Representing yourself in court can be a tricky endeavor. There are confusing legal terms to learn, strict procedures to follow and volumes of case law that often need to be understood to prepare a case. Lake County officials and a private agency that assists indigent litigants in Illinois want to make the practice easier by creating a self-help center for people who choose to represent themselves in legal matters. The center, which will be housed in the law library at the main courthouse in Waukegan, could open later this summer. "I think it's going to be extremely helpful," Court Administrator Bob Zastany said. "There is a population out there that will take advantage of this resource." The self-help center will be the only one of its kind in the county. Only a few operate nationwide, officials said. The project is the work of Lake County circuit court officials and Prairie State Legal Services, a statewide agency with an office in Waukegan that provides information and legal assistance to poor and elderly Illinois residents. The organization has received a $25,000 grant from the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, a nonprofit group that funds programs designed to increase access to legal information and assistance, to help pay for the effort. Prairie State will share the money with the county. The county's law library is on the first floor of the governmental center at 18 N. County St. The new self-help center will be designed to help litigants find the information they need to properly represent themselves in court, an undertaking that can be complicated and confusing. "Some people can do OK on their own, and some people can do OK with some help," said Linda Rothnagel, the managing attorney for Prairie State Legal Services. "But other people can't do it. It's not always easy." Self-representation is a right affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The practice is far more common in civil matters than in criminal cases. In fact, self-represented litigants - formally called "pro se" in Latin, or "for oneself" - in criminal defenses are so rare that statistics about the practice generally are not kept, legal experts say.

What are some facts about self-representation?

We need natural resources for just about everything we do. We need them for food and clothing, for building materials and energy. We even need them to have fun. Table 2.1 gives examples of how we use natural resources. Can you think of other ways we use natural resources? Use Vehicles Resources Rubber for tires from rubber trees Steel frames and other metal parts from minerals such as iron Example iron ore Electronics Plastic cases from petroleum prod- ucts Glass screens from minerals such as lead lead ore Use Homes Resources Nails from minerals such as iron Timber from trees Example spruce timber Jewelry Gemstones such as diamonds Minerals such as silver silver ore Food Sunlight, water, and soil Minerals such as phosphorus corn seeds in soil Clothing Wool from sheep Cotton from cotton plants cotton plants Recreation Water for boating and swimming Forests for hiking and camping pine forest Some natural resources are renewable. Others are not. It depends, in part, on how we use them.

What do we need to have fun

Billy and Sally are brother and sister. Billy is seven and Sally is eight. Their mother, Deborah, likes to have Billy and Sally dress up in costumes and play a game where they are answering the telephone. Usually when they play the game, Billy answers the telephone in a loud voice, and Sally answers the telephone in a quiet voice. On Tuesdays, Billy answers in a quiet voice, and Sally answers in a loud voice. On Fridays, Billy answers in a loud voice and Sally in a quiet voice. Billy has blonde hair. Sally has brown hair. Deborah has blonde hair, and Billy and Sally's father, Bob, has brown hair. He tells them to eat lettuce every time that he sees them, so that they grow big and strong like he is. Deborah likes to add some sugar with the lettuce so that Billy and Sally know what it is like to have sweet tastes in their life. One day, a Wednesday, Billy throws some lettuce into Sally's hair. Deborah laughs an grabs some straw from their farm and puts it in Billy's hair. Billy and Sally live on a farm. They have a goat, named Joey, and a duck, named Quack. They sometimes play a game with the goat where they chase him around the farm. Other times, they play a game with Quack where they wave at Quack and laugh. They have a fun life growing up on the farm.
What color hair does everyone have in Billy and Sally's family?