I found some interesting comments written in the Eastern District of Michigan State of the Court Address, that I thought I would share for all of us pro se filers.
I find it interesting that 10% of all chapter 7's in the E.D.M. are pro se cases. It also nice to see that they acknowledge the growing trend of pro se cases, and are looking for ways to improve handling them.
Pro Se Cases
A separate point needs to be made about the dramatic increase in our pro se filings during this past year. For the calendar year 2007, we had 1,251 pro se cases filed in our district. That represented about 3.5% of our total cases. For the calendar year 2008, we had 1,871 pro se cases filed in our district. That represents about 4.5% of our total cases. For the first 8 months of calendar year 2009, the number of pro se cases has grown to 2,333. That represents almost 9% of our total cases. In Chapter 7, more than 10% of our cases are now pro se. There are multiple explanations for this increase in pro se cases, including the cost of legal representation, the obstacles in consumer cases caused by BAPCPA, the easy access to bankruptcy forms and information on the internet, and perhaps many other reasons that are not readily apparent.
Pro se cases require extra judicial and other resources to process through the system. They pose unique challenges to our system. The Chapter 7 Trustees have raised with the bench a number of difficulties that the processing of these cases pose for them. As a Court, we have provided a great deal of information for pro se debtors on our website with numerous links to other websites and we will continue to explore and develop new and more efficient ways of processing these cases going forward and assisting the pro se debtors in them. To the extent that you as a bar have
recommendations for assistance to the Court in this regard, your recommendations are welcome.
A separate point needs to be made about the dramatic increase in our pro se filings during this past year. For the calendar year 2007, we had 1,251 pro se cases filed in our district. That represented about 3.5% of our total cases. For the calendar year 2008, we had 1,871 pro se cases filed in our district. That represents about 4.5% of our total cases. For the first 8 months of calendar year 2009, the number of pro se cases has grown to 2,333. That represents almost 9% of our total cases. In Chapter 7, more than 10% of our cases are now pro se. There are multiple explanations for this increase in pro se cases, including the cost of legal representation, the obstacles in consumer cases caused by BAPCPA, the easy access to bankruptcy forms and information on the internet, and perhaps many other reasons that are not readily apparent.
Pro se cases require extra judicial and other resources to process through the system. They pose unique challenges to our system. The Chapter 7 Trustees have raised with the bench a number of difficulties that the processing of these cases pose for them. As a Court, we have provided a great deal of information for pro se debtors on our website with numerous links to other websites and we will continue to explore and develop new and more efficient ways of processing these cases going forward and assisting the pro se debtors in them. To the extent that you as a bar have
recommendations for assistance to the Court in this regard, your recommendations are welcome.
Bankruptcy Wizard
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