Stephanie Winsor of Gander represented herself in family court because, she says, the cost of a lawyer was unaffordable. (Submitted by Suzanne Tiller)

The number of people acting as their own lawyers in Newfoundland and Labrador is rising, say people connected to the province's legal system, and it's a trend born out of the need to save on cash.

Stephanie Winsor of Gander is one of those making her own case to the courtroom. A single mom with three boys who play hockey — one a goalie, by anyone's measure a considerable hit on the wallet — she said when it was time for her to go to court on a family matter, hiring a lawyer wasn't an option.

She's not in the financial class to easily afford legal representation, but she doesn't qualify for legal aid either.

"The cost of a lawyer can be quite substantial," she said.

"But because I had gone to a free legal clinic, and because I had gone to some family court mediation, and because I had gathered a lot of documents and spoke to those people free of charge, I felt that I could give it a go."

Such legal clinics are relatively new resource for people who represent themselves. The Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador started them in St. John's a couple of years ago, and they've now expanded into Gander.

Lawyer Vanessa McCarthy volunteers her time to help people without representation navigate their way through court. (Leigh Anne Power/CBC)

Vanessa McCarthy is one of the Gander lawyers who volunteered her time to offer free advice to litigants at the most recent clinic in October.



"This is just the second one we've done here in Gander ... and each time we have had a full slate of people," she said.

"We're generally getting people asking questions about family matters. Some estate questions, some employment issues, some contractual disputes. But I think it would be fair to say family issues are the most common. "

Rising since 1990s

Judges, too, have noticed an uptick in self-representation.

Derek Green was chief justice of the Court of Appeal of Newfoundland and Labrador until 2017, and still acts as a part-time judge.

He said it comes down to cost, having witnessed more and more people who just can't afford to hire a lawyer.

"The contrast between the situation in the early 1990s and now is really quite startling," he said.

While there is no exact data tracking of the phenomenon in the province, anecdotally the difference is obvious to Green.

"Very rarely did we have people coming into the court of appeal without a lawyer in the 1990s. Now, it is very prevalent. We have as much as 30, in some cases 40 per cent … of people coming in without a lawyer."

Self-represented litigants usually lose. - Julie Macfarlane

Having unrepresented people come before him inevitably slows down the process and causes delays and postponements, he said.

"When someone shows up for the first time in court and they don't have a lawyer and they say, 'Look, I really can't handle this myself. I got to have some assistance,' usually what the court will do is try to bend over backwards to give them time to either get a lawyer, or if they need to apply to legal aid, then that process is to be gone through," he said.

Law professor Julie Macfarlane says Canadians are representing themselves in greater numbers because they simply cannot afford to pay high legal fees. (Mike Kovalski)

A national trend

Self-representation is tracked at the national level by the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor, and the larger Canadian picture is much like that of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Its records show 50 per cent of people involved in family court, and up to 40 per cent of those in civil matters, don't have lawyers. Its last report found most people started out in the system with a positive outlook, but eventually became frustrated.

"If you're not trained as a lawyer and you're dealing with your own case, you have a huge emotional investment. And you may be at a difficult point in your life with a family transition," said Julie Macfarlane, a University of Windsor professor and the director of the The National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP).

It really wasn't a bad process. - Stephanie Winsor

"All of this combines to produce an impact on people who represent themselves that is a very, very negative and a very worrying one. It causes stress, it causes anxiety and it adds more tension to what may already be a difficult time for that family."

As well as slowing down the legal system, Macfarlane found acting as your own lawyer doesn't often produce the desired outcome, with seven out of eight cases unsuccessful.

"Self-represented litigants usually lose," she said.

"The bottom line here is — as you might expect — self-represented litigants are not faring well when they're up against represented parties."

''I was very intimidated'

Winsor said her experience of being her own lawyer actually went better than expected.

"I was very unnerved because walking into a courtroom, you know at the end of the day the judge has the final say," she said.

"I was very intimidated, to say the least, but, you know, it wasn't bad. It really wasn't a bad process."

Winsor says she didn't get everything she wanted out of her court case but was satisfied with the result. (CBC)

After taking advantage of every bit of help she could find, from online resources to the free legal clinic, Winsor said the court itself helped too.

"I found that the judge, because I didn't have a lawyer, was patient. And he allowed me to ask him questions, like am I allowed to address this? Or where can I go to if I'm not sure about this? I felt very blessed to get his time," she said.

It took more than 15 months for her to follow her case through the system, and while she didn't get everything she wanted in court, she was satisfied overall.

And the money she saved means she can keep her boys on the ice.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador