Recently, I acted as the lead arbitrator on a panel of three to decide a case. This particular case involved a plaintiff who had filed a case pro se, meaning without a lawyer. Somehow she had navigated the legal system from filing, to service, to arbitration. Easy enough to miss something, so kudos to her.
Then came the actual arbitration, the trial of her case.
And she was in so far over her head, it was both sad and unfortunate.
What are the reasons why you should, or should not, file a case yourself without a lawyer?
Pro Se
Pro se means “for oneself” or “on one’s own behalf.”
Besides, who needs lawyers anyway? Our society encourages DIY. Even a technological neophyte can find oodles of videos online showing them how to do just about anything.
Want to learn how to wash and lube your bike? Tons of videos out there.
Make your own mayonnaise? Videos all over the place.
Plant a tree or build a deck or learn how to knit a sweater? All online. Videos galore.
So why do you need a lawyer when you can find out how to do just about anything online?
How many pages do I have to tell you why? The legal process is confusing, bewildering, uses odd terminology most people are unfamiliar with, and involves actual trained lawyers on the other side, whose job it is to defeat your claim. Those are just a few reasons why you probably need a lawyer for most litigation.
What does it mean to you? If you really care about winning the case, do you trust yourself to do that?
Do you realize that non-lawyer (pro se) litigants are held to the same standard as lawyers? The judge or arbitrator cannot help them out, cannot give them advice, and cannot tell them what they are doing wrong.
Television Trials versus Reality
If you’ve watched any legal shows on television, you may think “I can do that.” But they are purposely synthesized to take the boring parts out. If anyone had to watch an actual trial, the audience share would be in the single digits and most people would fall asleep.
Trials are tedious, boring, and highly technical. The rules of evidence alone are enough to make non-lawyer heads spin. And if you get these wrong, there is a great chance your entire “case” is not going to even be considered as evidence.
Do you know how to ask questions that won’t be objected to as “leading,” “compound,” or “assumes facts not in evidence?”
What if you are the only witness? How do you question yourself?
How do you get documents admitted into evidence?
Unless you do this for a living and have practiced for a long time, you will not know the answers to these questions.
The other difference between television and real trials is that no one is as good-looking, well-coiffed, or well dressed in real life. We just wish we were.
My Arbitration Experience
In the case I presided over the other day, this poor litigant was suing because she was upset that a hospital had cut short her sister’s visitation time with her.
Yeah, that’s her case.
The simple fact was that the sister had shown up with about 45 minutes left until visiting hours were over and the plaintiff believed (incorrectly) that visiting hours were literally one hour long.
So she sued for something and was wrong about it.
She didn’t know what she had to prove.
She hadn’t lined up any witnesses and had no documents to submit.
She didn’t know what she was asking for and did not even know how to ask for an award of money.
I was as polite to her as possible, gave her a broad overview of the process, explained to her what she needed to do and in what order. But that was as far as I could go.
We had to watch her try gamely to prove something that couldn’t be proven. At one point, she tried to call someone as a witness on the phone. While the witness answered, since the plaintiff had no idea what she had to prove and neither did the witness, it was a pointless and painful exercise.
Obviously, there was no way to find for the plaintiff and we unanimously decided in favor of the defendant. We had no choice.
What If it was Your Case…And it Really Mattered?
What if you had a serious injury in an auto crash and wanted to paying legal fees by doing it yourself?
- Would you know how to file a complaint or insurance claim?
- Would you know how to obtain your medical records and bills?
- Would you know how to submit those into evidence?
- Would you know how to obtain service of the complaint on the defendant(s)?
- Would you know how to call witnesses?
- Would you be able to subpoena witnesses?
- Do you know the difference between direct and cross examination?
- How much would you ask for and why?
- Do you know how much time you have to file a lawsuit?
If those questions for a very simple case have you scratching your head, and the case matters to you, you have your answer as to why you need a lawyer. There is a reason why lawyers “add value” to cases. In fact, the insurance industry’s own research arm, the Insurance Research Council, has found that claimants represented by an attorney receive, on average, settlements that are about 3.5 times higher than those of unrepresented claimants.
In other words, not only does having a knowledgeable personal injury attorney take the burden of litigating off your shoulders (when your focus should be on healing anyway), the results they achieve often more than justify their fees.
Or you can just handle things yourself and find out the hard way that you probably do lots of things well, but are not as good at lawyering as lawyers.
Takeaways
- Pro se means “for oneself” and is when someone files a case without a lawyer
- While there are some basic cases that can be handled pro se, most cannot be handled competently without a lawyer
- If the case is important enough to you to file a lawsuit, it is important enough to have a lawyer
- Actual courtroom practice is not like television; it’s much more technical and complicated than it appears to non-lawyers
Contact Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Stephen Hoffman
As in all cases involving injury, dog bites or injuries, workers’ compensation, medical malpractice, or other injury and potential liability, if you have been in an accident, immediately get medical treatment, report the crash to police and your own insurance company, and contact a lawyer with expertise in your type of case, such as bicycle accidents or pedestrians hit by cars.
If you’ve been in an accident and have questions, contact Chicago personal injury attorney Stephen L. Hoffman for a free consultation at (773) 944-9737. Stephen has over 30 years of legal experience and has collected millions of dollars for his clients. He is listed as a SuperLawyer, has a 10.0 rating on Avvo, and is BBB A+ accredited. He is also an Executive Level Member of the Lincoln Square Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce.
Stephen handles personal injury claims on a contingency fee basis, which means you don’t pay anything up front and he only gets paid if you do. Don’t wait another day; contact Stephen now.