A single-page instructions insert increased pro se filing completion

Self-represented filers most often abandon a filing not at the writing stage but at the procedural stage — where to file it, how many copies to bring, what the filing fee is, and what happens if they cannot pay it. This note tests whether answering those four questions on a single inserted page, handed out with the form itself, changes whether the filing gets completed.

What we tested

Wake County's magistrate's office distributed small claims complaint forms with a randomly assigned insert: half of filers received the form alone, half received the form with a single printed page answering where to file, how many copies are required, the filing fee, and how to request a fee waiver. Completion was measured as a properly filed complaint within fourteen days of the form being handed out.

What we found

Filers who received the insert completed their filing at a meaningfully higher rate than those who did not — 61% against 44% in this sample. The gap held even after accounting for the underlying claim amount and whether the filer had filed anything with the court before.

What we think is happening

The insert did not change anything about the substance of the form or the underlying law. What it appears to have done is remove a set of procedural unknowns that were stopping otherwise-motivated filers before they reached the clerk's counter at all. This is consistent with what the Legal Literacy programme's Research Note 14 found in a different context: the barrier this note identifies is procedural, not a matter of how the form itself is worded.

What this does not show

This is one county, one court type, and one insert design. It does not show that an insert would work the same way for a more complex filing, and it does not show which of the four questions on the insert is doing the most work — a fee-waiver-only insert has not yet been tested against this one. Both are natural next steps for this programme.