Mom Barred from Pro Se Representation of Kids by Appeals Court

A California mom who’s not a lawyer can’t represent her minor children in a suit alleging the kids’ school district engaged in racial discrimination and unlawfully unenrolled them, the Ninth Circuit said Wednesday.

The mother, La Dell Grizzell, “unquestionably raises concerns with grave implications for children’s access to justice,” wrote Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. “Our panel, however, is bound by Johns, which holds that a parent may not proceed pro se on her children’s behalf,” Wardlaw said, citing a 1997 Ninth Circuit opinion in Johns v. Cnty. of San ...