Is it Possible to Find Good, Free Legal Resources? Part 1

Believe it or not, there are a lot of free legal resources available to anyone who knows how to find them.

There are two problems with free legal resources:
1. Being able to find something that is relevant to you or your potential legal problems, and
2. Figuring out whether the free resource you've discovered is worth what you paid for it.

Since I can't always be there to hold everyone's hands while searching for free legal resources (and since I only hold my wife's hand anyways) you will have to do some of this on your own. But let me at least point out one resource that you can all easily check out to get some free legal forms.

Microsoft Word

So, even if you don't like the 'M' company, if you who have a version of Microsoft Word installed on a computer, you have easy access to a simple, yet helpful, free legal resource. I'll explain how to find it using Microsoft Word 2007 but the steps will be similar for most MS Word versions.

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Open a new document. For MS Word 2007, click on the windows symbol in the top left corner.
3. Click on 'New'. You should get a screen that pops up and asks you what kind of new document you would like to create. In the column on the left, you should see several types of documents.
4. Pick 'Forms'. Then you get several categories of forms. One category should say 'Legal Forms'.
5. Click on 'Legal Forms' and you should see several examples of various legal forms that have been created.
Some of these have been created by Microsoft employees, and others have been submitted by users of Microsoft Word. Some might be relevant to you, whereas something like the 'Kentucky General Durable Power of Attorney' will be useless to someone who will never live east of the Mississippi.
Even if most of these don't seem helpful, I'll point out one that most, if not all, of you can use. Under the 'Personal Forms' category, you can find a document called 'Glove Box Accident Information Form'. You should print a copy of this off for each vehicle you own/drive and put it in your glove box.

So why is this so important?
If you ever get in a car accident, the 'Glove Box Accident Information Form' can save you a lot of headache later down the road. And no, the 'Glove Box Accident Information Form' is not a chiropractor and will not adjust your back to help reduce your whiplash induced headaches. But it can help prevent legal headaches. This applies no matter who caused the accident (and will probably be most helpful in situations where it is otherwise difficult to determine the driver at fault). 
The more information you collect at the time of an automobile accident, the more of a record you have on your side when it comes time to need it. If someone gets a ticket or if someone gets injured, there will be a time where you need it. Unfortunately, those things are pretty common when it comes to car accidents.
So, if you are defending yourself from traffic tickets or personal injury claims, or acting as a witness, or trying to recover damages for a personal injury you've suffered, the more information you have on your side, the more complete your legal position will be. Also, since not everybody has a perfect memory, courts will frequently allow someone to rely on information that was recorded at the time of an accident.
Just make sure that if you are injured and losing blood and you know you are going to pass out, fill out as much of the form as possible before you lose consciousness.

For those interested,  here is a direct link to the above mentioned form on Microsoft's website.

'Til next time,
Steve



^{*Thank you to M.S. Joe, a community member at Microsoft Office Online for publicly sharing a helpful document.}