I had no money, but I had to get custody of my children. I only had a part time job, so I used my free time attending custody cases in courtrooms in a tri-state area. I took detailed notes on everything that was said, all courtroom protocol, things that worked, things that didn't work. I hit up attys, stroking their egos, then asking for information to fill in the gaps.

I filed all the proper paperwork myself. Practiced in front of a mirror. Prayed. Wore a suit and tie to court. Breathed deeply. Was carefully impassionate. Told the judge my situation in my opening statement. Called witnesses for myself, and addressed everyone properly. I even put my ex on the stand.

I surprised everyone, especially her atty who had been on the bar for 30 years. He thought he would mop the floor with me being a country rube, but I impressed the judge by following courtroom decorum to a tee.

And I won custody of my kids.

It was a lot of work though.

In all cases it’s very bad. The court system sees it as an insult. You are supposed to pay for a lawyer or even agreeing to be represented by a shitty one paid for by the state. I don’t think anyone representing themselves have ever had a good outcome.

Only I know what I want so I only can represent myself. See you in 20-25 years bro

Half of being a lawyer is just seeming relaxed. Just get good and stoned ahead of time and you’ll be fine. And wear your favorite sweat pants for comfort.

Another solution is giving out candy to the jury. They love that shit.

Order pizza, object a lot, take calls on your phone so you seem important. Be what I like to call a “wildcard”. Judge will assume you’ve got shit going on and will forgive you for sexually fondling that alpaca.

You know everything whereas the lawyer only knows what you have told them. Think about the implications of that.

On a sidenote I was recently very surprised to find out that some public defenders are incredibly competent. It is the luck of the draw; but you might get lucky.

The only time this is generally advisable is for minor civil suits where the consequences are minimal and paying for a lawyer wouldn't make sense, like suing someone for a few hundred dollars.

It's as bad of an idea as handing a crate of hand grenades to a chimp for instance

When you're fucking delusional like most criminals, you think you can handle it like it's nothing, and you believe it's just a matter of arguing and talking your way out of it

Nobody in his right mind would improvise himself as an helicopter pilot for instance, for obvious reasons. It's a job and like pretty much every other job there are a bunch of stuffs you need to learn first or it's going to be a fucking disaster for everybody involved if you don't, you included

And yet, some people believe they can improvise themselves as lawyers, because all what layers do is read and speak and they know how to read and speak so they naively believe it's enough. Annnnnd that's how they get rekt with maximum sentence

Morons, they dare anything, that's how you recognize them

Depends on what you are going to court for. If it is criminal then you should get an attorney, and the state will provide you one if you can’t afford one. In criminal cases your attorney will be able to bargain with prosecutors behind the scenes, and usually has the personal phone numbers of the prosecutors. There are also a lot of court room protocols/formalities that need to be followed. Also lots of very common legal precedents that could help you that you may not know about.

As far as civil court or small claims court, you will be fine. They are still ways a lawyer can help but it is much more of a free-for-all that doesn’t require many formal evidence-introducing procedures or have any hearsay rules and things like that.

It's only a bad idea if you don't know what you're doing.