and procedures as they apply to
your case. There are no
special rules for self-represented people!
The same rules that apply to lawyers apply to you.
If you do not follow the law and the rules you may permanently lose
important rights.
________________________________________________________________________
If You Don’t
Have A Lawyer
DIRECTORY
Ø Court Programs
· Self Help Center
·
Free Family Law Clinics
·
Mediation for Developing Parenting Plans
·
Settlement Facilitation for civil (CV) and probate (PB) cases and to
develop Marital Settlement Agreements in divorce (DM) cases
·
Supreme Court Law Library
http://www.supremecourtlawlibrary.org/
·
Law Access New Mexico
·
Legal Facs http://www.legalfacs.org/
·
NM Legal Aid http://nmlegalaid.org/
·
NM Child Support Enforcement Division
http://www.hsd.state.nm.us/csed
·
Public Libraries
·
Attorneys
2.
Forms
3.
Representing Yourself in Court
Ø
General
Information
Ø
Courtroom
Behavior
Ø Before you go to Family Court (Flyer)
4.
Opening or Reopening Your Case
6.
If You Can’t Attend A Scheduled Hearing
9. Violations of Court Orders or
Filed Agreements in Divorce or Parentage Cases
Self-Represented
Litigants (SRLs)
GENERAL INFORMATION
Court
Programs to Help Self-Represented Litigants (SRLs)
SELF HELP CENTER
The
Court’s Self Help Center is located on the ground floor of the Courthouse,
next to the Court Clerk’s Office. The Center’s phone number is 505-476-0177.
The email address is sfedselfserv@nmcourts.gov.
The
Center is staffed from 8–12 and 12:30-4:30 Monday – Friday (excluding
holidays) by a Court employee who can provide forms and procedural information.
They CANNOT fill out the forms for you or tell you what to put in the
blanks, but they can explain the forms to you so you understand what information
is required. Please
be aware that they may not have forms for every purpose.
There is also space to sit down and fill out the forms.
The
Center’s staff CANNOT give you legal advice.
They CANNOT fill out the forms for you or tell you how to fill out the
forms. They can explain what
information the forms are asking for, but you must fill in the forms in your own
words. The Center’s staff cannot
tell you what you should do in a given situation.
PLEASE DO NOT ASK COURT STAFF FOR LEGAL ADVICE.
The
Self Help Center also has two public access computers that have software to
produce the Child Support Worksheets that must be attached to all parentage
(paternity) or custody cases and any divorce case that involves children under
the age of 18. The computers may
ONLY be used for the Child Support Worksheets.
They do not have any other software, and do not have Internet access.
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FREE
FAMILY LAW CLINICS FOR SRLs
The free
Family Law Clinic for Self-Represented Litigants is offered once a month by the
First Judicial District Court, the Paralegal Studies Program at the Santa Fe
Community College, and private attorneys who volunteer their time to try to help
people who can’t afford a lawyer. The
Clinics are offered on the fourth Saturday of each
month at 9:00 a.m. at the Santa Fe Community College.
You
can get general information about divorce and parentage cases and help filling
out the forms packets at the Clinics. Bring
your forms with you to the Clinic. DO
NOT bring children with you to the Clinic – there’s nowhere for them to play
safely by themselves, and you cannot leave them unattended.
A free half hour consultation with an attorney is also available by voucher only. You can obtain a voucher by attending a Clinic and asking for a voucher afterward. When you receive the voucher, you call the attorney’s office to make an appointment. The attorney you see can give you advice about your particular situation.
________________________________________________________________________________
MEDIATION FOR DEVELOPING
PARENTING PLANS
There
are several places where can you find a mediator:
o
Family
Court Services
offers mediation with court employees who are master’s level counselors with
extensive mediation training and experience.
Payment for Mediation through Family Court Services is based on a sliding fee scale.
o
Private
mediators
also offer mediation. They have
varying types of training and experience. They
are usually not lawyers. Their fees
vary from person to person, and may depend on the type of case.
o
Some attorneys
offer mediation. They also have
varying types of training and experience. They
cannot represent or give either person legal advice, but they can give legal
information. Their fees vary from person to person, and may depend on the type
of case.
________________________________________________________________________________
Settlement Facilitation
for developing Marital Settlement Agreements (property division issues)
The
Court has an Alternative
Dispute Resolution
(“ADR”) Program that offers attorneys who have mediation training to help people
work out solutions they can both live with.
The ADR Program is available in CV, DM, and PB cases.
Settlement facilitators are neutral third parties who DO NOT represent or
advise either party. However,
settlement facilitators, because of their legal training, can help each party
evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their own and the other side’s case.
Mediators and settlement facilitators are not judges – they do not make decisions for the parties or tell
them what to do.
q
look for
applicable statutes, rules, and forms at the Supreme
Court Law Library: www.supremecourtlawlibrary.org,
located at 237 Don Gaspar Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 87501, (505) 827-4850.
q
the public libraries have some information as well as public access
computers;
q
Legal
FACS website:
www.legalfacs.org
q
Law
Access New Mexico Help-Line:
1-800-340-9771 (income-qualified) www.lawaccess.org
q
NM
Legal Aid:
1-800-373-9881 or 982-9886 in Santa Fe (income-qualified)
http://nmlegalaid.org
The New
Mexico Child Support Enforcement Division
can help you with paternity cases and with child support cases.
Call them at (800) 288-7207, or find them
on-line at www.hsd.state.nm.us/csed
.
Some attorneys offer limited advice or representation.
For instance, you could hire an attorney just for advice about a
particular part of your case, or you could hire one to review the documents you
created by using the court’s forms. Attorneys
refer to this as “unbundled services”: instead
of buying the whole package you buy just the part you need most help with and
can afford.
________
The Court’s Self Help
Center has many forms, but they may not have a form for everything you may need.
Most of the forms at the Self Help Center are free.
REPRESENTING YOURSELF IN COURT
General
1.
When you do not have an attorney, you become your own attorney.
You must follow the same rules that a lawyer must follow. If you
fail to follow the rules, you may permanently lose important rights.
2.
Every case is handled according to the statutes (laws) and the rules.
Be sure you know what laws apply
in your case.
You
must follow the Rules of
Civil Procedure and the Local Rules whenever you appear in court for any reason
and whenever you file anything. The documents that are filed in a lawsuit are
called “pleadings”. The Rules tell
you what information must be included in your pleadings.
They tell you how to file, how long the other side has to respond, how
long you have to respond, etc.
The
Rules of Evidence govern all the information that is offered in your case.
They tell you what information may or must be presented to the judge or
hearing officer, and how to present it. The
judge can only hear information that is allowed by the Rules of Evidence.
Be sure to study the Rules before you do anything.
You
may find the rules and statutes at the Supreme Court Law Library, www.supremecourtlawlibrary.org
3. Do
not try to talk to the judge or hearing officer in private!
He or she cannot talk to one party without the
other party being present. All your
interactions with the judge or hearing officer will be in the formal setting of
a courtroom, in “hearings”, which are governed by the Rules of Civil
Procedure and Rules of Evidence.
4.
Provide
a current and reliable mailing address and telephone number to
the court, hearing office and the opposing party. Once you appear in
a case you may be notified of hearings or motions by mail only. If
you move and you miss a hearing because your mail fails to reach you, you may
permanently lose important rights. If you move after the first time
you file a pleading, you should file a change of address in the court file.
The judge or hearing officer will only mail notices to the address you provide
in the court file.
If you have a protective order in place that keeps your contact
information confidential, you must file a
Motion for Order to Seal so that alternative arrangements can be made for
notice.
5.
Appear at all scheduled hearings.
Arrive at least fifteen (15) minutes before the scheduled time and make sure the
administrative assistant, bailiff, or court monitor for the Judge or Hearing
Officer knows that you are present.
If
you have requested the Court to do something and you do not appear, your request will be dismissed. If the other
party is asking for something and you do not appear, they will normally get
whatever they are asking for.
If
you do not appear at a scheduled hearing, you may permanently lose your
opportunity to be heard on the issue.
6. Be Prepared! Bring all
your documents with you whenever you have a hearing.
You must provide the other side with copies of everything you want
to show the judge – before you get into court. If
you have documents you want to show the judge, bring copies for the other side.
7.
If you, or any witnesses you may need to testify, need an interpreter to help understand the hearing, you should inform the
administrative assistant for the judge or hearing officer assigned to your case at
least twenty-four hours before the hearing. An interpreter will be
provided at no cost for anyone who needs help understanding English. If
you have any other special needs to assist you in participating in your hearing,
please inform the administrative assistant as soon as possible after receiving
notice of hearing. Every effort will be made to ensure that your access to
all services of the court will not be limited.
8.
The Court Clerks can give you information from the Court file including
your case number, who the assigned judge is, and what pleadings have been filed.
Clerks may not give you legal advice about
how to proceed in your lawsuit. You
can see what is in your case file by coming to the courthouse and asking at the
Clerks Office to review the court file. You
can get copies from the file for a charge of $.35 cents a page.
You MAY NOT remove anything from the court file.
9.
Some documents must be notarized. Notaries
are available in the Self Help Center, in the Clerk’s Office, and the offices
of the judges and hearing officers. You must have a picture identification
and you must sign in front of the
notary. If you have a document that must
be notarized, DO NOT sign it until you are physically in front of the notary.
Please do not ask notaries to sign for someone who is not present.
Remember that having your signature notarized means you swear that the contents
of the paper you've signed are true, under penalty of perjury.
Courtroom
Behavior
1.
When you come to court, dress with
dignity. Do not wear shorts, flip-flops, sunglasses, halter tops, tank
tops, baggy jeans, T-shirts with rude messages, or other distracting clothing.
Make sure any metal on your clothing (e.g., belts, shirts/jackets with metal
buttons) can be removed, or you won’t make it through security.
Be clean.
2.
Don’t be on time – be early, at least 15 minutes. You
need to allow time to go through security, find your courtroom and check in.
Remember to allow time to find parking and get to the courthouse.
Bring enough change for the parking meter – you can’t get change in
the courthouse, and once your hearing starts you can’t leave until it’s
over.
3.
Don’t chew gum or eat or drink in the courtroom.
4.
Turn your cell phone off, not just on “vibrate”.
5.
At your hearing or trial, you address the judge as “Your Honor”.
If your hearing is before a hearing officer, you address her as “Madame
Hearing Officer” unless she tells you to call her something else.
6.
Stand up when you address the court.
Sitting down while you’re talking to the judge only happens on TV.
7.
DO NOT
BRING CHILDREN TO COURT. Unless a child has been subpoenaed to
testify, find a babysitter. Children are not
allowed in the courtrooms or hearing rooms. No day care is provided by
courthouse staff. Children may not be left unattended.
Before you go to Family Court (Flyer)
________
OPENING or REOPENING YOUR CASE
You
must
follow the Rules of Civil Procedure and the Local Rules whenever you file
anything. They tell you what
information must be included in your pleadings.
They tell you how to file, how long the other side has to respond, how
long you have to respond, etc. Be sure to look at the Rules before you do anything.
You can find them at www.supremecourtlawlibrary.org.
Many
forms are available from the Self Help Center, including packets of forms for
divorces and parentage (paternity) cases and kinship guardianship cases.
The Self Help Center DOES NOT have every kind of form you might need for
every purpose.
There
is no general Complaint form to open a civil case.
To
Open or Re-Open a Case:
1.
You open a case by filing
a Petition or Complaint.
All documents in the case are filed in the Court Clerk's
Office. Any filed document is called
a “pleading”. When you file your
case, you must have the original Petition and enough copies for each person who
is a party. If you do not have enough copies, the Court Clerk will
make them for you at a cost of $.35 per page.
The
original pleading will be kept by the Clerk for the Court file. The copies
will be stamped with the date the pleading was filed. These are
called “endorsed” copies.
Many
forms are available at the Self Help Center. Many of these forms are also
available to download from this web site. Click here
to link to the Forms page. Please
remember that the Self Help Center does not carry a form for every purpose.
You
may need to do further research – the Supreme Court Law Library is a good
place – to figure out what information to put in your pleading.
2.
In order to open a new case (or reopen a case that has been closed for
more than ninety days) you must pay a filing fee. Click here
for a list of filing fees. Personal checks are not accepted. You
must have cash, or a cashier’s check or money order made out to the First
Judicial District Court.
If
you cannot afford to pay a filing fee you may request free process or a reduced
fee on the Application for Free Process remember that the information you
provide on the Application for Free Process is under oath, subject to perjury.
Also, if evidence that is introduced later at a hearing differs from the
information on your Application for Free Process, you may be ordered to pay the
fee.
3.
After you file your Petition or Complaint, you must "Serve" the opposing party. Study Rule of Civil
Procedure 1-004 (www.supremecourtlawlibrary.org)
to find out how to properly serve the other party.
If service is not proper, your case
will be dismissed.
If
you are reopening a case that has
been closed for more than 45 days, you must file a Summons and Petition or
Motion, and you must have these pleadings personally served by the Sheriff, or a
person who is not a party and who is over the age of eighteen (18) years.
If the case has been closed more than 90 days, you will also have to pay a
filing fee.
After
a Petition or Complaint is served on the other party, they have 30 days to file
an Answer.
Nothing will happen in your case until this time has passed!
Judges will almost never act without giving both sides an opportunity to
present their side.
After
the case has been opened, whenever you want to ask the Court to do something,
you must
put your requests in the form of a written
Motion or Request, file it, and provide copies to the other side.
A
copy of everything you file must
be provided to the other party. All motions on ongoing cases and correspondence
must be mailed to the other party or their lawyer. You must note on your
pleading or correspondence when you mailed it to the other party.
This is called a “Certificate of Service”.
The
other side always has a chance to respond to a Motion or Request made by one
side. Check the Rules of Civil
Procedure to find out how long you have to respond to a Motion filed by the
other side, or how long they have to respond to a Motion you file.
If
you ask the Court to do something (by filing a Motion) and the other side
objects (by filing a written Reply to the Motion), the Court may decide the
issue based on the written pleadings (the Motion and the Reply), or the Court
may set a hearing so that both of you may present your side.
If you want to talk to the judge to present your side and not just rely
on the written Motion, you must file a Request for Hearing. If the Court
decides to have a hearing, you will receive a Notice of Hearing that sets the
date and time that you MUST appear.
Do
not try to talk to the judge or hearing officer in private!
He or she cannot talk to one party without the
other party being present. All your
interactions with the judge or hearing officer will be in the formal setting of
a courtroom, in “hearings”, which are governed by the Rules of Civil
Procedure and Rules of Evidence.
If
you have received a notice of hearing you must be prepared to present all
your evidence on the day of the hearing. Bring copies of your written
evidence (exhibits) and provide them to the other party before the hearing.
If you need a witness to help you prove your side, you may request the Clerk's
Office to issue a subpoena for that witness. The Sheriff's office may serve
subpoenas for you.
Rule
of Civil Procedure 1-045 sets out the rules regarding subpoenas and witness
fees. Expert witnesses such as doctors, psychologists or accountants may
require advance payment of fees. You should consult with any experts
you wish to testify for you before you
arrange for a subpoena.
IF
YOU CAN’T ATTEND A SCHEDULED HEARING
If
an emergency arises which requires you to
vacate (cancel) or continue (postpone) a hearing, follow these steps:
1.
You must contact the other party, unless you have an Order Prohibiting
Domestic Violence, and tell them that you need to cancel or postpone the hearing
and why. Find out if they will agree to cancel or postpone the
hearing.
2.
If the other party agrees, you must call the judge or the hearing officer's
administrative assistant and tell them you are going to file a request for
vacation or a continuance. Then fill out a Motion
for Vacation or Continuance, being sure to state that the other party
does not object to a continuance, and file
it.
3.
If the other party does not agree, you
must call the judge or the hearing officer's administrative assistant and tell
them you are going to file a request for vacation or a continuance, and
the other party does not agree. Then fill out a Motion for Vacation or
Continuance, stating that the other party does object to a continuance, and file
it.
4.
The judge or hearing officer may grant the continuance, or he or she may
set a hearing in person or by telephone to hear the other party's objections
before ruling on your request to continue the hearing.
5.
A hearing is never canceled or postponed
until the judge or hearing officer cancels or postpones it. Just
because you or the other side has filed a motion to vacate or continue the
hearing doesn’t mean it has been granted.
Make sure you have heard from the
judge's administrative assistant that you do not need to appear before you fail
to appear.
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FILING PLEADINGS
The documents that are filed with the court in a lawsuit are called “pleadings”. Every document that you want the judge or hearing officer to see in your case MUST be filed with the Court Clerk’s Office. Take the original document, and enough copies for all the parties in the case including yourself, to the Court Clerk’s Office. They will keep the original to put in the court file, stamp the copies to show that they have been filed, and return the copies to you. Except for the Petition or Complaint (which is the pleading that opens a case), there is no fee to file pleadings. Click Here
If
you don’t have enough copies, the clerk will make them for you at a cost of
$.35 per page, payable in cash, money order or cashier check.
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WHAT DOES “SERVICE” MEAN?
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VIOLATIONS OF COURT ORDERS OR FILED AGREEMENTS IN DIVORCE OR PARENTAGE CASES
What do you do when a court has ordered someone to do something in a family law case, and they don’t do it?
If the
order that isn’t being followed has to do with money – for instance, child
support or interim income allocation – then you may consider filing a Motion for Order
to Show Cause, along with a Request for Hearing.
Be aware that
what you are requesting with this Motion is for the other party to tell the
judge why he or she shouldn’t be put in jail for failing to follow the order. Because
the other party’s freedom is at stake, he or she will be entitled to a
court-appointed attorney.
If you are the person who filed a Motion for an Order to Show
Cause, you are NOT entitled to an attorney to represent you, because you
are not accused of doing something (or failing to do something) for which you
can be jailed. Instead, you are the
one who is accusing the other person of violating the law or a court order.
If the
order that isn’t being followed isn’t about money – for instance,
the other side has failed to transfer title to a car or other property
– then you may consider filing a Motion to Enforce, along with a Request for Hearing.
The
court may appoint an attorney to represent anyone who is at risk of being jailed
for violation of a law or court order, if they can’t afford to pay an
attorney. This is the ONLY time the
court will appoint a lawyer to represent someone.
If
you are accused of violating a civil law or a court order, you will have
received an Order to Show Cause.
DO NOT IGNORE THIS ORDER! This
Order tells you to come to court and tell the judge why you should NOT be put in
jail for violating the law or an order. If you do not appear at your Show Cause hearing, the judge may issue a
Bench Warrant for your arrest.
If
an Order to Show Cause has been issued against you, you may obtain a packet for
Application for Appointment of Attorney from the Self Help Center.
The packet includes a Motion for Appointment of Attorney, an Affidavit of
Indigency, and an Order for Appointment of Attorney.
Fill in the Motion and Affidavit and file them in the Clerk’s Office.
Then take endorsed copies to the Judge’s assistant.
If
your Motion is approved, an attorney will be appointed to represent you.
If you are the person who filed a Motion for an Order to Show
Cause, you are NOT entitled to an attorney to represent you, because you
are not accused of doing something (or failing to do something) for which you
can be jailed. Instead, you are the
one who is accusing the other person of violating the law or a court order.