{"id":27,"date":"2006-08-17T23:11:29","date_gmt":"2006-08-18T03:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/08\/17\/can-self-representation-work-in-court\/"},"modified":"2006-11-03T13:29:35","modified_gmt":"2006-11-03T17:29:35","slug":"can-self-representation-work-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/08\/17\/can-self-representation-work-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"can self-representation work in court?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"left\">[This is a <em>pre-launch posting<\/em>. We will soon finish construction and \u201cgo public.\u201d]<\/p>\n<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"50\" alt=\"podium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/files\/2006\/08\/podiumSF.gif\" width=\"30\" \/> SHLEP says:<\/em>\u00a0 As programs such as those described in our prior posts <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/08\/17\/what-have-they-done-for-me-lately\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/08\/17\/movement-shmovement\/\">here<\/a> are established, fine-tuned, evaluated and updated across the nation, it becomes harder and harder for the judiciary, bar, governmental administrators and leaders, or any other stake-holders to say that Self-Help is an unworkable or unethical pipedream.\u00a0\u00a0 Put another way: it becomes easier and easier to find workable models that can make Self-Help Law a viable option for everyday Americans in virtually every courthouse.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div>Does\/can self-help really work?\u00a0 We agree with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mylawyer.com\/aboutmylawyer.html#2\">this Q&amp;A<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mylawyer.com\/\"><em>MyLawyer.com<\/em><\/a> (a venture of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.granat.com\/\">Richard S. Granat<\/a>\u00a0&amp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epoq.us\/\">epoq, u.s<\/a>.)<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>Q. Can I really represent myself?<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>A.<\/strong> We believe that with accurate and complete legal information a person of reasonable intelligence and education can represent themselves in a wide variety of routine and uncontested legal matters. This assumption is based on fact. In an evaluation study undertaken by the University of Maryland School of Law of a sample drawn from over 10,000 pro se litigants in family matters in Maryland Courts, seventy-four (74%) of the reported that they were satisfied with the result and would represent themselves again. Fifty-four (54%) percent reported that they decided to represent themselves because they thought a lawyer would be too expensive, and an additional eighteen (18%) reported that they represented themselves because they did not think that the problem was sufficiently complicated that a lawyer\u2019s services were required. These research findings are supported by similar research in other jurisdictions which are collected at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-selaw.org\/\">Pro Se Law Center<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[This is a pre-launch posting. We will soon finish construction and \u201cgo public.\u201d] SHLEP says:\u00a0 As programs such as those described in our prior posts here and here are established, fine-tuned, evaluated and updated across the nation, it becomes harder and harder for the judiciary, bar, governmental administrators and leaders, or any other stake-holders to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-viewpoint"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}