LAWYER STUDYING PEOPLE WHO DEFEND THEMSELVES IN COURT

More people are taking the law into their own hands, and a Cape Girardeau attorney is examining the results.

"There is an increasing sense on the part of some people that legal services are overpriced, and that the law is not as complex as it seems," said Diane Howard, who is researching a nationwide increase in people representing themselves in court for the Missouri Bar Association.

This growth of individuals going to court "pro se," a Latin term meaning "for oneself," has caused several states to change the way they handle litigation.

Help centers staffed by paralegals have been set up in courthouses in several states, including Minnesota and Hawaii, where about one-quarter of all civil lawsuits are pro se.

"In Hawaii, they call them concierge services," Howard said. "They have a Web site, brochures and self-help packets that tell you step by step how to do a divorce."

Missouri's pro se cases involving family law issues such as divorce and child custody are increasing, enough to prompt the state Bar Association to start a study last year to learn how it might be addressed. Howard, who is in charge of the Bar's family law section, has spent the past year gathering information and opinions.

Split views on pro se

Attorneys tend to be split on the value of creating services to assist pro se people, Howard said, while some judges are seeking to add services.

A St. Louis judge has already started to prepare his own information packets, she said.

Judge Scott Thomsen handles the majority of pro se cases in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry counties through small claims court. Persons representing themselves in small claims court is expected. Thomsen said he gets variety.

"There are those who have everything documented, their exhibits labeled," the judge said. "Then there are those that sit down and look at me."

Small claims court is less formal by design, so the variety doesn't cause trouble. Judicial informality is generally true with adult abuse cases, he said. But divorces and other family law hearings have more requirements, which shapes judges' opinions on pro se.

"There's a rolling of eyes in the judiciary when you talk about pro se," Thomsen said. "Whenever a judge has to ask more questions, the judge can appear to be partisan. This is especially true when only one side is pro se."

He would support creating an infrastructure similar to what other states have for guiding persons through the court system.

"If the taxpayers want to fund it, it would be workable," Thomsen said.

Law kits limited

Most other states have moved ahead with plans for meeting pro se needs because judges wanted them, Howard said.

"They see people wandering through the courthouses not knowing where to turn," she said. "They see cases being continued again and again because the correct information isn't available."

Information on how to represent yourself in court is available at bookstores or on the Internet, said Patti Wibbenmeyer, a deputy clerk in civil court in Cape Girardeau.

"You can get these kits, but they're not accurate as far as what's required," she said.

Required forms aren't the same from state to state, or even among counties, Thomsen said.

Many choose to go pro se because of attorneys' costs, Howard said, which can reach several thousand dollars for a divorce.

Howard recalled seeing an Internet divorce kit full of forms for $29.95. It had a money-back guarantee.

"After you've had a problematic divorce in court, it could cost a lot more than $30 to straighten it out," she said.

Better communication would eliminate most pro se confusion, said Lew Polivick, deputy director of Legal Services of Southeast Missouri in Charleston, Mo.

"Ninety percent of the problems with pro se is people don't understand the other party has to know what you're doing," he said. "They'll forget something like ordering a subpoena."

Polivick's non-profit firm works with low-income individuals in need of a lawyer. The growth in family law cases over the past decade has made it necessary to turn away more clients, he said.

But expanding pro se services is not the best alternative for the poor, Polivick said.

"You can't go to one of these help center kiosks in another state and plug in your information and get a good answer," he said.

Anyone considering pro se should weigh the value of what they're fighting for in court, Cape Girardeau Judge William Syler said.

"It's kind of like if a doctor chose to remove his own appendix," said Syler, presiding judge for the 32nd Judicial District. "He might be able to, but does he want to?"