Information for pro se litigants in Iowa.........

[Kitty C.]

This article was published in this morning's Cedar Rapids Gazette:

Mar 9, 2009
Do-it-yourself divorce: It's no cakewalk

Stick me on a spit and rake my naked flesh over the coals of hellfire. Chain me to a cactus and leave me at the mercy of jackals and buzzards.

But please, I beg of you, don't ever make me go through another divorce.

My ex-wife and I finalized our divorce last summer after a lengthy separation. Early on we decided the best way to proceed — for the sake of our son and our financial health — was to represent ourselves, becoming pro se litigants.

Following a nationwide trend, more Iowans are doing the same. And Iowa's courts are responding proactively.

"I think it's safe to say every court has seen more and more pro se litigants each year," said Tim Eckley, staff attorney at the American Judicature Society, based in Des Moines.

Representing yourself in a divorce is not easy. That's why we have divorce attorneys. Add a child to the equation, and you're looking at serious work. Here are some tasks we had to undertake:

l Reach complete agreement on splitting our assets (house, furniture, cars, retirement accounts, etc.).

l Agree on the exact details of child custody and support, as well as who would cover health care, education and insurance expenses.

l Determine which legal documents we needed, find or draft the documents, and have them notarized.

l Attend family education classes and consult with a mediator.

Why go through all the work? The main reason for many is financial.

"Studies suggest most people choose to represent themselves for economic reasons," Sixth Judicial District Judge Patrick Grady said.

Another reason is simple independence.

"We live in a self-help, do-it-yourself society," Eckley said. "You can go to Home Depot or Menards to get stuff to fix your house, go online to make your own stock trades. That phenomenon is ... bleeding into the legal arena."

The jump in pro se litigation has weighed on Iowa's courts.

"Pro se litigants take up clerks' time, they can take judges' time, they can really gum up the works," Eckley said.

In this area, I'd have to plead guilty. We appeared before a judge three times before finally getting it right.

Iowa addressed this problem in recent years with the appointment of a Pro Se Litigants Task Force, which created court recommendations. The Iowa Supreme Court then appointed a Pro Se Family Committee to design forms.

Grady, who has co-chaired both committees, said forms for cases not involving children were created first, and certain child support forms were approved recently. Forms for divorce with children are in the works.

Forms are available free at the Iowa Judicial Branch site, www.judicial.state.ia.us, or at Clerk of Court offices for about $10.

I found forms through the Iowa Judicial Branch. I found others online and also studied friends' divorce papers to figure out proper wording and format. But be careful online.

"There's a lot of misinformation on the Internet, and the forms might not work in Iowa courts," Grady warned.

Eckley said some Iowans have paid up to $300 online for the same forms available at the Iowa Judicial Branch site.

If you go pro se, don't expect to be coddled. Clerks answer basic questions but can't offer advice. And sitting before a judge is intimidating.

On that third try, beads of nervous sweat gave way to elation when our divorce decree finally was signed. We high-fived in the hallway, relieved to be done.

We had saved money and avoided unnecessary acrimony and arguments. We were satisfied in the end, and our son, who shares equal time between us, is happy as possible in his modern family. Who wouldn't be? Now he gets two Christmases every year.

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I'm glad to see that this couple were able to set aside any animosity towards each other for what's best for their child.  And I'm glad to see that Iowa has made it much easier to represent yourself.  But I still think (like in this instance) pro se will ony work if both parents are willing to go the extra mile to MAKE it work, which they obviously have in this article.  But if a parent is hellbent on wreaking havoc in the other parent's life (and gets an atty. to meet those ends), I would NOT ever recommend going it alone.  I think going pro se is no different than agreeing to joint physical custody.....if the parents are not willing to work with each other to make it happen, it will not work.