by Mugurel Stejar

Created on: April 19, 2008

There is a saying that "a lawyer who represents himself in court has a fool for client". I am totally aware of its truth and wisdom, however there are times in life when one has to do what one has to do. Besides, if one is not a lawyer, one may not be guilty of the sin of having for client a fool...

The problem with representing yourself is that judges don't really like to deal with self representation. |My personal feelings are that their reluctance in dealing with self representation is rooted in the fear of making a technical mistake and in rendering the wrong verdict. It happens all the time, but when the technical mistake is done by an insider no one really cares about it, as a matter of fact they enjoy it, however they accept it due to the fact that it was not made by an outsider. I can be clearer in explaining this, the judge will have no loss of sleep if another lawyer makes a technical mistake and the client loses the judgment, because the reason for losing was the fault of the professional. The judge could correct the technicality, the judge has the power to do it, however seldom does. When a pro judgment is involved, the judge has to step in when one is noticed, and try to rectify it. I have been trying to find an explanation for this behavior, but I am not a psychologist and I can't explain the way, human brains work. In a way, when dealing with a pro se judges are forced to do what they are supposed to do, they have a responsibility and very few of them like responsibilities. Judges after all are humans also...

My observations are derived from years of dealing with the justice system. Operating a small business, I had a lot of instances when I had to ask the courts to settle disputes with my customers. I am not a person who likes to fight or who is looking for trouble. I like to negotiate and I like to be fair, however I get very irritated when people don't keep their side of the bargain. What is really irritating me is the fact that there are people out there who in order to get away from their part of the bargain when it comes to pay the bill, start throwing mud at me, after the job is done and the service is performed. In most of the situations, no one said the job is bad, they said that it cost too much and they did not realized at the time I presented the estimate that it was going to cost that much. I had situations when I had contracts signed, money paid, and I still had to return part of the money, because it was cheaper to return it and

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