The topic of this blog is Pro Se litigation, which is when a person chooses to represent his or herself in court WITHOUT hiring a lawyer. People choose to do this because it can save them thousands of dollars in attorney fees and gives them a better understanding of the U.S. legal system. Many people have been successful at this. For a few examples, see http://www.citizensjustice.com/
There are books available, notably the one available at the previously linked Citizen's Justice Institute called "How To Win a Lawsuit Without Hiring A Lawyer," that give you the tools to understand the U.S. legal process and become your own lawyer. If you have an interest in representing yourself pro se or if you have done so in the past and have useful information to share with others, please post here! Together, we can fight the sometimes unjust U.S. legal system through simple determination and education!
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ReplyDeleteI know of a case that doesn't exactly represent pro-se litigation in action, but illustrates the forces that can be imposed on a man which drive him to desperate and unusual acts.
ReplyDeleteThis happened in the mid-to-late 1990's and made it in the newspapers, specifically the Boston Herald. I cannot now remember the names of the individuals involved.
There was a resident of Woburn, MA, who owned his own locksmithing business in Medford (MA). For whatever reasons -- and I have no idea how much was his fault, though I could easily believe that he was neither blameless nor wholly guilty -- his wife received a Restraining Order on him. They had lived together with, I think, their 3 children in a self-standing house on which mortgage payments were due.
When you get a Restraining Order, you are evicted summarily. Whoever stays behind controls your personal property. You can only retrieve it in the presence of a police officer, and the most he'll likely allow you to remove are personal clothes.
Anyway, the Court ordered him to pay all the bills on the house -- mortgage, taxes, utilities, etc. It also ordered child support.
He was being ordered to pay out of pocket in excess of $1000 cash every week. It was more than he made. And of course, he now had the additional expense of finding -- and paying for -- his own place to live, his car, etc.
It was impossible. So he sold his locksmithing business, I think for around $100,000, and took the money and ran away to Florida and lived with Gypsies for the next four years.
In the meanwhile, the wife lost the house and wound up in public housing.
After 4 years -- and after making his way onto the Commonwealth's list of top 10 "dead-beat dads" ("beat-dead" is more like it) -- he was finally arrested and returned to MA.
Now, according to the Federal Bradley Amendment, arrears in child support payments are a permanent record forever. No court even has a right to cancel them. So while this man was hanging out with Gypsies, his child support arrears continued to mount, and the government will have a lien on his income forever until its paid off. And for that matter, the meter continues to tick even when he's in jail.
I read the accounts of the court's assessments against him at the time of sentencing. And sure enough, while he was ordered to repay his child support arrears, the court made no mention of the foreclosure or the rest of his family's living expenses.
In other words, by running away, it looked like he successfully evaded THOSE charges, so in a sense, he kind of came out ahead.
Moral of the story: The Nanny State Big Government stepped in and made a bad situation worse.
This is the kind of thing that drives many men into taking the law into their own hands -- in a legal sense, by pro-se litigancy.
Interesting points - thanks for commenting!
ReplyDeleteExpense of fighting in court is often in favor of the Pro Se litigant in small cases valued at less than perhaps $6,000. In most court for most lawyers this represents aproximately 4 motions/briefs/rewponses and an appearnce in corurt to discuss it in a Motions session before a Judge.
ReplyDeleteFor example, I filed a Breach of Contract case against a dog breeder for failure to provide material necessary (semen) to inseminate a bitch. I requested relief of $8,000 which was the approximmate value of the litter I had expected except for the fact the other party failed to provide suitable material for the insemination. It turned out the stud dog had a urinary tract infection and could not produce, but the contract had a back-up dog alternative suggested, which in reality did not exist. The other party offered $1,500 to settle rather than contest in court.
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In another an engine which had been rebuilt and installed in my car "blew up", the piston broke, and valves got bent. The engine was trashed but under warentee. The rebuilt engine installed cost approximately $2,500. The installer claimed the 90 day warrantee period was over and I would have to go to the engine rebuilder to collect on the remaing 9 months of the warentee. This meant I would have to pay to ship the broken engine to Missouri from New Jersey where it broke. The engine rebuilder would examine it and determine if it was their fault. If it was their fault, they would cover the replacement engine. Ues, I though this was very strange way of doing and it falls into the "fox guarding the henhouse" category.
I filed a lawsuit in small claims court for the money. The installer lawyer told me his contract was iron clad and he had never lost a case like this in court. He clearly wantd me to go away and accept the fact I could not succeed in court against him.
I had the advantage that I had been to court before and he did know that. I was an unknown adversary and maybe I could catch him by surprise. I reviewed the contract and noted that the shop manager had written "12 months warantee" in ball point on the contract and further, the owner and attorney were present, but not the shop.
So I testified the truth in court "Your Honor, the shop manager wrote I had a 12 month warrentee on the front of this paper" and I showed this to the lawyer and the Judge. Since the shop manager was not there, I could not be contradicted and I made a statement which was NOT hearsay (which would be dismissed). I stated "My impression was that the installer was providing me a full1 year warranty as written and signed by his shop manager". No one can argue with "my impression" but it is not hearsay of persons not in court. I won. The attorney lost his first case, was very upset, and walked out of court muttering "my impression, my impression"!
Bill From VA
After my divorce was concluded, the judgment stated my medical insurance to be provided by my Ex through coverage by her company. However the first claim I filed failed and was rejected.
ReplyDeleteI filed a Contempt of Court against the Ex. She and her attorney went to court, and I then obtained permission to conduct discovery with her company to determine what had happend to my medical insurance and learn why it was canceled. The court required that I had 18 months coverage at that time. However I was supposed to pay about $400 a month for it. After a month of discussions with personel and benefits at the company, they realzed there was a problem. Corporate policy was that the only way my insurance could be canceled was that the Ex had canceled it.
The Ex was a valued executive who was now at risk of possibly serving timefor contempt of court instead of working until coverage was reinstated. This means then another player, the medical insurance company now had to reaccept a now former spouse on the policy. This would take time as it was clearly not covered under contract, and that was time the Ex might be in jail.
The Corporate Vice president of Legal resolved the issue by committing the corporation to provide medical coverage for me at NO cost to me until the EX no longer worked for the corporation. The Judge was satisfied as was I. This saved me about $5,000 a year for 8 years with that Contempt of Court against her lawyer and a corporate legal department of a Fortune 200 company.
Bill From VA