Concern has grown in recent years about individuals appearing in court without representation. This has led to research in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom studying self-represented litigants, why they appear without a lawyer, and the effect of self-representation.
New Zealand has shared this concern. Until now, no formal, similar research has been undertaken. The Law Commission in 2003 therefore recommended that research be conducted in New Zealand.
The research described in this report was similar to the international studies. The objectives were to study self-represented litigants in the family and criminal summary jurisdictions of district courts, in particular answering the following questions:
- What are the key characteristics of self-represented litigants?
- Why are they self-represented?
- What effect does their lack of representation have on them, the other party, the court process, the judiciary, court staff, lawyers and others?
- To what extent are information and resources accessed by self-represented litigants?
- It was not intended to recommend law reform or recommend what should or should not be done for self-represented litigants.