You’ve seen movies about it and you may have even heard a few stories: The righteous individual who decides to take on the legal system alone, without the help of the attorney. It’s actually more common than you think. The biggest State court, California, reported sixty-seven percent of all cases litigated in this way. Florida reported seventy-three. Though less common at the Federal level, it still occurs almost a quarter of the time. Many personal injury claimants feel that they have been wronged, and justly so. Why should they have to share compensation for loss and suffering with an attorney?
Personal injury attorneys are the legal experts. And the law is far too complex for you to grasp it without having gone to law school. People often wrongly assume that just because they have moral justification, they are legally justified as well. These are two totally different things. Morality has no part in the courtroom. Indignant outrage, blatant facts, all of the things you think will support your case– May or may not even be allowable evidence in the courtroom. Let’s say an ATM camera captured footage of a drunk driver smashing into your car. Easy win right? Wrong. Using that footage requires a very solid understanding of legal theory. You must properly argue for it or your request will be denied.
Successful jury selection takes years of training and practice. An often ignored part of winning a case is selecting the jury. You are highly restricted in the types of questions you can ask them, and properly forming your jury questionnaire is like writing a survey: It requires solid knowledge of demographic and psychographic tendencies, using statistics for interpretation. There is also a wisdom that only comes with experience. As most solicitors admit, their first few jury selections were disastrous. Do you really want inexperience driving down the value of your claim?
Examination and cross-examination is next to impossible to win against a trained attorney. Which, the other side will likely have one. Examination can be an exhausting process and unless you have had lots of training on how to handle it, the likelihood of it favoring you is slim. It’s not just an argument, there are certain things you are allowed to say and certain things the judge will order stricken from the record. Pro se litigants tend to crumble under effective cross-examination and you should be very mindful of how this will affect your claim.
You won’t know how to question the witnesses. You can’t ask a witness whatever you want. You have to be able to first prove the witness is relevant, and then you must “lead the witness” to support your conclusions in the appropriate manner. If you have not spent time practicing this in a live court room, you are very likely to ask improper questions, which can ruin your case and lower the amount of your settlement.
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