To put this in some perspective, the Central District of California serves more self-represented parties than any other bankruptcy court. The next highest court is California Eastern with 8,693 pro se filings in 2011. Other courts have generously shared the ideas and programs they use to address their own self-represented populations, and we have adopted many of those elements that might apply locally. Because the solutions we have studied in other federal courts are not always appropriate to address the vast number of self-represented parties in our district, we have also started looking at local state court programs that serve large self-represented populations. For example, up to 90 percent of the family law cases in Los Angeles Superior Court involve at least one self-represented party. Court staff have toured the downtown Los Angeles Superior Court self-help facility to learn about its programs for the self-represented.

The overall percentage of debtors filing without an attorney has steadily increased over the past several years. The weak economy, excessive unemployment, and the continuing foreclosure crisis have made the problem more acute. Pro se filings in the Central District increased to 28 percent in 2011 from 20 percent in 2007. According to Court staff, there has also been an increase in filings by unrepresented creditors.