SELF-HELP LAWYERING ON THE RISE STATE TASK FORCE AIMS TO ASSIST AMATEURS.

Byline: Martin Kuz Staff Writer

Olga Krel has made 16 civil court appearances in the past two years, the legal fallout of a nasty divorce battle that remains unresolved. In all but one instance, she went without an attorney - an experience she likened to walking naked into the courtroom.

``It's an awful feeling,'' Krel said. ``It seems like the judge won't let you speak. In a nice way, you feel like he is saying shut up. You feel like an idiot.''

Krel belongs to the swelling segment of Californians attempting to represent themselves in court, most often in civil cases involving family disputes - and most often in vain.

The trend is evident within publicly funded legal support offices in Los Angeles County courthouses, free services that help 10,000 people a month - the great majority of them low-income wage earners unable to afford an attorney.

The money saved notwithstanding, do-it-yourself lawyering teems with risk. Appearing in court before a judge leaves most self-represented litigants cowed and tongue-tied, and professional attorneys run circles around them with an array of delay tactics.

``In the civil system, you're on your own,'' said Sheila McKeown, an attorney who works at the Van Nuys Courthouse's self-help legal center. ``So many of these people don't know what to do, they end up getting buried in the system.''

Stymied by the court's twin ramparts of paperwork and procedures, self- represented litigants will watch their cases - and quest for personal closure - delayed for weeks, months, even years. The deferrals, in turn, clog court dockets and lead to an incalculable drain on public coffers.

The Judicial Council of California, the policy-making body of the state's courts, has made strides in recent years to assist litigants without lawyers. The council took another step last month by appointing 19 members to sit on its Task Force on Self-Represented Litigants.

The statewide task force, made up of judges, court officers and other legal experts, will study how to ease access to court services for self-represented litigants, known in legalese as pro per or pro se litigants.

The panel will explore remedies such as simpler court forms and nudging lawyerless litigants toward alternative dispute resolution, said Bonnie Hough, a judicial council senior attorney.

``The reality is, when people don't have attorneys, their cases take more time,'' she said. ``They need things explained to them, they may not get their paperwork done in a timely fashion, and that can mean cases being continued and rescheduled. That all takes money.''

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Laurie Zelon, a task force member, added, ``It's very intimidating and frustrating for (people without attorneys) to be in court, even more so when they have to keep coming back.''

The Van Nuys Courthouse's self-help legal center, a $300,000 county- funded pilot program managed by Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, opened last fall to offer free guidance on a range of family and civil court matters. Considering that court clerks estimate that 75 percent of pro se litigants make mistakes on their case paperwork, the center stays busy, assisting about 70 people a day.

With nine out of 10 people who come to the center qualifying for low-income court fee waivers, the need for free legal tutelage is manifest, legal services supervising attorney Caron Caines said.

``If you have money and can afford an attorney, you can fight the fight,'' she said. ``If you don't have money to afford an attorney, you're untrained and unarmed to fight the fight. How can it possibly be a fair battle?''

Civil courts see the lion's share of pro per cases because, unlike criminal proceedings, civil litigants are not entitled to public representation.

< The thickest pro per logjams occur in family court, where in more than half of the approximately 160,000 new cases handled in California each year, at least one party lacks legal representation, according to the judicial council. The figure jumps to 85 percent in child support cases.

Krel, a Tarzana resident, represents one face behind the numbers. The 46-year-old Ukrainian emigre owns three master's degrees, including one from the University of Southern California, but she admits to feeling like a first-grader in court.

In the 18 months after she filed for divorce in May 1999, Krel lost her job, declared bankruptcy and suffered an emotional breakdown. She and her two children now get by on the $350 temporary disability check she receives from the state each week.

Unable to afford an attorney, Krel has tripped up time after time as she tries to finalize the financial details of her divorce.

She recalled how last year one judge laughed at her earnest response to a question he asked, then said he would have to reschedule her case yet again because she wasn't prepared. Court clerks have sent her away with a scowl after finding an error in her paperwork.

``It is so frustrating,'' said Krel, who sought help at the Van Nuys legal center and now volunteers there as well. ``You think you are an intelligent person, but in (court), you don't feel like it.''

Similar anxiety plagues Israel Carreon, a 31-year-old construction worker acting as his own counsel in his divorce case because he can't afford a lawyer. Whipsawed by personal anguish and the stress of representing himself, Carreon said, ``Now I understand why people decide to kill themselves rather than go on living.''

That kind of wit's-end torment, added to untold taxpayer dollars wasted on delayed cases, has triggered a growth spurt of free legal services for self-represented litigants.

The state Legislature authorized the judicial council to create family law facilitator offices in each of California's 58 counties in 1996. The offices - Los Angeles County has 14, one in each district courthouse - provide legal guidance on child and spousal support, as well as health insurance claims.

The Los Angeles County facilitator offices, funded with federal money funneled through the state, attract more foot traffic than the Sunset Strip. Some 7,000 people walk in every month to receive free advice on filling out forms, how to respond to a judge and even what clothes to wear in court, county family law facilitator Julie Paik said.

Another 3,000 people a month take advantage of the county's family law information centers at the Central and Norwalk courthouses. The centers, established in 1999 and funded by the judicial council, provide general guidance on a range of legal matters, including divorce, restraining orders and paternity cases.

The county doesn't advertise the programs, in part because word-of-mouth referrals alone have the small staffs at each office and center already near the breaking point, Paik said.

But while most people who turn to free legal services do so out of sheer necessity, there is another, smaller segment of litigants who choose to go it alone in court for the same reason people build their own backyard decks.

``We as a society are witnessing what I call the Home Depotization of the culture,'' Paik said. ``Rather than hire a plumber to fix the sink ... people want to do things for themselves.''

In response, attorneys are ``unbundling'' their services, agreeing to handle only specific aspects of a case - preparing forms, for example, or appearing in court with a client - instead of the entire process. The a la carte approach to legal counsel appeals to clients who desire a sense of control over their destiny, said Mary Viviano of the California Bar Association.

The do-it-yourself ethos also thrives on the Internet, where dozens of self-help legal sites offer a mix of advice and lawyer bashing. In addition to the county's straitlaced site at www.lasuperior.org, popular Web resources include Divorce Online, HALT - Americans for Legal Reform, and pro-selaw.org.

Alfred Adask, who operates the pointedly named Antishyster.com Web site from his home in Dallas, contends that self-representation ``isn't just a question of how much (an attorney) costs.''

``It's a question of, Who am I? Do I need an attorney to hold my hand, or am I a free human being? More people are beginning to say, I'm a free person.''

Health gym general manager Ricardo Medranu, a 30-year-old North Hollywood resident representing himself in a divorce, ranks among them.

``I didn't want to pay attorney fees,'' he said, ``but I also figured if I could do it myself, why not?''

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Photo:

(color) Volunteer Michael Convey works with a client on a problem at the self-help legal center at the Van Nuys Courthouse.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer