Are you facing a court case or considering filing a lawsuit against someone? Are you facing criminal charges? Many people think seriously about representing themselves in court. Whether it is to save money or because they don’t trust lawyers, appearing pro se in court is a common temptation. In other cases, people have a lot of courtroom experience and have had a frustrating experience with lawyers in the past. In these cases, such as appeals court, people may feel like they can better represent themselves. In most cases, however, this doesn’t have good results. Instead, consider the best appeals attorneys in Georgia or another state to represent your case.
Most people don’t do a good job representing themselves in court, and here are some of the reasons:
Lack of Legal Knowledge and Experience
Attorneys spend years studying law and precedent (past rulings). They are also continually learning more and studying current law changes. Unless you have this level of education, you will lack legal knowledge and experience. This is likely to result in confusion or delay in the legal process, annoyance from the judge and other officials, and the possibility of fines or judgments against you. It is also likely to result in a less effective case and you are less likely to win.
Complex Court Procedures and Rules of Evidence
The rules covering evidence and the procedures of the court are oftentimes strange, obscure, and complicated. Attorneys spend time learning these rules and are used to following court procedures. You will not have this experience and risk irritating or offending other people in court by skipping important steps. You could also risk having your evidence thrown out if you don’t understand the rules of evidence and what is and is not admissible.
Difficulty in Presenting a Convincing Case
Presenting an airtight, convincing, evidence-based case can be a skill that takes years to master. Lawyers and other professionals spend a lot of time learning to present evidence, tell stories that are believable and convincing, and question people in ways that will get them to say the right things. Most people are very nervous in court, especially when their case is important or life-changing, like a criminal case. To add to this, nearly everyone who hasn’t had training in public speaking gets nervous or frightened when facing that situation. Both of these problems make presenting in court difficult for novices.
The Potential for Making Costly Mistakes
When you represent yourself, you have the potential to make very costly mistakes. Without the training and experience of a lawyer, you risk saying or doing something incriminating to you or your case. Experienced attorneys have both the training and the practice to know how to handle themselves in court. They know how to handle demanding and harsh questioning by the judge and other lawyers, and to keep their cool under fire.
Difficulty Understanding Legal Options and Outcomes
Unless you have studied law and understand precedent and how it applies to your case, you will be unlikely to know all of your legal options and potential outcomes. Lawyers have access to a huge number of past judgments and cases which they can use to help guide their case as they build it. They also have a much greater in-depth understanding of the whole law, while a novice is likely to only study the part of the law that they feel applies to their particular situation. This can leave a lot of room for error, misunderstandings, and potential loopholes in your case. You cannot study much of the law in the limited amount of time you will be given to prepare your defense or case.
Risk of Harsher Judgments
Because you are not very knowledgeable of the law, you don’t understand the intricacies of the applicable laws, and you don’t have experience and training in using precedent in court, you are more likely to get a harsh judgment if you represent yourself. In addition, judges may be less impartial to people who represent themselves, which can contribute to harsher punishments.
The Potential for Emotional Involvement
When you represent yourself, you are likely the person (or one of the people) in the room that is going to receive the most impact from the outcome of the case. This is true for all kinds of cases, from lawsuits to family law cases to criminal cases. This puts you in the position to have a heightened emotional reaction to all aspects of the case. One of the advantages a lawyer brings to any case is the objectivity of distance. Because the lawyer is not likely to be personally invested in the outcome of the case (other than reimbursement), they are not likely to make rash or rushed decisions based on their emotions. Instead, they are free to look at the case and evidence objectively and build the case based on their experience and knowledge.
The Time-Consuming Process
Learning the intricacies of all applicable parts of the law can be a long and time-consuming ordeal. Added to that is the need for learning about precedent in other cases, the time it takes to build a case and discover evidence, and filling out and filing all necessary paperwork on time, and a court case can be a very time-consuming process. For a lawyer, who is used to this work and who does it as a regular daily job, building a case can still take a long time. For you, who may be trying to study law, find similar past cases, and learn how to file the applicable paperwork, all while holding down a job and handling your normal day-to-day responsibilities, it can be nearly impossible. You are likely to do the job shabbily at best and completely fail at worst.
Limited Resources
You will have limited resources on hand compared with a professional attorney. From limited finances to a lack of resources for finding and presenting evidence, you will have a harder time building your case. Lawyers know exactly how to proceed, what expenditures are necessary, and what is overkill, and usually have the power of experience and reputation to help them in finding the witnesses and statements that will help.
Conclusion
While many people consider appearing pro se, not many go through with it, especially in criminal or large civil cases. This is because of the complexity and risk of these cases. People are more likely to represent themselves in family matters and small civil cases, and in many cases, judges and court officials expect this and are more lenient and tolerant. If you decide to represent yourself, make sure that you are up to the task and willing to take the risk of losing your case. If the risk is too great, it is probably time to look for an attorney.