After unifying its statewide self-help support services into a single call line and support center, the Maryland court system’s new Maryland Self-Help Center expects to at least double the number of litigants it has previously helped while also expanding ...

In Pittsburgh, reengineering was the key to serving Self-Represented Litigants (SRLs), resulting in the opening of the court’s  Family Division Self-Help Center  (SHC), which doubled the number of customers served while offering a more sophisticated set o ...

Executive Summary The Model Self-Help Center Pilot Program is one part of the California Judicial Council’s effort to address two key goals in its strategic plan: increasing access to justice and improving the quality of justice and service to the public. ...

This study is unique because it included the self-represented in its survey. From the Abstract: This report is based on surveys that examined the attitudes and perceptions of judges, the family law bar, family court staff, and self-represented litigants r ...

This report was originally commissioned by the Michigan State Bar Foundation to assist Michigan’s Solutions on Self-Help (SOS) Task Force, but modified to serve as a national resource so that it may be of value to other jurisdictions working to enhance su ...

A communications strategy, which is central to any project's success, not only charts communications with internal and external customers, but also serves as an important driver for the metrics collected to measure success. Voices for Civil Justice h ...

Over the years, legal aid programs developed complex intake protocols and decision trees to help manage their crushing caseload. Initially, these screening tools were simply paper documents that intake staff could use. Then, as telephone hotlines develope ...

What is plain language? As described by the federal government on plainlanguage.gov, plain language is communication your audience can understand the first time they read or hear it. Plain language is recognized as an essential best practice in all access ...

This document, now in its second version, summarizes forty-two best practices in court based self-help service innovation, with descriptions of each practice, suggested attributes, examples and contacts.   Recommended Citation, The Self-Represented Litiga ...

The Administrative Office of the Courts, in collaboration with judges, court executive officers, attorneys, and other parties with demonstrated interest in services to self-represented litigants, is charged with the development of these guidelines for dis ...