Alaska Court System Legal Resources

Eligible Borrowers

• Court personnel
• Alaska Bar Association members
• Authorized employees of Alaska Bar Association members

Members of the Alaska Bar Association may designate employees to borrow items for them.

Circulation Rules

• Circulating print materials may be checked out for 7 days.
• Primary law, legislative history, historical materials, and archival materials do not circulate.
• Some non-circulating materials may be checked out overnight at the librarian's discretion.
• Items usually may be renewed.
• Electronic materials may be checked out by eligible borrowers if the vendor allows such circulation.
• Library materials may be recalled from a borrower if needed by court staff.
• Materials borrowed from another library are covered by our Interlibrary Loan Policies.

Fines and Penalties

Borrowers are responsible for all materials they check out on their account (either by them or by individuals that they authorize to check out materials for them). The library does not charge overdue fines. However, borrowers may have their checkout privileges suspended if they repeatedly retain materials past the due date, or fail to respond to overdue or recall notices.

Borrowers will be billed for lost items at a replacement cost determined by the library plus a $25 processing fee per item.

The Law Library will request materials unavailable locally on behalf of eligible borrowers. See the request copies heading for information about requesting materials from the Law Library.

Eligible Borrowers

Court personnel and Alaska Bar Association members qualify for this free service, provided their requests are work-related. Requests by eligible borrowers that are not work-related or by those who are not eligible borrowers should be requested through your local public library.

Procedure

Requester must complete a Request for Information form. Completed request forms must be legible and contain a full citation including author, title and other relevant citation information. Requests should also include the source of the citation. Library staff may refuse to accept any request that is incomplete or illegible. Completed requests should be emailed, faxed or mailed to the Anchorage Law Library, or given to library staff at the Anchorage, Fairbanks, or Juneau law libraries.

Use of Borrowed Materials

The lending library sets the loan period and any restrictions on the use of materials. Any request for renewal must be placed before the due date.

Time Frame

Most requests for copies arrive within one week. Book requests generally arrive within two weeks, but some may take a month or longer to arrive. The time elapsed between placing a request and receiving the item depends on the location of the lending library and mail service.

Penalties

The library does not charge overdue fines for interlibrary loan materials, but the lending library may impose fines. Remember: the cooperative spirit of interlibrary loan will only work if borrowers respect the due dates set by the lending library. Borrowers who willfully fail to return borrowed interlibrary loan materials by the due date will not be eligible for future interlibrary loans of books. Borrowers are responsible for all charges incurred for overdue or lost interlibrary loan materials.

Court employees are prohibited from giving legal advice. Advising people what the law is and how it applies to their situation is practicing law, which is what lawyers do. Library staff are able to help you use the library, but we cannot research or interpret the law for you.

If you need someone who will research and interpret the law for you, you should consider talking to an attorney. The Alaska Bar Association offers a Lawyer Referral Service, available Monday - Friday 8:30 am - Noon; 1:00 - 4:00 pm:

907-272-0352
(800) 770-9999 (Outside Anchorage)

This service provides you with the names and phone numbers of three attorneys who practice in the area of law you need help with. If you use one of those three attorneys, you are guaranteed a rate of $125 or less for the first half hour of their time. Please note that this service includes only those attorneys who have requested to participate - it does not include all members of the Alaska Bar Association. You can also consult telephone yellow pages, or ask people you know to recommend a good attorney. Court staff cannot provide attorney recommendations.

If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be able to get help from Alaska Legal Services Corporation. They offer some legal services to qualified individuals. They also offer legal clinics on a variety of topics including custody, divorce and landlord-tenant issues. Refer to their home page at https://www.alsc-law.org/ for more information.

If you wish to do your own legal research we encourage you to visit your nearest Law Library branch. Staff at Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau law libraries can show you what resources and indexes are available, but you are responsible for your own research. All other branches are unstaffed.

The following written policies are designed to help fulfill the library's mission to provide accessible and comprehensive legal information and services for all Alaskans.

• Borrowing Policy
• Donations Policy & Receipt Form
• General Library Use Policy
• How Library Staff Can Help You
• Interlibrary Loan Policy
• Public Computer Use Policy
• Suspension Policy

Forms

• Authorization Form
• Request for Information

Law Library staff will copy and email, fax, or mail materials in our collection to attorneys and the general public, subject to the following restrictions:

• We cannot do legal research
• We require a complete citation
• Our fax limit is 20 pages

To request copies:

• Call the Law Library or email or complete a Request for Information form.
• Completed request forms must be legible and contain a full citation including author, title and other relevant information. Requests should also include the source of the citation, if known.
• Email, fax or mail the Request for Information form:
  
  Law Library
  303 K Street
  Anchorage, AK 99501
  
  907-264-0585 (phone) or 888-282-2082 (in Alaska, but outside the Municipality of Anchorage)
  907-264-0733 (fax)
  Email Us

We do not charge for this service. However, we will limit the number of copy requests supplied to one address each week if the request is excessive.