Appellate pro se handbook intended as a service to the public as well as the bench.

Initially, one might think it odd that those who make a living representing people on appeal would devote years of effort putting together a handbook to assist those who intend to advocate their own cause in the appellate process.

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But members of the Bar's Appellate Practice Section have done just that. The recently released Pro Se Appellate Handbook: Representing Yourself on Appeal was prepared not only as a service to the public, but also as a way to relieve the burden pro se litigants have placed on the courts.

"The project is designed to aid those who cannot find legal representation and aid the court system," said Handbook Committee Chair Dorothy Easley of Miami. "It represents what a section can do with all of its talent when everyone puts their heads and hearts together."

"I think that most attorneys don't realize how many cases there are in the Florida court system where at least one party is pro se," said section member Tom Hall, the clerk of court for the Supreme Court, who originally advocated the creation of the handbook.

Hall said the need for the handbook became clear to him after listening to the clerks across the state discuss the resources the court must expend assisting self-represented parties who are unfamiliar with the court system.

Right up front, the handbook lets those who use it know it is not a comprehensive appellate guide and does not answer all questions or guarantee success, but is a very basic guide to assist someone unable or unwilling to hire an attorney to advance or defend an appellate matter. It also is quick to counsel that it is not "a substitute to retaining an appellate attorney skilled in and knowledgeable of appellate law."

Easley said while the section doesn't want to discourage people from having their day in court, "at the same time the appellate process is a very complicated process and they are much better off looking for appellate representation."

Easley said the problem with pro se litigants is that most do not know how to proceed.

"They often are unable to timely file their notice of appeal; they don't know how to perfect their records of appeal, and this places a tremendous burden on the staff attorneys and the court system to give them some guidance without giving them inappropriate legal advice," Easley said.

Easley said pro se litigants require appellate courts to expend "an inordinate amount of resources trying to cater to the particular needs, the special needs, of the pro se in the appellate system. So this handbook is in part designed to try to address a need not merely in the pro se but also in the appellate court system."

"It is a great tool and should be very helpful," said Co-editor Caryn L. Bellus of Miami, noting it is written on a 10th grade reading level.

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"We had about 20 different contributors who wrote chapters and wound up with 21 different chapters--everything from what is an appeal to fees and costs to records to writing briefs to oral arguments. We kind of wanted to give an overview of all the different things that someone might encounter."

Co-editor Siobhan Helene Shea said the handbook it not designed to be the authoritative treatise on appellate procedure, but will help self-represented litigants get their cases to the court in the proper form.

"A lot of the time pro se litigants have something very meaningful to present to the court but it gets buried or gets lost in a lack of understanding the process," Shea said,

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Hall said through no fault of their own, it is "really difficult" for pro se litigants to comply with all the appellate procedures and the courts "spend a lot of time getting whatever they are filing in some sort of form that the court can really make use of."

The book, he said, will help speed that process along and hopefully reduce the number of pro se cases that get procedurally barred and assist the courts in helping get pro se cases heard so they may be decided on their merits.

"Of course, the courts have to be neutral. The court can't really--at least not as much as the pro se people like to think so--provide them assistance," Hall said. "That's not fair to the other side."

Easley said while many pro se cases are initiated in the criminal arena, where there is no right to post-conviction counsel, many cases in the family law system also have at least one of the parties representing themselves.

"We put our heads together as a team and by doing so were able to identify many of the issues. When we weren't sure, we spoke with people in the court system to get a sense of any additional issues they might be seeing," Easley said.

Easley said identifying what to include in the book was not as difficult as getting the chapters drafted and edited and cite checked and further edited. Hall said the section also has taken on the "enormous commitment" of keeping the handbook current.

Easley said the Pro Se Appellate Handbook: Representing Yourself on Appeal is posted on the section's Web site at www.flabarappellate. org and will be made available at law libraries across the state, including in the prisons, and eventually in the state's public libraries. Hall said the Florida Association of Court Clerks and Comptrollers also has posted a link to the handbook on its Web site and sent word to the state's individual clerks requesting they do the same.

"When pro se people call, you can say, 'Well, I can't answer your question because I can't give legal advice, but there is this book you can go look at ... that might help you,'" Hall said.

Utilizing a grant from The Florida Bar Foundation, the section will work to translate the book into Spanish and Creole, Easley said.

Hall added that the book may also be translated into other languages, if a need is identified. Hall noted there is a large Vietnamese speaking population within the territorial jurisdiction of the Second DCA.

"They get a lot of handwritten pleadings in Vietnamese," said Hall, noting that may be another language considered for translation. "Of course, they are still going to have to file in English but if they could at least understand the documents."

Hall doesn't anticipate the availability of the handbook will cut into any appellate practice lawyer's business "because most of these people really truly can't afford a lawyer or they don't want one, for whatever reason.

"It has been a long haul and something the section is very proud of. It shows what a section can do when you put together a large group of talented people who are really dedicated to a particular objective, and that is to try to ensure that people who cannot get legal representation are still able to advance their issues and alleviate the burden on the court system," Easley said.

Shea encourages other sections to look into putting a pro se handbook together relative to their practice specialties.

By Mark D. Killian

Managing Editor