Managing Self Represented Litigant Cases

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There may well be no one as passionate about the plight of self represented litigants as Richard Zorza.  His blog had a recent post that needs to be shared: 

  Former Alabama Chief Justice Talks About Value of Judicial Education on Managing SRL Cases — Praises Curriculum Launched at Harvard

by richardzorza

Former Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, at the ABA, talks about the importance of judicial education on SRL issues, and the use of the Curriculum, prepared by the Self-Represented Litigation Network and launched at Harvard.

“We will never have enough pro bono lawyers, and we do not seem to be giving the money to legal services, so we have to help those who represent themselves .  .  .”

Here is the video.

Here is the Curriculum and its materials.

Here is a document describing its components.

 

 

1 thought on “Managing Self Represented Litigant Cases”

  1. The lack of available, affordable legal services is the problem. Helping individuals self-represent is not the solution.

    An attorney who represents himself has a fool for a client. We all know the truth of that. So, if we would warn law-trained individuals not to self-represent, why would we encourage less qualified persons to do so? Except with regard to the most simple cases where little is at stake (small claims, fine-only offenses, etc.), justice is not served through self-representation.

    “We will never have enough pro bono lawyers, and we do not seem to be giving the money to legal services, so we have to help those who represent themselves…” This makes no logical sense. Who among us would say,”We will never have enough food to feed the hungry, and the food we have seems not to be going to those who need it most, so we have to help those who need food learn how to live without it”???

    Bottom line – as a profession we need to find a solution to the problem, i.e., find a way to deliver affordable legal services to all who need it.

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