Litigants who appear in court pro se against adversaries who are represented by counsel usually lack any real ability “to prove or defend their cases,” an acting Supreme Court justice told a hearing in White Plains yesterday convened by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman on the need for more civil legal services funding for the poor. Justice Anthony A. Scarpino Jr., who is also a Westchester County surrogate, said there is a strong temptation for judges to give special guidance to pro se litigants, though judges are bound to remain unbiased. Pro se litigants, he said, “are expected to appear before us and maintain the same level of representation as competent counsel, which is pretty ludicrous.”
Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau; Justice A. Gail Prudenti of the Appellate Division, Second Department; and Seymour W. James Jr. of the Legal Aid Society of New York City, the president-elect of the New York State Bar Association also chaired yesterday’s hearing. The hearings—three others are set for Sept. 26 in Manhattan, Oct. 3 in Albany and Oct. 6 in Buffalo—are designed to allow the Judiciary to build a case for better funding for the poor who need representation in domestic violence cases, foreclosures, unemployment insurance and other civil legal matters (NYLJ, Sept. 15). David Boies, managing partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner, and co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Task Force on the Preservation of the Legal System, told the hearing yesterday that courts bear the burden when unrepresented litigants try to press their cases. “People have to be supervised,” he said. “They have to be taught. Things have to be explained to them as they try to navigate something they are unfamiliar with. It’s not their fault, but it means that the whole process slows down.”
