Johnson added that with the foundation s generous grant, the bar also was able to spruce up its online version of Kids and the Law and make another 100,000 print copies available for schools, organizations and other groups who want to incorporate the guide into their ongoing programs. Villa said she first became familiar with Kids and the Law in 1997 when she was serving as president of the Mexican American Bar Association. I thought the book was a great idea as soon as I heard about it, she said. She remembers ordering several hundred copies to distribute to children in Los Angeles area schools for an outreach program called Talk to a Lawyer Day on the first Monday of October. We received lots of great feedback from parents and teachers, Villa said.
Plans also are underway to translate the guide into Spanish.
Villa said she would like to see the guide eventually translated into other languages as well. Kids and the Law was triggered in the mid-1990s after a State Bar survey revealed that many children were unclear about certain laws and the consequences for breaking them. The survey suggested that while most children in their adolescent and teen years would turn to their parents with legal questions, they actually learned more about the law from school and television. The bar s consumer education pamphlets cover topics such as divorce, child custody, small claims court, wills, estate planning, hiring a lawyer, arrest, renting an apartment and buying a house.