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Self-Representation

Resource Guide

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Gregory Hurley

The Fourteenth and Sixteenth Amendments of the constitution guarantee the right of the accused to refuse legal representation and act without a lawyer by proceeding pro se, which is a Latin term meaning “for oneself” or “on one’s own behalf.” With the number of self-represented litigants increasing, especially within domestic relation cases, courts are responding by improving access to justice and making courts more user-friendly by simplifying court forms, providing one-on-one assistance, developing guides, handbooks, and instructions on how to proceed pro se, offering court-sponsored legal advice, developing court-based self-help centers, collaborating with libraries and legal services, and using Internet technologies to increase access. This has not only empowered people to solve their own problems and improve the public’s trust and confidence in the courts, but has likewise benefited the courts through smoother caseflow and increased quality of information presented to judges.

Links to related online resources are listed below. Non-digitized publications may be borrowed from the NCSC Library; call numbers are provided.

Featured Links

Selfhelpsupport.org A national clearinghouse for materials on self representation. NCSC is considered the "host organization" for this project.
Court Technology Conference Presentations

Presentations from earlier National Court Technology Conferences.

Justice System Journal Articles
Trends Articles
Access to Justice Resources This document is a listing of resources for implementation of access to justice recommendations made to the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators .
"Access to Justice: Economic Crisis Challenges, Impacts, and Responses."

Article from the Future Trends in State Courts 2009 report by Richard Zorza.

NACM Justice Achievement Awards

A compilation of the National Association for Court Management's Justice Achievement Awards from 2000-2011.

General

Fein, Honorable Dina E. & Sandra E. Lundy 2011 Annual Report on the Access to Justice Initiative In the Trial Court . (June 2012). Access to Justice Initiative This annual report summarizes the work of five major Task Forces in Massachusetts working under the Access to Justice Initiative, and discusses related developments.
Building State Justice Communities: A State Planning Report. (2001). Legal Services Corporation This report examines state planning in 18 states. It reports on changes in legal services delivery that each state has made since the Legal Services Corporation issued its call for state planning six years ago.
Committee On Resources for Self-Represented Parties: Strategic Plannning Initiative. (July 2006). This is a detailed report done for the Utah Judicial Council on the needs of self represented litigants and the burden they have on the system.  There are some statistics on the percentage of self represented litigants in the report.
Debt Weight. (October 2007). This research describes debt collection practices against consumers in New York City.  The vast majority of claims result in default judgments but a few consumers appear and are self represented.
Expanding Access to Justice in New York State: A 10 Year Report. (March 2009). This report summarizes the major initiatives of the Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for Justice Initiatives over the past 10 years.
Hannaford-Agor, Paula. Helping the Pro Se Litigant: A Changing Landscape. (Winter 2003). Court Review 39, no. 4: 8 Article discusses the scarcity of affordable legal resources, the legal information vs. legal advice dilemma, what courts and lawyers can do, and collaborations to improve access to justice.
O`Leary, Kathleen E. Lawyerless, But Not Alone. (Fall 2005). California Courts Review Article describes efforts in California to meet the needs of pro se litigants through self-help centers. Includes a discussion on how these efforts benefit the entire community.
Greacen, John M. Legal Information vs. Legal Advice--Developments During the Last Five Years. (January 2001). Judicature 84, no. 4 This article updates the author's Winter 1995 article in Judges' Journal and discusses what court staff can and cannot do when assisting self-represented litigants.  
Goldschmidt, Jona Meeting the Challenge of Pro Se Litigation: A Report and Guidebook for Judges and Court Managers. (1998). American Judicature Society and the State Justice Institute A Report and Guidebook for Judges and Court Managers based on study designed to gather information that would be useful in helping court leaders meet the challenges of pro se litigation.
Sampson, Kate. Meeting the Pro Se Challenge: An Update. (2001). American Judicature Society Web site This Web document updates Jona Goldschmidt's 1998 guidebook for judges and court managers, including action plans, progress reports, and trends for looking ahead.
Talia, M. Sue. Roadmap for Implementing a Successful Unbundling Program. (2005). American Judicature Society

This roadmap provides essential and nonessential but desirable components of a successful limited-scope representation program, utilizing successful existing models.
Greacen, John. Self Represented Litigants and Court and Legal Services Responses to their Needs: What We Know. (2003). Center for Families, Children, and the Courts, California Administrative Office of the Courts This article provides a review of what we know about self-represented litigants to date, and how the courts and legal services are responding to their needs. Statistics are provided from various jurisdictions.
States With Access to Justice Programs.

Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants; ABA Resource Center

 Guidance on state access to Justice Commissions and Structures.
Dickenson, Hon. Jess H. Why Courts Should Care About Self-Represented Litigants. (February 2007). South Central Regional Conference on Pro Se Litigation This document is the keynote address delivered by Associate Justice Dickenson of the Mississippi Supreme Court on February 1, 2007 in Houston, Texas at the South Central Regional Conference on Pro Se Litigation.
Your Day in Court. This is a video clip from King County, Washington featuring Judge Mary Yu and Stephen Gonzalez.  Judge Yu explains the basic layout of the courthouse and Judge Gonzalez talks about courtroom procedure.  The information in this video is designed for pro se users of the King County court system but it is general enough that court users in any state can benefit from viewing it.

Clearinghouses Organizations

Herman, Madelynn. A Guide to Selfhelpsupport.org. (February 2007). Selfhelpsupport.org This power point presentation provides an overview of the Selfhelpsupport.org Pro Se Practitioners' clearinghouse project.
AARP Pro Se Legal Hotlines Archive. Provides links to various legal hotlines for the elderly.
American Judicature Society Pro Se Forum.  A host of AJS resources on pro se, including links to pro se state programs.
Courtroom Advice. CourtroomAdvice contains over 80 articles written by experts to help litigants navigate the court system in the United Kingdom.
LawHelp.org. This national Web site, hosted by Pro Bono Net, provides links to LawHelp Web sites in all 50 states. These Web sites provide links to legal service organizations as well as legal assistance on a variety of topics by state.
Legal Services Corporation Resource Library. Links to various pro se projects and articles, as well as information on funding through the LSC Technology Initiative Grants for pro se programs.
Pro Se/Unbundling Resource Center. ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services This resource center provides an extensive list of both print and online publications on unbundling legal services.
Self Help Practitioners Clearinghouse or Selfhelpsupport.org. This (free) membership Web site serves as a national clearinghouse for materials on self-representation for self-help practitioners in the courts and legal services. Over 2,000 publications and resources from all over the country help pro se, legal service, and library programs that assist the self-represented.

Court Based Self Help

Best Practices in Court-Based Programs for the Self-Represented: Concepts, Attributes and Issues for Exploration. (2008). 118 pages. Self-Represented Litigation Network.

Forty-one best practices for court-based programs for the self-represented.
Legal Document Preparer Program. Supreme Court of Arizona This program certifies legal-document preparers who help pro se litigants fill out legal forms.
Voelker, John. Meeting the Challenge of Self-Represented Litigants in Wisconsin. (2000). Wisconsin Supreme Court, Pro Se Working Group Court systems, including Wisconsin’s, are not designed to serve self-represented litigants. As a result, clerks of circuit court, attorneys, and judges find themselves challenged in knowing how to effectively deal with them. The litigant on the other hand is frustrated by the lack of assistance provided by “the system".
Model Self-Help Pilot Programs--A Report to the Legislature, March 2005. (March 2005). Center for Children Families and Courts; Judicial Council of California, Administrative Office of the Courts This report evaluates five different self-help models used in California: the regional collaboration model, the Spanish-speaking model, the multilingual model, the technology model, and the urban coordination model. Lessons learned and recommendations are also provided.
Zorza, Richard. Self-Help Friendly Courts. (October 2002).

This report offers preliminary thoughts on a fundamental redesign of courts, including every aspect of the entire institution, from building design to judicial training, from technology to the clerk’s role.
Herman, Madelynn. Starting a Court-Based Self Help Center: 12 Core Resources. (May 2007). Selfhelpsupport.org This document provides resources for starting a self-help center, such as checklists, assessment tools, best practices, and directories of programs.

CCJ and COSCA

COSCA Resolution 31 . (August 2002). COSCA/CCJ Task Force on Pro Se Litigation In Support of a Leadership Role for CCJ and COSCA in the Development, Implementation and Coordination of Assistance Programs for Self-Represented Litigants.  This COSCA/CCJ resolution was adopted as proposed on August 1, 2002 in Rockport, Maine.
Final Report on the Joint Task Force on Pro Se Litigation. (July 2002). Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators The Task Force found that recent increases in the number of self-represented litigants – although limited primarily to family law, small claims, and misdemeanor cases – make significant demands on both court resources and on the ability of judicial officers and court staff to provide an opportunity for a fair hearing while maintaining ethical requirements of judicial neutrality and objectivity.
Position Paper on Self-Represented Litigants. (August 2000). Conference of State Court Administrators In this position paper, issues regarding self-representation and its impact on the courts are discussed. Eleven recommendations are then outlined.
Proposed Protocol to Be Used by Judicial Officers During Hearings Involving Pro Se Litigants. (2002). Pro Se Implementation Committee, Conference of Chief Justices Ten guidelines are provided as a proposed protocol for judges to use in court when dealing with the self-represented.

Court Rules

Florida Rule 12.750 Family Self-Help Programs. This Florida court rule provides the authority to establish a family self-help program in Florida courts.  
Minnesota Rule 110: Self-Help Programs. This court rule provides the authority for self-help programs in Minnesota. The rule defines staffing; the role of self-help personnel; permitted, but not required acts, etc.
New Hampshire Limited Representation Rules. New court rules and procedures for unbundling legal services throughout the state of New Hampshire were adopted in this order, effective July 1, 2006. 

Judges and Pro Se Litigants

Access to Justice: Meeting the Needs of Self-Represented Litigants. NCSC et al. (2002)

A project that looks at the complexity of access to justice for self represented litigants and ways to improve or eliminate the barriers that litigants are confronted with in the court systems.
Handling Cases Involving Self-Represented Litigants: A Benchguide for Judicial Officers. (January 2007). Center for Families, Children, and the Courts. California Administrative Office of the Courts This comprehensive bench guide, the first of its kind, was designed to help judicial officers handle the increase in cases involving self-represented litigants. Twelve chapters of helpful suggestions are provided, along with sample scripts and checklists.
Goldschmidt, Jona. Judicial Assistance to Self-Represented Parties: Lessons from the Canadian Experience. (2006). Department of Criminal Justice, Loyola University Chicago This article compares the ethical guidelines for judges in the United States and Canada. The author discusses the duty of judicial assistance, Canadian approaches to judicial assistance, required and permissible forms of assistance, permissible adverse rulings, and judicial protocols.
Albrecht, Rebecca A. et al. Judicial Techniques for Cases Involving Self-Represented Litigants. (Winter 2003). Judges` Journal 42, no. 1 Judicial neutrality is discussed, along with a proposed protocol for judicial officers and case law.
Herman, Madelynn. Pro Se Statistics. (September 2006). Knowledge and Information Services Memorandum.

This document provides statistics for pro se or self represented litigants in the state courts, federal courts, and appellate courts in various jurisdictions.
Hannaford-Agor, Paula. The Future of Self-Represented Litigation. (March 2005). 230 pages.

This report summarizes the proceedings and recommendations of the Summit on the future of Self-Represented Litigation, which was held in Chicago in March 2005.

Technology

Moore, Wayne et al. Opening Technology-Supported Help Centers for the Self-Represented in Courts and Communities. (May 2006). Selfhelpsupport.org and the Self-Represented Litigation Network Provides a host of valuable advice and information for jurisdictions wanting to open a self-help center to assist pro se litigants. The nine appendices provide sample intake forms, a list of different court-based models, an instruction manual for volunteers, noteworthy publications and Web sites, etc.
Washington State Access to Justice Technology Principles. (2004). Washington State Supreme Court These principles, adopted in 2004 by the Washington State Supreme Court, are the only legally authorative statement on the role of technology in promoting access to justice.