by Ann M. Zimmerman

Many litigants today are exercising their constitutional right to self-representation, and judges, lawyers, and court personnel find coping with them quite challenging. To address these challenges and provide citizens with better access to justice, many states have created pro se assistance programs that range from simple forms assistance to elaborate courthouse self-help centers. In Wisconsin, Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson is spearheading a movement to provide pro se assistance services to self-represented litigants and the legal community at both the local and state levels.

Self-representation on the Rise

Twenty-five years ago, self-representation was an anomaly. According to a 1974-76 study of domestic relations cases in Connecticut, only 2.7 percent of these cases involved a self-represented litigant.¹ Today, self-representation - particularly in domestic relations cases - appears to be becoming the norm.

Research conducted for the American Bar Association (ABA) in Maricopa County (Phoenix), Ariz., indicates that in 88 percent of all 1990 divorce cases at least one of the litigants was self-represented.² Both parties were pro se in slightly more than half of these cases. In 1991-92, the National Center for State Courts found that neither party was represented in 18 percent of all domestic relations cases in 16 large urban trial courts.³

Wisconsin Pro Se Assistance Programs Currently, there are at least six Wisconsin counties that have pro se assistance programs in place, with a district-wide assistance program in the pipeline. In Milwaukee County, attorney Ernesto Romero established the Wisconsin Family Justice Clinic, which provides bilingual services such as community service referrals, forms assistance, and help with procedural matters. Volunteer attorneys staff the clinic, located within the county courthouse, for one hour, five days a week. Free family law forms also are available through the clinic's Web site at http://www.firms.findlaw.com/County/. Romero recently became director of litigation services for Milwaukee County. He will coordinate court operations related to interpretive services and activities of pro se litigants. The Dane County Bar Association, under the leadership of Dane County Family Court Commissioner Mary Beth Keppel, recently established a Family Law Assistance Center in the Dane County Courthouse. Modeled after the Milwaukee program, the assistance center also uses volunteer lawyers one day a week to help self-represented family law litigants with referrals, forms, and procedures. Contact Keppel at (608) 266-4166 or attorney Leslie Shear of Murphy & Desmond at (608) 257-7181 for more information. Richland County's Resource Center uses lay volunteers to assist self-represented individuals with simple divorce cases. According to Henk Newenhouse, a lay volunteer at the center, the local bar provides radio advertisements for the Resource Center. More information is available from Richland County Circuit Court Judge Edward E. Leineweber at (608) 647-2626. The Chippewa County Free Legal Clinic is held once a month in the local public library. Self-represented individuals first meet with a coordinator, who assigns them to then meet with attorneys knowledgeable in a specific area of law. The attorneys answer general questions and provide basic legal information to participants. The Chippewa program is modeled after a similar program in Eau Claire County. In Chippewa County, Lucie Usher, an attorney with Garvey, Anderson, Johnson, Geraci & Mirr, can be contacted at (715) 834-3425. In Eau Claire County, contact attorney Peter Grosskopf, of Grosskopf & Black, at (715) 835-6196. The Waukesha County Circuit Court recently received a grant from the Milwaukee Foundation and hired a coordinator to develop its court assistance program. The county is working in partnership with the nonprofit Wisconsin Correctional Services, and the first goal of the program is to provide initial filings assistance to self-represented family law litigants. Contact Chief Judge Kathryn W. Foster, Waukesha County Circuit Court, at (262) 548-7539 for additional information. A team in the Tenth Judicial Administrative District, made up of 13 northwestern Wisconsin counties, is developing a pro se assistance program for its entire region. Team members are considering a four-tier approach to implementing services. For example, level one services might include information on how the legal process operates and a roster of local attorneys. Level two services may include forms and instructions. Level three services may include informational seminars, while level four services might provide a self-help legal center. Please contact District Court Administrator Greg Moore at (715) 839-4826 for more information.

Business newspapers and magazines also have noted these increases. According to a 1993 Wall Street Journal article, 53 percent of the litigants in family law cases in Des Moines, Iowa, were self-represented, and a whopping 88 percent of the family law litigants in Washington, D.C., were representing themselves.⁴ More recently, Time magazine indicated that the percentage of self-represented litigants in divorce, custody, and abuse cases ranges from 60 to 90 percent, which is an increase of approximately 50 percent over the past decade.⁵

This trend is apparent in Wisconsin as well. In a 1999 statewide survey of clerks of court,⁶ 98 percent of the respondents noted increases in the number of self-represented litigants over the preceding five years. While most clerks characterized these increases as moderate, nearly 20 percent considered them dramatic. As with other states that have studied the issue, Wisconsin experienced the greatest increase in the area of family law. Recent management reports from the First and Tenth Judicial Administrative districts indicate the percentage of family law cases involving self-represented litigants in 1999 was 72 percent and 53 percent, respectively.⁷

Identifying the Self-represented

According to the ABA's 1990 research, it is primarily younger, lower-income people without children and little, if any, real estate or property, who choose to represent themselves.⁸ However, it does not necessarily follow that self-represented litigants have little education. Rather, the ABA's study indicated that most self-represented litigants have completed some college course work. Furthermore, the number of middle-income people opting for self-representation is on the rise. In 1996, a quarter of the respondents in a study commissioned by the New York State Bar Association were self-represented.⁹ The study indicated that these pro se litigants were "better educated and on the more highly compensated end of the middle income spectrum."¹⁰

Reasons for Self-representation

Several reasons exist for the increase in self-representation. First, the reality is that many individuals above and below the poverty line simply cannot afford an attorney. For those individuals below the poverty line, recent cutbacks in government funding for legal aid has reduced the types and quality of legal services available.¹¹ There also is a greater number of people today above the poverty line who are ineligible for government-sponsored legal aid, yet unable to afford legal services. While some of these so-called "working poor" may hold misperceptions about the cost of legal representation, it cannot be denied that many of them turn to self-representation out of necessity.¹²

Second, as a nation we are in the midst of a do-it-yourself era, which has been extended to do-it-yourself law. Just as one now can obtain from the Internet a wealth of information on booking a vacation without a travel agent, one can download instructions and forms for completing a divorce without an attorney from Web sites like The Law Store, of MyLawyer.com ("serving the pro se community"). The recent proliferation of court television shows further serves to demystify legal proceedings and give citizens confidence to attempt going it alone. Chief Judge Kathryn W. Foster of the Waukesha County Circuit Court has witnessed this firsthand. "When lay people watch television programs like 'Judge Judy' or 'The People's Court,' it gives them a false sense of confidence that they can successfully represent themselves in court," notes Foster.

Third, anti-lawyer sentiment is alive and well. A 1999 Gallup poll shows that, with respect to honesty and ethics, lawyers ranked 37th out of 45 professions, just edging out gun salesmen, telemarketers, and car salesmen, to name a few.¹³ Popular movies like "Erin Brockovich" also are not helpful in instilling public trust in attorneys. The sentiment evoked by such movies is "Why hire an unfeeling, money-grubbing buffoon when you can take care of the matter yourself?"

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