The unrepresented (or self-represented) litigant is an increasingly common sight in Australian courts and tribunals. While some people choose to represent themselves in legal proceedings, others are compelled to do so by cost, chance, or some other reason. Whatever their motivation, unrepresented litigants present a unique set of challenges to the administration of justice, and to the legal practitioners, judicial officers, and others they meet in the system.<\/p>\n
The August part of the\u00c2\u00a0Journal of Judicial Administration<\/a> <\/em>is a Special Issue devoted to this topic. It collates a selection of papers from the conference organised by the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration<\/a> in April 2014, and entitled Assisting Unrepresented Litigants: A Challenge for Courts and Tribunals<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Special Issue’s Table of Contents, including full abstracts and links to subscriber content on Westlaw AU, can be accessed in\u00c2\u00a0PDF format<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0or as a\u00c2\u00a0blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n In his introduction to the Special Issue, General Editor\u00c2\u00a0Professor Greg J Reinhardt notes:<\/p>\n The conference covered a wide range of issues including:<\/p>\n A constant theme across many sessions was the need for more information and statistics on the\u00c2\u00a0impact of the unrepresented litigant on the administration of justice and the need to develop both\u00c2\u00a0quantitative and qualitative measures to capture this information. Such measures ought properly to be\u00c2\u00a0considered as part of the annual Report on Government Services.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n