by Dennis Archer, President, American Bar Association

One out of five Americans faces a significant legal issue each year. Studies show that the legal matters that most affect us are the very stuff of everyday life. The major legal areas, in order of the frequency with which they occur, are:

1. Home purchases, home rentals, and property disputes;
2. Divorce, including property settlements, child custody, and child support;
3. Estate planning, preparation of a will or trust, and settlement of the estate of someone who has died;
4. Personal injury, encompassing damages to people or property through automobile collisions and other mishaps;
5. Traffic violations.

Other fairly common legal matters that Americans face include insurance claims, credit, debt collection and bankruptcy, computer law, health law, and law in the workplace.

So the chances are very strong that you or someone in your family needs or will need practical, easy-to-understand information about these areas of everyday law.

This book covers all these topics—and more. It can be your "first response" to a very wide range of legal situations. It can give you options to consider as you try to find the best way to protect your assets or solve a problem.

Legal problems are all different—some require immediate action so that you can protect your rights, but others might be solved through negotiation, mediation, or some other means. Many legal problems can be avoided altogether by good planning.

It's important that you know and understand your rights and options. It's important that you understand the language of the law and know and respect the rights of others.

That's why public education and public service are two of the most important goals of the American Bar Association. The American Bar Association is the nation's premier source of legal information. With more than 400,000 members, representing every specialty and every type of legal practice, the ABA is uniquely able to deliver accurate, up-to-date, unbiased legal information to its members, to the media, and to the general public. The ABA website—www.abanet.org—is an unrivaled database in the legal field.

On this website, the ABA provides everything from suggestions on how to find and work with a lawyer to help in finding programs for persons unable to afford legal help. It also offers information for consumers on such practical topics as making a will and buying online. One part of the site—www.abalawinfo.org—gives you help in determining how the law affects such vital areas as your job, your home, and your finances. Its section on the family, for example, covers basic faqs of family law and topics such as women and the law, children, the elderly, family health, divorce, and domestic violence. The ABA site also will help you find key information in your community.

This book provides you with the benefit of the ABA's network of hundreds of thousands of lawyers. It was written with the aid of ABA members from all over the country who are experts in the areas of law covered by this book, including judges and professors of law as well as lawyers who practice in these areas and cope with these issues every day. The ABA's Standing Committee on Public Education and its staff added their professional expertise.

Because of all of the lawyers who worked on this book, you can be sure that the information it includes is useful, helpful, unbiased, written in a reader-friendly style that you can understand easily, and reflective of a national picture, since ABA members practice in all jurisdictions.

Finally, we hope that this book also gives you a broader understanding of the role of law in our society. The law isn't just for lawyers, but for all Americans. Not only is the law the cornerstone of our democracy, it is also the glue that holds us together as a society. The county courthouse is a good symbol of our belief in the rule of law, because it is the place where anyone, regardless of income or social standing, can seek justice in an impartial court, under rules that assure fairness.

The law is the best way that we have devised to resolve disputes by reason instead of force. It gives us our best chance to assure justice. Preserving the rule of law, and helping people understand and appreciate the law, are central to the mission of the American Bar Association.

The ABA is the largest voluntary association in the world. Besides its commitment to public education, the ABA provides programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public, including promoting fast, affordable alternatives to lawsuits, such as mediation, arbitration, conciliation, and small-claims courts. Through ABA support for lawyer referral programs and pro bono services (where lawyers donate their time), people have been able to find the best lawyer for their particular case and have received quality legal help within their budgets.

Dennis Archer is President of the American Bar Association. He is a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and more recently served as mayor of Detroit.