Free Legal Resources

 

Alaska has many resources to help you successfully navigate your legal issues on your own. For help using any of these resources, please contact us and we’ll put your in touch with our attorney or paralegal.

These resources are not intended to be legal advice.

Where to Start

Alaska Law Help is an amazing free resource providing materials on a variety of legal issues. It was made specifically for pro se litigants.

The Alaska Court System provides resources on it’s Representing Yourself page which covers different types of cases (family law, probate, landlord-tenant, and others).

The Alaska Court System’s Family Law Self-Help Center is particularly in-depth and useful. The state also has a guide to Landlord-Tenant Law.

Here are all the Alaska state court forms.

The Alaska Court System also allows you to look up cases online: trial cases or appeals cases.

The State of Alaska provides the Small Business Assistance Center which has information on a number of topics including marketing, financing, licensing, taxes, and more. It also has this informational page simply titled Business.

Access the Law

Please note that while all of the following resources are free and publicly available, the text of the law is complex and can be easily confused. We highly recommend speaking with our office or another professional to explain the text of the law before relying on or arguing it.

Here are the Alaska Statutes online.

All of the Alaska Court Rules can be found here.

Here is the Alaska Administrative Code online.

Here is the state’s site for Hunting and Fishing Regulations.

Municipal and city codes are also available for free online: Aleutians East, Anchorage, Bethel, Bristol Bay, Denali, Dillingham, Fairbanks North Star, Haines, Homer, Juneau, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Kenai (city) Ketchikan, Kodiak, Kotzebue, Lake and Peninsula (King Salmon area), MatSu, Nome, Northwest Arctic, Palmer, Petersburg, Sitka, Skagway, Wasilla, WrangellUtqiagvik, and Yakutat. (Let us know if we’ve missed any!)

Dig Deeper into the law

There are a number of Alaska State Law Libraries across the state which provide access to research materials, legal databases, and librarians to help you navigate these. The Anchorage branch is open six days a week and has computers, printers, on-site librarians, and newly remodeled workspaces.

Students, staff, and faculty of the University of Alaska have access to a number of legal databases through the Consortium Library.

The Anchorage Public Library System is also a great resource. The Loussac Library and UAA’s Consortium Library (both in midtown Anchorage) provide public access to free computers, scanners, and workspace along with low-cost printing.

The Alaska Legislature’s Library provides contact information for its librarian along with this guide on legislative research. Alaska’s legislative history can be accessed on InfoBases. It’s physical branch in Juneau offers public access.

The Alaska Legislature’s Website also provides information on pending legislation (including bill text & status, supporting documents, and meeting minutes) along with tons of other information about the legislature. Here is the page of future opportunities to provide public testimony.

Research and Connect

The Alaska Bar Association has a list of Pro Bono Service Providers, non-profit law firms that provide free representation to those in need.

Also, if you have low or no income, you have statutory and constitutional rights to an attorney in certain cases including criminal (explained here) and child-in-need-of-aid (CINA) matters.

VineLink is a free service that allows you to look up people in custody and find where they are housed and when they may be released.

Alaska Employee Directory allows you to look up the contact information for most state employees.

The Alaska Bar Association has a Member Directory of all attorneys licensed in Alaska.

The Alaska Legislature’s Website allows you to figure out who represents you and how to contact them. The state also provides information on our Congressional representatives.

You can access property records across the state online for free: Anchorage, Fairbanks and the North Slope, the Kenai, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Juneau, Matsu.

The State of Alaska has a ‘corporations database’ which includes all licensed businesses and non-profits in the state and often their contact information.

GuideStar is a database of non-profits in the U.S. (including Alaska) and provides free access to their tax info and other filings.

Other Resources

The Alaska Bar Association’s Adopted Ethics Opinion 93-1 has quite a bit of legalese but explains how Alaska attorneys can provide limited scope services to litigants who represent themselves.

The Alaska Court System provides information on its therapeutic courts which offer an alternative to the criminal or CINA process.

The Alaska ACLU has published this Prisoners’ Rights Handbook.

The Alaska Court System has a guide on getting a protective order.

The Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault has published this Women’s Legal Rights Handbook which covers a number of areas of law.

The state has a page entitled Victims’ Rights Handbook.

The Alaska Bar Association has published this Youth Law Guide which includes a diversity of topics including getting guns across the Canadian border and tanning salons.

The Alaska Business Development Center provides free tax preparation services for those in rural areas and of low-income. United Way Anchorage provides these services in the Anchorage area. AARP offers free services across the state to non-members; here is the AARP 2020 schedule.

Let us know about additional resources!