What Type of People Choose to Represent Themselves?

A variety of legal organizations and bar associations have conducted studies of self-represented litigants, and these studies show that a wide variety of individuals rely upon themselves for handling their legal issues:

• Persons with lower than average incomes are more likely to represent themselves.

• A significant portion of self-represented individuals report they could have afforded to hire an attorney to represent them, but that they chose not to do so.

• Some studies show that those who represent themselves are far more likely to be satisfied with the legal process than those who are represented by attorneys.

• Three quarters of those who represented themselves in court said they would do it again before they hired an attorney.