San Mateo County Law Library

Simply awesome resource! Best of all, Ruth was incredibly helpful, going up and above to help me find my way to the answers I needed. Bravo, Ruth!!

I have asked if my 4 year old boy can use the restroom at 2:49 Saturday, but they worked till 3:00. They said they were already closed. That's how they treat kids. Why did we pay so high taxes? How do public libraries exist on our taxes and treat our kids like that?

The service was truly excellent. Antonela is very kind and helped me a lot. I am very grateful for her help.

Antonella, a staff member here, really went out of her way to send me a book quickly. I really appreciate her help! This library has an excellent selection of useful books for purchase or checking out.

All these books deserve to belong to Martindale Hubbell immediately I HATE LAW LIBRARIES.

These people are ABSOLUTELY AWESOME, extremely helpful and they are only paid by court fees and donations.. so DONATE!!

Needs more government support

I have used the San Mateo Law Library for ten years or more. In this time I have been thrown out several times for asking questions; and with claims of using the computers illegally and other actions. I have found the present Director to be incompetent, overpaid and a main cause for the massive lack of the libraries total utilization. The present Director monitors and manages the library through her cubby hole window. At Board meetings with Board members that have been there thirty years or more-they spend a half hour during each session to discuss the Director's salary and perks. The Director is essentially a secretary/assistant-that gets paid over $100,000 a year for a twenty hour week. While the library bleeds to death due to the lack of utilization, she has been getting paid while the library deficit has exploded. Since she is on the public dole and many people have no knowledge the libraries demise,, the board members go along with the death march. I have called for an audit and the directors termination. I will write letters and continue my campaign until this Director is fired. We live in a digital age but the SM library staff does not know it. In this decade, the number of complaints filed per year has dropped from ten million cases to three and one half million. And with the new paralegal domain exploding in numbers, I know how to make the library user friendly in this new paralegal world. I got my paralegal certificate in 2023, while the SM Law Library is still stuck in 1980. The incompetent Director has to go before I bring my proposals to the SMLL Board and the California Judicial Counsel. In the meantime-the word is out that the Board is huddling with other attorneys SMLL real estate discussions. Over the past three years, the Director and Board have unloaded tens of thousands of law books without updated the technology that goes with full service law firms today. Recently, the present Director cut me from speaking at an event-so the next time I had to bring a police officer with me before hand. The SM Board of Supervisors claim they lack authority to remove the Director although they supply Board members as Trustees

An excellent community asset. I'm glad the library exists. I wonder if this smaller standalone building is the best use of this land.

A good resource for attorneys and people in need of legal guidance (self-help or legal research).