What Do We Know About Self-Represented Parties in our Court?
The starting point for evaluating and implementing our programs is to understand more about the self-represented population we serve. We can measure how many people file bankruptcy without a lawyer, but we know little about the demographics of this group. For example, we do not yet have a way to collect the median income of debtors efficiently because our current filing program does not sort or flag this data. This section summarizes the information we have been able to gather about self-represented parties and how their cases differ from those with attorneys.
How Many Self-Represented Parties Are There?
Table of Contents (
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- Introduction
- What Do We Know About Self-Represented Parties in our Court?
- How Many Self-Represented Parties Are There?
- Measuring Success
- Language Barriers
- Bankruptcy Petition Preparers
- Income Levels
- Literacy Issues
- Self-Represented Creditors
- Court Resources and the Impact of Large Numbers of Self-Represented Litigants
- Debtor ID Program
- Current Programs and Services for the Self-Represented
- The Court’s Website
- Personal Assistance from Court Staff
- Easy to Understand Forms and Instructions
- Assistance from Volunteers and Nonprofit Organizations
- Honor Roll
- Recruitment and Training of Volunteers
- Funding Sources for Non-Court Services
- Current Projects “Under Construction”
- Pathfinder Electronic Filing Project
- Proof of Service
- Video Instruction
- Future Surveys
- Call Center/Internet Live Chat
- Goals/Conclusion
- Exhibits