subject: Representing Yourself In Court [print this page] Should I Represent Myself In Court? Should I Represent Myself In Court?
Some people chose to represent themselves in court for a variety of reasons, low income individuals qualify for legal aid and rich defendants can afford high priced lawyers so the cause for representing yourself in court usually falls down to middle-income people who do not qualify for legal aid but cannot afford the representation required. The common misconception is that it is done out of choice. It takes at least seven years to become a fully qualified lawyer with no experience so consider how well you would trust yourself to perform surgery on yourself after a few weeks research and you are looking at the same sort of impact it might have on your success.
To represent yourself you will need to have an in depth understanding of the law relevant to your case/offence to even begin considering how you will defend yourself. If you are being charged you will need to understand the details of your offence and the punishments you could receive. If you are acting in a civil case, you will need to consider the arguments you may come up against.
In a criminal case, you would be up against a highly experienced barrister, who would stop at nothing to convict you. This would be intimidating to say the least and losing your confidence in a situation like this could end up in you losing your freedom, or at least a substantial amount of money.
There can be any number of reasons for why someone would chose to represent themselves in court, the common delusion is that it is done out of choice but unfortunately it is more often for financial reasons; low income individuals qualify for legal aid and wealthy defendants can afford high priced lawyers, middle-income defendants may be considered too wealthy to qualify for legal aid but cannot afford the necessary representation, however there are still some who feel confident enough to try and save money by representing themselves. It takes at least seven years to become a basically qualified lawyer and would you perform surgery on yourself after a few weeks research? They bear the same relevance in the likely hood of your success.
Once you have researched and understood the law, your case and your chances, you will also need to acquaint yourself with the usual court procedures, court etiquette and anything you will need to provide and prepare beforehand.
If you are involved in a civil case, you might want to consider how it will feel to stand face to face with your opposition and cross examine/be examined by them. It would probably take an individual of strong character to remain calm and not let personal feelings get in the way If the matter is serious enough to have been brought to court.
