REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
| Published date | 01 September 1972 |
| Date | 01 September 1972 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1972.tb02362.x |
REPORTS
OF
COMMITTEES
:LITIGANTS
IN
PERSON
AND
UNREPRESENTED DEFENDANTS
THE
plight
of
the litigant in person is not the stuff of which riveting
literature is made
so
that the publication of a report dedicated to
an analysis of the phenomenon may not be expected to excite the
passions of students
of
the legal order unduly. Investigating the lot
of the unrepresented defendant before the criminal courts on the
other hand is, relatively speaking, a glamorous undertaking. In
fact the recent
JUSTICE
Reports
on
both these topics are extremely
rewarding and should add, hopefully, a further impetus to the
movement which prizes greater research into the administration of
the legal system itself. Both in their different ways also underline
the need
for
a greater infusion
of
public salaried personnel into the
legal structure. This conclusion, though not vividly expressed,
seems to the present writer to be inescapable.
It
is in many respects regrettable that a study of litigants in
person did not take the county court as its starting point rather than
examining the position in the High Court and then recommending
a subsequent inquiry at the lower level-the tactics adopted by the
JUSTICE
Committee. Presumably substantially greater numbers are
involved in the county courts and it must be said that the reasons
given for the Committee’s choice would be unlikely to persuade the
layman. Nonetheless it appears that the scope
of
the problem in
the High Court is considerable, overall estimates being that between
sixty and eighty litigants in person are likely to be proceeding
through the Queen’s Bench Division at any one time with their
actions at a fairly advanced stage. The estimates for other
Divisions are similar.2
Litigants in person are shown to be a somewhat heterogeneous
group, consisting largely
of
persons deserving of considerably greater
sympathy than the simple vexatious litigant of legend, who nonethe-
less figures quite prominently.8 They include those who do not
qualify for legal aid
or
who cannot afford to make a contribution,
those whose legal aid is withdrawn for refusal to accept a settlement
1
Litigants
in
Person
and
The Unrepresented Defendant
in
Magistrates’ Courts.
JUSTICE,
1971.
2
Litigants
in
Person,
para. 12. Interestingly the Committee reported the rarity
of
a
petitioner for divorce appearing in person. They could find no such
instance in the High Court since the Matrimonial
Causes
Act 1967 (para.
10).
On
January
16,
1972,
The Observer
newspaper carried
a
story
of
a
couple
effecting a do-it-yourself divorce
for
€14.13,
the cost
of
which was shared
equally between the parties. The estimated cost
of
the proceedings profession-
ally processed was
880.
The moral
of
this story might well merit
a
separate
report.
3
Op.
cit.,
paras. 6S67.
494
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