News
Online project to serve as court guide
News Article
April 24, 2014
An online self-help project is underway to guide the growing number of Pennsylvanians who are filing their own family law cases.
When completed later this year, divorce and custody forms will be provided on the Unified Judicial System website. Instructions for completing the forms will be included. Links to county judicial districts in which each family court is located will direct self-represented litigants to details on how and where to file the documents.
“Entering a courthouse with a completed custody complaint is of no value if the litigant doesn’t know where to go with it,” said Vivian Appel, deputy court administrator for Lehigh County’s family court. “We need to have filing instructions from each judicial district to make the forms useful.”
Although exact numbers are unavailable, court administrators agree family court is where a significant percentage of self-represented — or pro se — civil filings take place. Whether driven by economic reasons, proliferation of self-help information on the Internet, or other factors, most agree the trend has fed a need to respond to those who want assistance in completing their forms and a better understanding of court process.
Nearly half of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties currently have some type of family court forms available online for those who want to file their own cases.
The Supreme Court’s Family Forms Project, as the initiative is known, is envisioned to generate greater statewide consistency in providing information about self-representation and the availability of the forms. It is also viewed as a tool to help streamline and expedite cases involving self-represented litigants, ensuring greater accuracy and understanding in the pleadings that are filed.
The effort was launched in September 2013 when Justice Max Baer hosted a meeting in Pittsburgh among judges, court administrators and representatives from the Pennsylvania Bar Association to outline general goals for the initiative. It complements the judiciary’s longstanding efforts to promote public access and transparency to state court system information and proceedings.
Just prior to that session, Superior Court Judge Jack A. Panella and Sam Milkes of the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network had presented a report at the 2013 PJ/PACM conference on the Commission on Justice Initiatives Task Force on Self-Representation. It included a recommendation for statewide access to family court forms and filing instructions.
Rick Pierce, an AOPC Judicial Programs administrator, and Gretchen Hallman, AOPC website administrator, are coordinating development of the online package. Appel, who also is on the Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee, and Mark Dalton, Lancaster County district court administrator, also are participating in the project.
“I think this is such an important project, and I am proud to be a part of it,” said Appel, who’s also an attorney.
Those involved in the project note cautionary admonishments from some in the legal community but point to benefits for both the courts and Pennsylvania families. Having consistent and reliable information online that assists self-represented litigants means courts can save time, reduce confusion and mistakes and help families with limited funds have greater access to justice, they note.