Book and Software Reviews:

Family Lawyer: Available in several versions from Parsons Technology this is a fine program and provides a wide array of business and personal legal forms and letters in an easy Windows format. It has a quick summary of what is available and its definition for the following subjects: 1) Estate/Personal; 2) Powers of Attorney; 3) Health & Medical; 4) Consumer Credit; 5) Real Estate; 6) Financial; 7) Corporate; 8) Employment and 9) other. If you need one of the specific documents provided, then it is a very good and highly automated program that virtually writes the entire letter for you. The deluxe CD-ROM Windows version has some audio and multimedia portions that are aimed at enhancing the user-friendly interface. We could dwell on its many weak spots, since it is impossible for any program, to begin to cover more than a fraction of legal or financial areas -- but this product is the best in the field and reasonably priced. The areas where it needs improvement, which I believe could be accomplished, are: 1) Family law, custody, visitation, support items and related letters; 2) Additional letters and how to challenge the sham investigation and "verifications" by credit bureaus by providing the step-by-step letter series on how to force credit bureaus to pay attention to documents and photocopies provided by the consumer, as contrasted to merely requesting that the supplier of the wrong information send it a second time; 3) A section on how to handle parking and traffic tickets and 4) Complete their legal dictionary, whose concept and definitions are good -- but is currently quite inadequate as it is missing not only obscure terms such as "sua sponte" but the incorporated dictionary lacks terms no legal dictionary should ever overlook, such as: Pendent; Pro Se; Pro Per and Lis Pendens to name a few obvious ones. The upgrade, regular version and the deluxe on CD-ROM are available for a range of prices from $19 to $39. The 24 hour order no. is 800-223-6925.

Nolo's Pocket Guide to Family Law by Robin Leonard, Esq. and Stephen Elias, is a great quick reference book to terms, state rules and other useful information for child support, adoption, marriage, divorce, custody and visitation, mediation, annulment, alimony, surrogacy, living together, marital property and miscellaneous related matters. This book has been found to so useful to our members that everyone who has borrowed it from our legal resource center always refuses to bring it back and thus we no longer loan one out. We now keep a few copies available for resale to our members. The book is very reasonably priced and well worth every penny of its modest $14.95 price.

Practical Divorce Solutions by Ed Sherman, Esq. gets our highest rating for a pro se legal aid because of its easy to understand and readable style. It provides many of the necessary worksheets and forms one should employ in the unfortunate, but widespread American domestic family scene. This book is a must read even if you will never be divorced because everybody has friends that will end up in the unfortunate circumstance of divorce and this, like many other books and information, is best read and understood prior to the divorce. The book clearly points out that the real divorce is the breakdown of the marriage and its relationship and that the legal aspect is only the formal recognition of the end of the marriage. It provides the information, including a "Divorce Roadmap" and the advantages, disadvantages, consequences, and costs of following different routes. The author maintains (not surprisingly) an uncontested divorce is the best for all parties. If that does not seem possible it also deals with how best to deal in a divorce where the other party is determined to wage war. The book is a super bargain at only $14.95 from Nolo Press, whose toll free order number is 800-992-6656. Following its advice will save most people a lot of grief and $10,000 to $30,000 in divorce attorney fees. This is one of a half-dozen books we deem so useful and necessary that we keep a few on hand for NJ members who suddenly need to pick one up and can not wait a week or more to obtain a copy from Nolo or a book dealer.

USSC+ on CD-ROM by InfoSynthesis is one of the best and easiest to install and use CD case law resource tools we have seen. It has a user friendly Windows interface and ordinary word and combinations of word query. In addition to the full-Text Decisions of the United States Supreme Court, it provides important constitutional and court information. It is recommended for any law office library or American Pro Se Resource Center and is priced at a more reasonable $195 plus $5 shipping and handling and represents a purchase -- not a rental to be returned in six months. In fact InfoSynthesis does just the reverse -- they urge one to pass their old CD-ROM on to another -- because they are enlightened enough to know the product and its fair price will likely sell itself because nobody will want to go too long before obtaining an update every year or so as the law changes anyway. InfoSynthesis number is 800-784-7036 but our members and ALA (Approved Legal Advisors - Lawyers) can obtain it through us for only $150 (including postage and handling) or a 25% discount! If interested call or Fax us at Tel: 908-753-4516 Fax: 908-753-2599

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