§ 129A.003.Promulgation of Forms

An access-to-justice provision, and an unusually detailed one.

The supreme court shall, as it finds appropriate, promulgate forms for use as an application for initial injunctive relief by individuals representing themselves, with instructions.

The audience is the point. A parent seeking to stop online harassment of their child is unlikely to have a lawyer, and a remedy they cannot access is no remedy.

Three requirements for the forms: written in language easily understood by the general public; readily available in the manner the supreme court prescribes; and translated into Spanish.

Subsection (c) handles the translation carefully. Either the Spanish version states that it is solely for the purpose of assisting understanding and may not be submitted, with the English version to be filed — or the Spanish is incorporated into the English form in a way both the court and the public can understand.

That second option is the better one, and it reflects a real difficulty: a form a person can read but not file is of limited use.

Subsection (d) requires a conspicuous statement that the form is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.

Subsection (e) puts a distribution duty on the attorney general and court clerks, who must inform the public of availability and make the form available free of charge.

Subsection (f) is the enforcement provision, and the important one: a court shall accept a promulgated form unless it has been completed in a manner causing a substantive defect that cannot be cured. A clerk cannot reject it for form.