{"id":1218,"date":"2012-02-07T00:15:04","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T00:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/reasons-why-should-not-represent-yourself\/"},"modified":"2020-10-30T20:48:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T20:48:49","slug":"reasons-why-should-not-represent-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/reasons-why-should-not-represent-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT REPRESENT YOURSELF"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There are many reasons why a person should not represent themselves in any type of proceeding.\u00a0 Below are just a few.<\/p>\n

10. Its stressful.<\/strong> There are reasons why so many attorneys commit suicide and turn to alcohol.<\/p>\n

9. It is not as fun as it is on tv. <\/strong>Trials do not happen in 30 minutes like Law and Order.\u00a0 There is a lot of paperwork, motions, negotiations, sitting, and waiting.\u00a0 The wheels of justice turn very, very slow.<\/p>\n

8. You are too emotionally tied to your case. <\/strong>You can\u2019t see your case clearly if you are the one who feels you are being wronged.\u00a0 Sometimes it takes a neutral third party to fairly evaluate your case and give you an opinion.\u00a0 That is what attorneys are for.<\/p>\n

7. You don\u2019t know the other side.<\/strong> Attorneys deal with other attorneys all the time.\u00a0 The legal community is small.\u00a0 Depending on your attorney\u2019s relationship with the other side, they may work in your favor in helping you resolve your case with the least amount of pain possible.<\/p>\n

6. You don\u2019t know the judge.<\/strong> There are two kinds of lawyers, those who know the law and those who know the judge.\u00a0 Can you guess which one is better?\u00a0 When you have been practicing in a certain area of law and regularly appear before a certain judge, you know approximately how the judge will rule in certain situations.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t know the judge, you are already at a disadvantage from the get go.<\/p>\n

5. You have no ideas what the rules of evidence are.<\/strong> Just because you think something is relevant to your case, the rules of evidence may not think so.\u00a0 The judge may or may not admit certain things into evidence.\u00a0 If you whole case rests on hearsay statements, you may have no way of getting those statements in.\u00a0 An attorney knows exceptions to the rule and case law that supports admitting those statements and can argue for those statements to be admitted.<\/p>\n

4. The other attorney will show no mercy. <\/strong>The judge doesn\u2019t have to cut you any slack.\u00a0 Robert Frost once said \u201cA jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t be your own attorney.\u00a0 You will then be held to the same standard as any other attorney.\u00a0 Consider the fact that the California Bar admits less than half of its applicants\u2026It\u2019s a pretty high standard.<\/p>\n

3. You don\u2019t know the law.<\/strong> You may think you do, but you probably don\u2019t.\u00a0 Google-ing and asking your friends who have gone through something similar only gets you so far.\u00a0 Each case is different.\u00a0 They won\u2019t know the changes in the law or the applicable case law that applies to your specific set of facts.<\/p>\n

2. An attorney\u2019s words will mean more than your words.<\/strong> Sorry.\u00a0 Attorneys are \u201cofficers of the court.\u201d\u00a0 The system treats us differently.\u00a0 We get a separate line when entering the court room, we pass through security checks easier, and we get a little more slack in the court rooms.\u00a0 As an officer to the court, there are serious repercussions when we lie to the court. \u00a0We risk our professional license and our reputation in the legal community when we lie to the court. \u00a0When we say something on the record, a judge is much more inclined to believe us because we stand to lose so much.<\/p>\n

1. You want to save money<\/strong>.\u00a0 We never want to spend more money than we have to right?\u00a0 So why would you want to hire an attorney if you don\u2019t have to.\u00a0 There are some things that are just better outsourced to people who know what they are doing.\u00a0 There are 3 things in life you should never try to save money on: 1. Brain surgeon, 2. An attorney and 3. A parachute.\u00a0 If you fail to represent yourself, you can lose your case.\u00a0 You may still lose with an attorney but your odds are probably lower when you have a (good) attorney.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Law Offices of Lisa Wong<\/a> believes that good legal representation should be available to everyone.\u00a0 If you have a legal matter that needs assistance, contact us and ask about our affordable rates and payment plans.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are many reasons why a person should not represent themselves in any type of proceeding.\u00a0 Below are just a few. 10. Its stressful. There are reasons why so many attorneys commit suicide and turn to alcohol. 9. It is not as fun as it is on tv. Trials do not happen in 30 minutes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,5,39,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-california-criminal-law-blog","category-california-dui-law-blog","category-california-family-law-blog","category-california-landlord-tenant-property-law-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5617,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions\/5617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}