Forget the Lawyers, I’ll just represent myself!
You see this happen all the time on TV and in movies. During criminal trials, the defendant has the right to remove their lawyer and represent themselves. In most cases, other than hollywood, this is a terrible idea. Would you do your own brain surgery if you were an electrician? Of course not. You handle what you are knowledgeable and skillful in. I do not hire catering companies to be DJ’s.
That being said, I came across a situation recently which made me wonder, just when you can represent yourself. Is it in any court proceeding? Can I represent myself only in criminal trials? Are there stipulations of competency or some other method to cull the herd and prevent the majority from using this function? My client had a court proceeding scheduled for days away and he needed to get a postponement from his judge. What he did not need was to hire an attorney and spend a bunch of money to have someone else say the same things he could say himself. He simply needed to go into a civil proceeding and ask the judge for more time. His hardship situation was compelling and did not need any fancy legal maneuvering to make it useful. He just needed to be able to see the judge in person and speak his piece.
My research led me to believe that you have the right to represent yourself in any type of legal trial, both civil and criminal. That being said, like anything that is tackled in the legal arena, there are caveats. These restrictions are really where I found the most interesting facts about this overly dramatized right.
In both civil and criminal trials you can represent yourself, but you cannot represent an entity. This is an interesting and good thing to know, because most business owners who are in default situations get whacked both on their business and personally with motions such as judgements, etc.
To give you an example. The client I was doing this research for needed to postpone a motion of receivership. This motion would have put someone else in control of his assets during a time when we had the highest sale possible waiting to be completed. Had the bank moved in with a receiver, he would have suffered financially by getting a very low return on his assets and being saddled with a far greater portion of remaining debt. By far greater we are talking of a mistake with repercussions in the hundreds of thousands. Because this motion was specific to his corporation, my client was unable to represent himself and had to have a lawyer present. He still was able to speak and handle the situation personally, but he had to pay a lawyer for the ability to be heard in court. This took away funds that he could use desperately now that his business is in someone else’s hands.
If the motion had been for a personal issue such as a judgement filing, my client would have been allowed to go to court by himself and argue his own case. If he had gone without a lawyer it would have saved some cash, but determining the truth of how the system works allowed him to get the more important goal met, he got the verdict he needed in court. This allowed Second Wind Consultants to secure the high bidder and get a sizable check to the first position lien holder.
