UF Pro Se Clinic Helps Clients Represent Themselves In Court

June 12, 1998

GAINESVILLE — For a judge, they’re a curse that just won’t go away.

Officially termed pro se — Latin for “on their own behalf”– litigants, they are showing up increasingly in courtrooms across the country and acting as their own lawyers. And while many say they have no choice but to represent themselves, they are finding the do-it-yourself route can be a confusing and treacherous one.

“A judge’s worst nightmare is having a pro se litigant appear in front of him or her,” said Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan. “The judge in an adversarial system has to balance the rights of both sides. When a person comes in without an attorney representing them, and the other side does have an attorney, what is the judge to do?”

To help balance the playing field, the University of Florida College of Law has developed a new program that brings pro se litigants involved in family law cases together with third-year law students.

Gary Loscocco, who lives in the city of Alachua near Gainesville, used the new Pro Se Clinic to represent himself in a divorce case. Students answered his questions and conducted research to help his case. The students’ counseling gave him confidence once he entered the courtroom, he said.

“I’m very grateful to the students and the program,” he said. “They did research, they followed up with letters. I filed a motion to modify visitation and actually got a favorable judgment, and all that was done pro se with the help of the students.”

Michelle Ballard, who was enrolled in the Pro Se Clinic before graduating last month, worked with clients on complex issues ranging from modification of child custody and paternity to alimony and child support.

Typically, she and her partner would meet with a client, conduct research on their case and meet with the client again about a week later to tell them what they had discovered. After counseling their client, the students draft a follow-up advice and counsel letter for use in court.

“We help them make a legal argument,” Ballard said. “We do the research for them, we provide them with the cases and we make sure the cases are good law.”

Iris Burke, who along with fellow clinical lecturer Peggy Schrieber teaches students in the Pro Se Clinic, said the clinic develops students’ skills in interviewing, counseling and research, and benefits the community by providing legal advice to those unable to pay an attorney. She said the clinic tries to do more than just research and explain the law.

“We try to help people understand all the legal choices available to them so that they can pick the one that works best for their individual situation,” Burke said.

Word has spread about the help students are providing to pro se litigants, she said, and requests for appointments have been increasing steadily to the point where she expects they may have to turn people away. Schrieber said the clients appreciate the students’ help.

“The law students give them a lot of time and attention,” she said. “And it’s time and attention that these people aren’t getting from anybody.”

The need for law students to provide help to pro se litigants is great, Kogan said. In some circuits in Florida, he said, up to 60 percent of litigants in family law matters appear pro se.

“If we’re going to have them (pro se litigants),” Kogan said, “rather than have them being denied access to court, and rather than having the court system having to deal with an overload of these cases without people being properly guided as to where they have to go and what they have to do, this is a good alternative.”