People's Law School offers community access to lawyers, legal system.

Most citizens' exposure to the justice system comes from television or from personal experience, perhaps involving child custody hearings or wills and estates. Those informed by television usually don't get the full picture, and those who go to court for the first time in real life may become overwhelmed by a system that seems foreign and daunting.

The People's Law School is designed to change all that. Created in 1978, the ATLA program is modeled after evening community adult education courses. It attempts to educate nonlawyers across the country on legal topics that affect their daily lives. Divorce, employment discrimination, and real estate transactions are just a few areas of law that participants study under the guidance of local lawyers, prosecutors, and judges.

Each People's Law School program is independent. The national committee at ATLA publishes an organizer's manual recommending guidelines to present a successful course, but individual organizers tailor the program to appeal to their own communities.

The cost to the local organizers often is minimal when volunteers and co-sponsoring organizations like universities, social service agencies, or community groups help with in-kind support. The charge for the course varies among the states. It usually runs from $10 to $25 per person. Most important, there's no bar exam to take. Evaluations from the students show they gain a great deal of knowledge from the abbreviated law course.

"We covered about 12 topics in six weeks, and, for every topic, people said, We want more on this,'" said Virginia Van Valkenburg, a lawyer and co-chair of ATLA's People's Law School Committee. "The evaluations were excellent."

Van Valkenburg and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association have sponsored courses in the Norfolk, Virginia, area that have attracted about 150 participants to each session. "The response was huge," she said of their first program. "We booked up immediately. This shows a real need, a hunger by people who want to know about their legal rights." Other ATLA members have reported similar response in their communities.

In Washington state, Gerhard Letzing, executive director of the state trial lawyers association, has organized many People's Law School programs since 1986. He has moved on from tailoring classes to the general public to creating entire programs for specific populations, such as one for Spanish-speaking Americans, one for nurses, and one for owners of small businesses.

"The People's Law School demystifies our civil justice system," Letzing said. "Working people may not have enough money to hire an attorney to explain their rights to them. This program gives them access to legal professionals."

Lance Sears, a Colorado Springs attorney and a past committee co-chair, said he believes the program is especially effective in smaller jurisdictions, using a six- to eight-week course format (two hours, one night a week), with topics presented by different law professionals each session. Some jurisdictions opt for weekend sessions, while others sponsor daylong sessions on particular topics. They might present a session for senior citizens, for example, on probate issues.

In addition to the public service that the People's Law School courses offer to citizens, Sears said lawyers in his region began to realize a potent side benefit.

"The general population is very prone to believing misinformation about the legal profession because the law is so foreign to them. [Through the program,] we not only get positive PR for the profession but we also get the chance to educate potential jurors about the system so they're not subject to 'brainwashing'" by corporations and the insurance industry, for example.

Laura Coltelli Rose, a current People's Law School Committee co-chair who has been active in organizing a program in Martinsburg, West Virginia, over the past 10 years, echoed Sears's comments.

"A lot of folks who come to the People's Law School do sit on juries," she said. "I think they get a different or more enlightened view of the [legal] process. It makes people feel good--as they should--about the jury system."

Rose said the issue of holding people accountable for their actions is one aspect of the legal system that she and the local People's Law School try to emphasize during their classes.

"Accountability is a lesson that we were taught as kids and one we revisit through the legal system," she said. "The jury system is the greatest vehicle for change. It's more powerful than the government. The reason that breast implants were finally taken off the market was because the manufacturers were scared to death when people cried out and said someone's got to be held accountable.

"The People's Law School is a terrific program that helps all of us come back to our roots as Americans," Rose said. "The more people know about the legal system, the better it will work for everyone. I think the People's Law School has been an incredible success."

For more information on the People's Law School, contact co-chairs Virginia Van Valkenburg at [phone] or Laura Coltelli Rose at [phone]; or call Marcia Feldman, director of ATLA public interest programs, at [phone], ext. 380.