The 9th Circuit has prepared a nice overview on the pro per filings issues in the Central District. You can access it here. About a quarter of all filings in the Central District are pro per and, of that amount, 39% of the chapter 7s will be dismissed and 99% of the chapter 13s will fail to successfully complete the plan.
The chapter 7 number is a little strange since chapter 7s are rarely dismissed (I thought). I assume the dismissal must be based on the failure of the debtor to appear at the meeting of creditors. That tells me that the filing was solely to stop an eviction or foreclosure and give the debtor a little more time to move. The filing was probably by a BPP or “notario” in the hispanic community. A lot of the pro pers are not aware they filed.
As to chapter 13s, it’s a sad state of events to know that the paperwork is so complicated that virtually no one can do it themselves. I assume most pro per chapter 13s are filed by people who are trying to save property they cannot afford and thus the failure from the start. But conceptually, chapter 13s are not that complicated – its the paperwork that is difficult although Congress could help by making the basic rules a little more easy to understand and banks could help by doing something other than filing a mindless objection to the plan at the last minute, then sending an appearance attorney to the hearing.
