|
What Are The Implications Of Representing Myself In Court? |
|
Written by Tom Doerr
|
|
Thursday, 25 March 2010 07:42 |
|
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.
by TomDoerr
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.
As well as understanding the law, your case and your chances, you will also need to familiarise yourself with the standard court proceedings, court etiquette and anything you will need to provide and prepare beforehand.
In civil cases you would need to consider the impact of having to stand face to face with your opposition and cross examine/be examined by them. For a matter that has been brought to court it is likely to be very serious and it would take an individual of strong character to maintain professionalism in this circumstance even out of court.
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.
|
