# general advice for pro se litigants **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 20, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-advice-for-pro-se-litigants/540171 "2010-05-20T19:41:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-advice-for-pro-se-litigants/540171/21 "2010-05-22T22:52:13Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > They’re (gasps) lawyers. Heck, my law school even had an Alternative Dispute Resolution competition team - I don’t know how you do that competitively, but people do. _Shrugs_. It’s actually great fun, until a losing team disagrees with the scoring. Then, all Hell breaks loose. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-advice-for-pro-se-litigants/540171/22 "2010-05-23T04:10:38Z")
The burden that _pro se_ litigants face is that lawyers and judges commonly believe that the reason they are _pro se_ is because their case is so weak that no lawyer would touch it. I’m not saying it’s fair, and I certainly don’t mean it as a criticism of **Stoid** , whose advice is quite good. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-advice-for-pro-se-litigants/540171/23 "2010-05-23T06:37:55Z")
Nice post **Stoid**. Nothing to add, I just thought it was worthy of merit. This topic comes up every now and again on the boards, and it will be a good reference. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-advice-for-pro-se-litigants/540171/24 "2010-05-23T17:23:50Z")
Kind of you to say, Autolycus. It really is a very scary thing to do, although it eases as you go along. And I don’t know how good a job I could have possibly done if I hadn’t spent the first part of the case represented, giving me a chance to absorb a lot with the shield of a lawyer between me and the reality. And filing papers is very different than appearing before the judge, and appearing before the judge in hearings, status conferences and the like is very different than trial. All to say: I actually do not recommend that people do this if they can avoid it. But what I do recommend, if you can hire a lawyer, is that you do not sit back and leave it to him or her. Educate yourself, and do as much work as you can. And if your self-education creates questions in your mind about what your lawyer is doing, don’t just stay silent. it’s kinda the same advice I think we should all follow in our health care: go to a doctor, but don’t stay ignorant and hand yourself over. Educate yourself about your health, advocate for yourself, and if something doesn’t feel right, there’s a good chance it isn’t, so don’t stay silent. It’s your body, your legal struggle, your life. If you can afford professional assistance, by all means get it, but you are the one who will ultimately have to live with the results, so it is your responsiblity to educate yourself and be your own hero if you need to be. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-advice-for-pro-se-litigants/540171/25 "2010-05-23T19:41:47Z")
> [@ENugent](#): > > …The problem is that it is very difficult to view a case dispassionately and select only the good arguments when it is your own life that you are dealing with… This is rarely the reason I’ve heard, though. And I agree that if indeed a person is too emotionally involved, of course they’re at risk of making that kind of error. But there are many fields of work–many organizations–wherein the interested parties are both personally involved and still competent enough to make their own cases. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-advice-for-pro-se-litigants/540171.md?page=1)