Public Legal Education

Developing a community of practice

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Needs of Self-represented litigants

When we first started advancing the idea of public legal education, we had to almost literally promise that we would not try to turn people into their own lawyers. But high litigation costs began to drive people to seeking alternatives, including trying to represent themselves in court. Court house libraries found their non-lawyer clientele expanding, a clientele they were not accustomed to serving, nor did they have the resources to do so. Self-help services began to appear in court houses and PLE organizations were pressed to provide more practical resources to help self-represented litigants. The tables had completely turned.

 


Services of interest: Self-represented litigants

Professor Julie Macfarlane at the Faculty of Law, University of Windsor established The National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP) https://representingyourselfcanada.com/ to advance understanding of the challenges and hard choices facing the very large numbers of Canadians who now come to court without counsel. PLE resources are often developed to assist self-represented litigants in dealing with aspects of their litigation.

 

Documents of interest: Self-represented litigants

Burton, Sarah (2015). What self-represented litigants really want. LawNow vol 39:6. Available at http://www.lawnow.org/what-self-represented-litigants-actually-want/

Farrow, T et al (2012)  Addressing the Needs of SRLs ACCA White Paper March 2012 Final Revised Version

Government of Canada (June 2016) Self-represented litigants in family law. Just Facts Available at http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/fl-lf/divorce/jf-pf/srl-pnr.html

Macfarlane, J (2013)  Macfarlane National Self-represented litigants project Final Report 2013

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