Every year, hundreds of thousands of people enter the U.S. courts seeking a divorce, separation, or resolution of child-related matters. With the U.S. divorce rate at an estimated 50 percent, most people’s experience with the American justice system is through the family courts. Some individuals hire a lawyer to help them through the entire process. But, a large—and growing—number do not have legal representation for some or all of their case.

People with a court case (litigants) represent themselves (self-representation) for any number of reasons, including the cost of a lawyer or a belief that their case is simple enough to handle themselves. Whatever the reason, a considerable portion of all those who use our nation’s family courts are self-represented. In some courts, the rate of self-representation is as high as 90 percent.

In order to explore this growing trend, IAALS is conducting the Cases Without Counsel study in four court locations around the country: Davidson County, Tennessee; Franklin County, Massachusetts; Larimer County, Colorado; and Multnomah County, Oregon. This study is a first-of-its-kind, multi-state project that is systematically asking self-represented litigants in family court about their experience with the legal process. Our ultimate objective is to give self-represented litigants a voice in improving the legal process.

Your experience as a self-represented litigant in family court is valuable, and we can learn from it. You can read more about how to share your story here. If you have additional questions, please visit our FAQs page or contact us.