The Pro Se Litigant: Self-Representation in Consequential Civil Cases

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The contemporary American legal system is predicated on the expertise of professionally trained lawyers. Despite the fact that modern society is highly professionalized, it is noteworthy that some who seek access to the court system eschew the services of lawyers. These pro se litigants--laypersons who present their own case in an increasingly technical and procedurally complex legal system--are an anomaly in the American court. On the one hand, the pro se litigant symbolizes the democratic value of lay access to the court system. On the other hand, in the twentieth century, the American judicial system has become increasingly complex and technical in character, making it difficult for the untrained amateur to represent effectively his or her legal interests. Yet, while there is growing literature on courts, dispute processing, and litigation, scientific study of the pro se litigant has been quite neglected in the existing literature on courts, dispute processing, and litigation. Drs. Emerson and McCoin are undertaking a study to examine litigants who represent themselves in consequential middle range cases where parties are normally represented by attorneys. Using data from daily and weekly court dockets of cases filed in the California Superior Court, Los Angeles County, they will examine aggregate patterns in the types of civil cases that are filed and the outcomes received by pro se litigants. Central to the design is in-depth study of pro se cases over time based on a sample of approximately twelve cases identified as noteworthy by judges from the Superior Courts of Southern California. With this sample of cases, systematic observations will be conducted on all proceedings and hearings, and interviews are planned with judges, other court personnel, lawyers, and litigants. The "noteworthy" cases will be compared to an observational sample of "routine" cases. This extended case method should permit (a) identifying the factors that lead persons to represent themselves in civil actions, (b) assessing how this mode of representation affects the functioning of regulars and insiders in the court system, and (c) analyzing the process of how litigants represent themselves in a highly technical legal system. This research, focusing on an infrequently encountered but theoretically significant category of litigants, will fill a gap in research on dispute processing. The analysis of issues such as cost-benefit models of litigation, use and avoidance of lawyers, the dynamics of cultural and organizational outsiders, how legal actors deal with unequal combatants, and the role of lawyers in the legal system and in courthouse life has been based on a highly professionalized model. This study should add to our understanding of these issues when those who mobilize the law are untrained in formal procedure and not privy to the informal understandings and relationships within courts.