In the column from a few days ago, the success rate of these amateur lawyers defending themselves seems to be pretty bad. But I would assume that the reason is because these people are not lawyers. Is there a stat for pro se cases where the guy is a lawyer himself? How’s his success rate?
If we were to assume he’d do just as well defending someone else acting as their lawyer, wouldn’t it be a correct assumption that if he defended himself, he’d be even better at it because he had more to lose?
I say no. As a lawyer myself, one problem I have is understanding and confidence in my own argument to the point of failing to appreciate the merits of the other side. This is an extremely important reason to bounce your arguments off of other attorneys so that you can clearly see the opposing side and construct your arguments accordingly.
When one is emotionally invested in the argument (as a pro se defendant would be) he or she is more likely to be blind to the other argument, which in many cases might be stronger than his own.
Let’s see lawyers are told its best not to represent family members, outside of emergencies and straight forward issues, so I doubt it’s a good idea
IAAL.