Vexatious or Vulnerable: Permitted Roles for Litigants in Person in Civil Courts

Abstract

Litigants in person (LiPs) are increasingly prominent players in the social world of the court. There is a growing literature addressing many questions relating to litigants in person and this article contributes to that literature, exploring the creation and maintenance of the social role of the litigant in person. I argue that the high-status actors and those in the inner circle of the social world of the court – the judiciary, lawyers, and court staff – engage in boundary work, defining the role of the litigant in person. In carrying out this work they shape two roles for the litigant in person: the vulnerable and the vexatious. Simultaneously they maintain the fiction that the ideal litigant in person is one who performs the lawyer's role. This role is neither possible nor desired by the high-status actors; litigants in person must remain differentiated. If court reform to address the challenges presented by litigants in person is to succeed, it must account for these role dynamics.