Judges told a hearing on improving funding for civil legal services yesterday that self-represented parties—now numbering more than 2 million a year—are bogging down the state court system and putting judges in an uncomfortable position as they strive to remain neutral while insuring that litigants get their day in court.
“It is very difficult from a judge’s point of view,” said Judge Jeffrey K. Oing, supervising judge for Manhattan Civil Court (See Profile). “We straddle the fence. We’re under an ethical obligation in terms of what advice we can give to the self-represented because virtually all of the plaintiffs, the debt collector or the bank…have an attorney and we sit there and hear what the plaintiff is telling us, yet at the same time we’re really hamstrung in terms of what we can tell or offer to the self-represented defendant.”
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