According to a New York Times article, more and more people are representing themselves in court. I have had much experience counseling debtors who have initially elected to seek bankruptcy protection without the benefit of counsel. There are many reasons for this: the lack of money to hire an attorney being one of them, if not the biggest. Another, and perhaps more troubling reason is that pro see filers have a belief that a judge will help them through the process.
From the article:
Judges complain that people miss deadlines, fail to bring the right documents or evidence and are simply unprepared for legal proceedings. Such mistakes make it more likely they will fare poorly – no matter the merit of their cases.
This applies in any courtroom, and in any legal proceeding. If you want to represent yourself, you have to be prepared. That means, you have to know what the legal issues are (not what you think the legal issues are or should be) and have your ducks and documents all lined up. It also helps if you know the law.
But relying on the judge to help your is tantamount to ignoring that the role of the judge actually is. As the Times discusses:
Overseeing a proceeding where one or both sides lack lawyers puts a judge in a difficult position: The judge is supposed to be neutral but also has an interest in moving things along.
“If you see a person making a terrible mistake, you can’t always jump in and save them,” said Judge Borbely, the circuit court judge in Vermilion County, Ill. “You cannot take the role of an advocate.”
To ensure fair outcomes, courts must do more to help people navigate the courts, said John T. Broderick, the chief justice of New Hampshire. “If you and I went to the hospital and they said, ‘Do you have insurance?’ and we don’t, and they said, ‘There are some textbooks over there with some really good illustrations,’ ” Judge Broderick said, “we would think that was immoral.”
At the same time however, while courts can and do offer navigation assistance (such as the Pro Se Clerk at the US Bankruptcy Court), they cannot offer legal advice and the judges cannot be your advocate.
(more…)
Hey, I’m just the messenger…
As the Senate begins to vote on the bailout, and as Washington and even some local leadership continues its campaign of fear mongering support, here’s some food for thought, courtesy of the good folks over at Calculated Risk:
What’s another $700,000,000,000?
Tags: Bailout, Commentary, Economy, Yep. We're in trouble.
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