Chief Justice Saufley on the Pro se Litigant before Maine Judicial Committee.

Chief Justice LeighI. Saufley recently spoke before the Judiciary Committee of Maine. Among many topics she mentioned Pro se representation. Presented here is the sound bite dealing with Prose. Below is the transcription of the sound bite:

"To many people who have to come to court without lawyers - and that is a very long conversation, but we have all kinds of innovations we are working on. We're watching other states to see what's working there. The bottom line is that  people should have an attorney to help them when something in their life has gone so wrong that they have to be in a court room. Its not a good idea to not be represented, so we're working on plans to help improve all of that... ummmm..."

The sound bite may be found here: Chief Justice Leigh Saufley.

We would like to ask Chief Justice Saufley if she could gave us an example of some of those "innovations" she mentioned. How will they make the court system better? Are some of these "innovations" simply a euphemism for more money for Maine courts? The problems that the Judicial Branch have - go beyond the mantra of more money and innovations. Our Judicial Branch is the foundation to our system of justice here in this state and the structure that they are trying to patch is beyond mere cosmetic changes for which they have proposed before in the past.

Take for example the Family Court system that the Chief Justice has admitted is in trouble. Guardians ad litem that practice psychology, social work and law without a license but sanctioned and encouraged by the court to do so. On a regular basis we see the use of Consumers have been subjected to Judicial Out Sourcing; Junk Science; Psycho-eugenics; Legal Abuse Syndrome and Moral Equivalency. There is no scientific basis or history for these ideas - yet - the courts fully embrace these ideas.  There is no management of the various parts and no oversight. 74% of the parents entering the Family Court system who do so Prose and for the vast majority they have no idea how to conduct them selves. We have court officers who provide the bare minimum of help to the 74%. What "innovations" will help these customers of Family Court services? More money will not help. Money has poured into finding a solution and so far the investment has bared no fruit. Why are we "watching" other states? Are we looking for a patch that is less painful for customers? Once those solutions are found will the Judicial Branch even be able to implement process and systems change? I mean we are talking about a bunch of lawyers here. They know how to find innovative ways of charging their clients - but do they know anything about systems and process improvement?

As a foundation upon which the various courts stand - the Judicial Branch cannot afford to continue to make decisions that harm their consumers to the benefit of the 26% who are not Prose. It may be time to stop patching the building(s) and bring in an outside contractor for help. Someone who is not embedded in law, knows systems analysis and can identify issues and ways to improve them so that we have a world class court - as we did in the past.

Please contact us if you need help in filling out forms for Family Court. We are not able to provide legal advice (we are not lawyers) - just help. Contact us at MeProseWay@gmail.com. Also find us on Facebook.