This week’s guest blogger is a former SRL who today, four years on, works in the justice system. She looks back at her difficult and distressing experience as a SRL with all the wisdom of hindsight. She appraises the impact on her as a parent, as a friend, and on her work.
Her message to other SRLs is that you are not alone. What is more, many, many SRLs (and our still growing database of SRL stories attest to this) find that the experience of trying to represent themselves is crazy-making, placing stress on many parts of their lives. Her advice to others is to remember who you really are – indeed, who you were when you began this journey – and to get back there as quickly as you can.
Dear SRL:
I was once in your shoes. I understand the trauma you’ve experienced; indeed, what you may still be going through! Overkill? Well, let me just say that anyone who has experienced the family law system as a SRL would approve of such an exaggeration.
Let me explain. I was a self-represented litigant. I wasn’t looking for a new adventure and I certainly wasn’t looking to enlarge my understanding of family law. I confess that when I am sitting alone quietly at night I still sometimes see process servers lurking in the dark ready to catch me off guard. I’ll find myself imagining I am arguing my case before a judge and then snap out of it. I shudder at the thought of actually reliving those days – I have tried to move on and put it all behind me. Nonetheless, for your sake – and to help others understand better – here I shall bear my SRL soul.
WARNING!! The consequences of reading this blog as a SRL may be empowering! It may sustain you through current circumstances. You may actually believe again that you are sane. You may stand taller, sleep better and feel emotionally justified, recharged and ready to forge ahead.
Because guess what? You are not alone. There are many of us out there – this is what I want you to appreciate. Whether you are walking this road because you need a court ruling, or simply got dragged down it by the other side, you are brighter, braver and stronger than you think!
I don’t know if there is a trauma closely comparable to that of the SRL experience. The pain of a marriage breakup can be overwhelming in and of itself. Throw in people tracking you day and night to serve you with papers, filling out endless forms, standing up and defending yourself, alone, before a judge, the endless effort to find answers, understand the how to’s, timelines and rules….oh my!
No one quite understands the isolation that comes with being a SRL. It’s like taking a university course – except with no classmates and no teacher. You have to seek, read and study in order to know even the basics (that’s why lawyers go to school for so many years.) It’s a new culture to which you’ve never been exposed and you don’t even speak the language.
The other option would be to hire a lawyer – but this requires a spare couple of thousand dollars. Many of you started your journey with a captain at the helm but attorney fees shipwrecked you along the way. So the decision was made – either your time or your money. For me, my separation came with suddenly living below the poverty line but my income was too high to be eligible for Legal Aid. Go figure…
When I see photos of myself during that time, I look sad and depressed – not at all where I’m at today. My kids would agree. I believe miserable was the word they used to describe me then. Ouch.
I had never experienced being at the end of my rope before. There is no better way to describe the desperation I felt going through the process. Representing myself was a never-ending undertaking which required far too much of my time and attention. There wasn’t much of me left over for my family, work, social life and possibly a day of rest? I felt exposed, unsure and lonely. I am sure that at some point I was clinically depressed.
I would do Google searches all night long looking for answers. Really my questions were: didn’t anyone care? Don’t “they” know I have rights? What about my children? Won’t someone please just help me? I’ve never gone through anything in my life where I’d sunk to such a low, ready to beg for a little help. I cried to release the frustration.
Friends and family tried to be supportive. They got tired of hearing the same story over and over again. I was tired of it! They thought it should have been over long ago. Lots of people told me that so and so got this in court, or had had this or that happen in their case, but their stories – all second and third-hand and sometimes straight off Judge Judy! – didn’t come close to my reality in the family law system.
The bottom line is that end-of-marriage negotiations are always a matter of give and take. Here the other party did the taking and finally, in order to end the madness, I did the giving. It wasn’t right what I had to give up and I wouldn’t say that I had access to justice as a SRL but I decided for my own good and that of my children – suck it up buttercup. It’s a matter of priorities – my sanity, health and well-being was suffering, and you can’t put a price tag on that.
Fast-forward four years, and I’ll admit that I have no regrets ending it when I did. What I lost materially, I gained back ten-fold in peace of mind. If I had only known then what I know now – that all that battling would amount to nothing, that when the other side will not negotiate reasonably the only way to escape is to end it – I wouldn’t have bothered.
To those of you still battling, and still struggling through the system – the horrible experience of being a SRL will eventually end. And when it does, move on and don’t look back.
– A Former SRL
this is the reason that now srl s are demanding the legal system change. when the cost of justice, is so high financially and personally, that we are forced to walk away, and let injustice succeed, we have no justice system. in my case, to walk away provides for my daughter an actual false identity, no support, and no real medical information. all of this can easily be proven and rectified, by an order of the court for the complete release of the files, and giving me the opportunity of cross examination, I have obtained half of what I need by going through two privacy actions. the rest would be all there, if the court would only order the processes it is supposed to support. I have read the most flagrant lies in what is supposed to be a sworn affidavit. and it can all be rectified by cross examination and the release of the files to BOTH parties. by providing both parties the right to examine the evidence and cross examine the witnesses, I suggest that walking away and letting injustice stand, is not the answer, full support from the courts for complete disclosure, and the opportunity for both parties to exercise their rights of discovery, is, our courts are NOT doing this now. and the most criminal frauded evidence is left standing as the virtual word of god. as well, there is a genuine hatred of women in the courts, even if it is coming from other women, the respect of having the right to speak and to be heard and believed, is not there. I was actually called a slut, in open court by a BC lawyer, who was a woman, in front of a woman judge., she actually said I probably didn’t even know who my childs father was. the judge said nothing about this. I was appalled,. since when is standing in court stating your facts an open invitation to abuse and slander. I suggest the reason the emotional cost of going to court on your own is so high is because our courts have no civility, no respect for the public, and have no interest in justice. they want to process you as quickly as possible, and kick you out the door. the consequences to you or to your children do not bother these LEGAL STAFF one bit. we need to dismantle the entire system. it is not working,.
Although well intentioned, as stated: “you can’t put a price tag on that” (i.e. sanity, health and well-being). To be so blatantly abused; to be so grossly taken advantage of – in full view, and that by the very individuals put in place to avoid it all, is CRIMINAL at the very least! This outrageous treatment, and behaviour, this hypocrisy of ‘Justice’ must be STOPPED! Enough = Enough!
I can totally sympathize with your blog. Being a SRL is similar to a war zone….at some point you just need to get out…no matter what the financial cost and what you are giving up. If you are lucky…you will never have to enter another court house again. If you are unlucky…the craziness that brought you there in the first place will repeatedly bring you back for more. Sometimes giving into the other party only feeds into their own misguided sense of justice. If you decide to leave the war zone…make damn sure the other party doesn’t have any more ammunition to start the process up again.
Contracts (and marriages) fail for many reasons; incompetence, ignorance, immorality, neglect, deceit, laziness, covetousness, greed, wastefulness, fraud etc. etc. and yes even simply a negative attitude. When all the motives of the system and the people involved go against the individual seeking justice then evil will flourish for a while… There is however one caveat that many ignore; until the individual seeking justice receives justice, then no matter what anyone does (or fails to do) they cannot extinguish the light of the truth which the one seeking justice possesses. I for one, would NOT GIVE UP TO EVIL because free will and THE TRUTH is a precious gift that nobody can take from another by fiat. Many seem to hate this (even when they are profiting from it) but it is still true. Freedom comes from exposing the truth! AND joy comes from being able to live this way! Love it or Hate it!
IF you are telling the truth, you should persevere…you must persevere!
Contracts (and marriages) fail for many reasons; incompetence, ignorance, immorality, neglect, deceit, laziness, covetousness, greed, wastefulness, fraud etc. etc. and yes even simply a negative attitude. When all the motives of the system and the people involved go against the individual seeking justice, then evil will flourish for a while… There is however one caveat that many ignore; until the individual seeking justice receives justice, then no matter what anyone does (or fails to do) they cannot extinguish the light of the truth which the one seeking justice possesses. I for one, would NOT GIVE UP TO EVIL because freewill and THE TRUTH is a precious gift that nobody can take from another by fiat. Many seem to hate this (even when they are profiting from it) but it is still true. Freedom comes from exposing the truth! AND joy comes from being able to live this way! Love it or Hate it!
This was not even remotely empowering. It was depressingly discouraging. I have a giant stack of injustices against me and my kids with tons of evidence and my ex makes hundreds of thousands a year and I can’t even afford a lawyer or access to my kids more than three times a year, and reading this I feel like it’s all going to be for nothing if I try to take him to court.
So far, nothing on this blog has been useful for someone like me.