At the end of 2005 I started as Administrative Officer at the Personal Support Unit (PSU). There are two full-time salaried staff (the Director and me) and almost 100 volunteers, whose main role is the support of litigants-in-person ("lips" for short) who are conducting cases at the Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ) and the Prinicipal Registry of the Family Division (London's main family court building, located on High Holborn). There is also a pilot project at Wandsworth County Court.
There are many reasons as to why people represent themselves in court, but the most common are:
- Not being able to pay for legal services and ineligibility for legal aid
- Mistrust of lawyers and the belief that they will do a better job themselves
- Having to represent themselves because they arrive under the mistaken assumption that representation will be provided at the court
The Unit is sometimes seen as no more than a "hand-holding service" and what litigants really need is more and better legal advice, something we expressly do not provide. However having a sympathetic, confident volunteer to accompany a litigant around the vast building or in court is one of the services that is most requested by PSU clients. I am in no doubt that I have dealt with potential clients who dismissed the service as patronising before realising the full extent of what they were facing as unrepresented litigants. Whereas we don't provide legal advice we provide a range of ancillary services to facilitate obtaining legal advice, such as advising on the procedure for finding a solicitor or getting effective and timely help from other agencies, such as the Citizens Advice Bureaux.
The PSU is part-funded by the Department for Constitutional Affairs, but fundraises most of its money. The unit helped over court users in over 2000 instances in 2005.
The volunteers tend to be retirees and law students, though the opportunity to become a volunteer is open to everyone except clients, who can apply to become a volunteer two years after the PSU last helped them.
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