Self-Represented Litigants – a Canadian study, needed in Australia too
Professor Julie Macfarlane from Windsor University in Canada is running a very interesting project on self-represented litigants. Her blog post yesterday (2 February) brings to my attention a phenomenon I had simply never considered before – the ’roundabout’ nature of many clients engaging with legal advisors – they come and go when (if) they have funds available to pursue their case, and at other times may be self-represented. The phenomenon of course is very wide spread – Macfarlane found that 53% of self-represented litigants commenced their actions with a lawyer. It would be very worthwhile undertaking similar research in Australia – I suspect the percentage might be even higher here.
The Australian Dispute Resolution Research Network 
I think this study is well due. Here in Australia, I’ve launched All Court Up which provides administrative + legal support to people who choose to manage all or part of their court case. If you’d like details or a guest blog post, let me know via jo@allcourtup.com.
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