Every statistic on aletteapp.com traces to published research. The sources, in the order they appear.
Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS), University of Denver. The national benchmark on self-representation in family court: 72 percent of divorce and separation cases involve at least one self-represented party. Also the origin of the phrase "taking a trip without a map," from the litigants the study interviewed.
iaals.du.eduClio, 2026. Representation rates by party role: 42 percent of filing parties have legal representation, compared with 23 percent of respondents.
clio.comUniversity of Chicago Law Review. Self-represented litigants lose approximately 80 to 90 percent of contested cases, with the loss rate attributed to the absence of preparation infrastructure rather than the merits of their cases.
lawreview.uchicago.eduIAALS. Why existing self-help legal materials fall short: they are written by legal insiders without accounting for the emotional weight, fear, and stress carried by the people who need them.
iaals.du.edu