Impact of Self-Represented Litigant Innovations on Cost and Efficiency

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The research shows self-represented litigant innovations improve court efficiencies, thereby allowing courts to serve more people without staff increases, as well as significantly improving the user experience by a number of measures. Some of the leading reports are listed below:

Reports: Statewide Evaluation of Court ADR (Maryland 2013)
The Maryland Judiciary commissioned independent researchers to conduct the following studies as part of its long-term commitment to build alternative dispute resolution (ADR) programs in Maryland and to provide the highest quality ADR services to Marylanders. The research was led by the Administrative Office of the Courts and funded in part by a grant from the State Justice Institute. The page may be accessed at https://mdcourts.gov/courtoperations/adrprojects. 
Year published: 2013
Document Author: Maryland Judiciary
Strategic Planning Courts Allied Professionals Reports Evaluation Impact of Self-Represented Litigant Innovations on Cost and Efficiency
Report: Remote Appearances of Parties, Attorneys and Witnesses, A Review of Current Court Rules and Practices (SRLN 2017)
The Remote Appearances of Parties, Attorneys and Witnesses, A Review of Current Court Rules and Practices report is a follow up report to Serving Self-Represented Litigants Remotely – A Resource Guide.
Year published: 2017
Document Author: John Greacen
Courts Reports Impact of Self-Represented Litigant Innovations on Cost and Efficiency Technology Regulatory Concerns Scaling in Court Systems
News: Gina - LA's Online Traffic Avatar Radically Changes Customer Experience (Los Angeles 2016)
Meet Gina, the online assistant that is helping tens of thousands of people at the Los Angeles Superior Court handle their traffic citations online. When visiting the traffic section of the court's website, litigants can interact with Gina to pay a traffic ticket, register for traffic school, or schedule a court date. Gina is multilingual and can help court users in English, Armenian, Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese.
Year published: 2016
Document Author: cristina llop
Impact of Self-Represented Litigant Innovations on Cost and Efficiency Technology Consumer Adoption
Resource: Resource Guide on Serving Self-Represented Litigants Remotely (SRLN 2016)
The Resource Guide provides options for courts and other entities interested in providing services to self-represented litigants using means that are not face-to-face, instead of, or in addition to, in-person alternatives such as walk-in services, workshops, and clinics. It also includes information regarding technology and business process options and describes a study of how eight sites provide remote self-help services to self-represented litigants and its principal findings and recommendations.
Year published: 2016
Document Author: Self-Represented Litigation Network, John Greacen
Strategic Planning Courts Administrative Agencies Legal Aid Remote Reports Impact of Self-Represented Litigant Innovations on Cost and Efficiency Trial Court Self-Help Best Practices for Self-Help Centers Libraries Regulatory Concerns Scaling in Court Systems Technology Unbundling
Article: A Restorative Adjudication Process Shows Promise (Teryl 2015)
In 2012, the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission initiated a project to integrate restorative justice principles into an administrative agency. Early research showed that when restorative justice principles guided the agency's changes, access to justice increased dramatically through significant cost savings and time efficiencies.
Year published: 2015
Document Author: Lisa Teryl
Administrative Agencies Reports Impact of Self-Represented Litigant Innovations on Cost and Efficiency
News: Orange County, CA and the State of Texas Conduct User Experience Research and Learn that SRLs in Civil Cases Can E-File (Texas & California 2016)
What are we learning about self-represented litigants who e-file? Who are they? Where are they? What cases do they file? How do the tools work for them? Using identical survey instruments, the Superior Court in Orange County and the Texas Office of Court Administration (Texas AOC) gathered valuable e-filing insights into these questions for both represented and self-represented parties, and presented their findings at CTC2015.
Year published: 2016
Document Author: News, SRLN
Evaluation Surveys Impact of Self-Represented Litigant Innovations on Cost and Efficiency Tools for Evaluating Self-Help Programs and Services Linking a Self-Help Center to Other Services Automated Forms & E-Filing
SRLN Brief: Procedural Fairness / Procedural Justice (SRLN 2015)
Research has shown that when defendants and litigants perceive the court process to be fair, they are more likely to comply with court orders and follow the law in the future—regardless of whether they “win” or “lose” their case. This is called procedural fairness or procedural justice. Increasingly, national judicial organizations have recognized the importance of promoting procedural fairness.
Year published: 2015
Document Author: Self-Represented Litigation Network
100% Access to Justice Strategic Planning Judges Best Practices Impact of Self-Represented Litigant Innovations on Cost and Efficiency Judicial Ethics Regulatory Concerns
SRLN Brief: How Many SRLs? (SRLN 2019)
National SRL Estimates from srln.org
Year published: 2015, 2019
Document Author: Self-Represented Litigation Network
Impact of Self-Represented Litigant Innovations on Cost and Efficiency Justice Tech Entrepreneurs
Report: Making Self-Help Work: Bet Tzedek’s Conservatorship Clinic (Bet Tzedek 2013)
Since 2007, Bet Tzedek Legal Services has been running a self-help conservatorship clinic in partnership with the Los Angeles Superior Court. Originally designed to serve 150 self-represented litigants per year, the program served more than 1,400 self-represented litigants by 2012, which amounts to more than 40 percent of all new conservatorship filings in the county.
Year published: 2013
Document Author: Bet Tzedek Legal Services
Simplification Courts Allied Professionals Reports Impact of Self-Represented Litigant Innovations on Cost and Efficiency Linking a Self-Help Center to Other Services Automated Forms & E-Filing
Report: The Benefits and Costs of Programs to Assist Self-Represented Litigants (California 2009)
This Report was prepared by John Greacen for the Judicial Council of California, center for Families, Children and the Courts. Preliminary research conducted in courts in the San Joaquin Valley in California shows that self help services provided to self-represented litigants produce economic savings for courts and for litigants. The findings should prove helpful to courts seeking information on the costs and benefits of the services they render as they make difficult resource allocation decisions in today’s challenging fiscal climate.
Year published: 2009
Document Author: John Greacen, California Judicial Council Center for Families Children & the Courts
Reports Impact of Self-Represented Litigant Innovations on Cost and Efficiency