Representing Yourself In Court (US)

Devlin Farmer

Description

Succeed without a lawyer
Argue effectively and avoid pitfalls
Best techniques to defend and prosecute
Save money on legal fees
For civil trials only, not criminal
Hiring a lawyer can be costly and unnecessary in certain circumstances as you deal with courts, claims and disputes. Lawyer Devlin Farmer has experience across North America in guiding clients to the most affordable, effective solutions, and he shares his advice in this book on how to represent your interests in the civil courts with the greatest chances of success.

Sujets

• LAW
• Criminal procedure
• Courts plc

Informations

• Publié par: Self-Counsel Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781770404649
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Representing Yourself In Court (US)
How to Win Your Case on Your Own
Devlin Farmer, Attorney
Self-Counsel Press
(a division of)
International Self-Counsel Press Ltd.
USA Canada

Copyright © 2022

International Self-Counsel Press
All rights reserved.
Contents

Cover

Title Page

An Introduction to Representing Yourself in Court

Part One: Before the Trial

Chapter 1: Settlement and Alternatives to Court

1. What Is Settlement?

2. How to Get to Settlement: It Takes Two

3. Types of Alternative Dispute Resolution

4. Bill Eddy’s BIFF Response

5. What is Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)?

6. Writing an Enforceable Agreement or a Consent Judgment

Chapter 2: Learning the Law

1. Overview of Where Law Comes From

2. How to Know Which Laws Apply

3. How to Read a Case

Chapter 3: Filing in Court

1. Where Do I Start? Plaintiff’s Perspective

Sample 1: Complaint and Answer

2. Where Do I Start? Defendant’s Perspective

3. Filing Fees

4. Forms

5. Service

6. Organization

Chapter 4: Lawyers

1. Where Are the Good (Competent) Lawyers?

2. How to Get Free (or Low-Cost) Legal Advice

3. How to Deal with a Lawyer on the Other Side

4. How to Hire a Lawyer

5. When Don’t You Need a Lawyer?

Sample 2: Do You Need a Lawyer?

6. Lawyers and Misconduct

Chapter 5: Discovery: Sharing Evidence and Information

1. Discovery

2. What Is Evidence?

3. What Evidence Gets Shared in Discovery and How?

4. How Do You Do Discovery?

5. Preparation for a Deposition

6. Requests for Admission

7. What to Do When the Other Side Isn’t Complying with Discovery Rules

Chapter 6: Motions and Temporary Orders

1. Common Motions

2. How to Make a Motion

3. Estimating Time

4. Drafting an Affidavit for a Motion

5. Exhibits

6. Drafting a Draft Order

7. Scheduling, Filing, Service

8. Courtroom Etiquette

9. How Do You Make an Oral Motion When the Trial Has Already Started?

10. Costs

11. What If the Other Side Ignores a Temporary Order? Contempt

Chapter 7: Pre-Trial Procedures, Preparation, and Your Trial Book

1. Stress Management

2. Jury Trials

3. Pre-Trial Hearings and Conferences

4. Trial Preparation

5. Your Trial Book: Get (and Stay) Organized!

6. Your Exhibits

7. Other Pre-trial Preparation

Part Two: The Trial and Beyond

Chapter 8: Trial Day Proceedings

1. Typical Order of Trial Proceedings

2. Before You Leave Home

3. Default Judgment

4. Your Job at Trial

5. The Trial

Chapter 9: Witnesses

1. Subpoenaing Witnesses

2. Direct Examination

3. Cross-examination

4. Impeaching

5. Objections

6. Incriminating Testimony

7. The Expert Witness

Chapter 10: Exhibits

1. Getting in Your Evidence

2. Focusing on Documents

3. Photographs, Voicemails, etc.

4. Documents on Cross-Examination

5. Introducing Documents by Agreement

6. Strategizing with Your Witnesses about Exhibits

7. Exhibit Organization

8. Common Objections to Exhibits

Chapter 11: Closing Arguments and Wrapping Up

1. What Is a Closing Argument?

2. The Defendant’s Closing

3. Logistics: The Defendant Is Done so What Happens Next?

4. The Judge during Closing

5. Jury Instructions

6. Proposed Findings and Draft Proposed Order

7. The Judge’s Decision

8. Costs

Chapter 12: You Won (You Lost): What Next?

1. You Won! Now What? Enforcing a Court Order

2. You Lost: Do You Have to Do What the Order Says?

3. Judgment Proof

4. Post-Judgment Agreements

5. Post-Judgment Motions

6. Appeals

7. Modifications: Changing the Court’s Order in the Future

8. When Is It Over?

9. What Do You Do with All the Stuff?

10. Congratulations

Download Kit

About the Author

Thank You

Notice to Readers

Self-Counsel Press thanks you for purchasing this ebook.
An Introduction to Representing Yourself in Court

When you go to court you are asking a complete stranger (a judge) to make a decision about something he or she probably knows less about than you and the other party do.
Many of my clients have talked to me about wanting justice or wanting things to be fair. Who wouldn’t want this? But going to court is not necessarily going to mean that what you think is fair and just is what the law and the trier of fact (the judge) in your case think is fair and just. The law is a blunt instrument for sorting out disputes. There are finer, more precise tools available, such as mediation. Try them first.
Going to court should be a last resort. Before going to court, you should have tried negotiating a solution to whatever it is you’re dealing with; you should have also looked into alternatives to court such as mediation. Only when less adversarial options cannot offer a solution, is it time to seriously consider court. In other words, when there is no other way to solve a dispute, court is your last resort.
More and more self-represented people are appearing in court. (In some civil courts more than 50 percent of litigants are pro se .) Lawyers’ traditional bill-by-the-hour model and high retainer fees are simply out of reach for a large amount of average, working people.
The influx of non-lawyers into the courts has necessitated change. Judges and court staff are gradually accepting that pro se litigants are here to stay. Self-help resources are increasingly available, and courts are more responsive to the needs of pro se litigants. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed technological change onto the courts at unprecedented, rapid pace. The courts’ use of Zoom and other technologies during the pandemic will likely continue to some degree post-pandemic, and these changes make the courts more accessible and, frankly, easier to navigate for those self-represented litigants who are technologically capable. For those who aren’t, the courts are starting to think about ways to bring technology to self-represented litigants. For example, in Massachusetts there is talk about creating computer-accessible workstations at courthouses where people can conduct their hearings. Frankly, however, most pro ses can use a phone or tablet to access Zoom court.
This change can be seen in the recent Supreme Court case Turner v. Rogers (2011) in which the Court considered the due process rights of a self-represented person and how to ensure real access to justice. The highest court in the land explicitly approved tools designed for self-represented persons such as do-it-yourself forms.
However, changing the court system is not easy. Our courts rose out of exactly what their name suggests: A king’s court. The language, rules, and procedure of going to court today hearken to a system that has roots in medieval England and which extend back to ancient Rome.
Today, you can still hear lawyers throw around Latin phrases on a daily basis, and witness a formality and etiquette that has long since died out in other forms of society. Court is a hierarchal model with a judge sitting in an elevated position looking down on everyone else. (There are exceptions such as the Family Resolutions Specialty Court in Massachussetts where the judge will sit at a table with you.)
Appearing in court is intimidating. It can feel overwhelming. Here’s a secret: Most lawyers are nervous going to court, and I’m no exception.
The antidote is preparation, or knowing what you’re heading into and being ready for it. I like to break down the process into steps. When I’m at step one, I worry only about step one because I know that although step two is around the corner, I’ve prepared for what’s in front of me at the moment. Preparation is not only the way to battle nervousness, it’s also the key, the supreme weapon in fact, to winning your case.
The purpose of this book is twofold:
1. To give you an overview of the steps in the court process so that it does not feel as overwhelming when you represent yourself. It will help you to break the work you’re going to need to do into manageable steps with clear options. Because this book is an overview of going to court in the United States it is not specific to law in a particular state nor does it try to cite all the local rules on each topic. If I do quote any law, I will cite Massachusetts law simply as an example law because that is where I am licensed to practice law in the United States. You should always check what the specific law is in your jurisdiction and research how it applies to your unique case. As an overview, I hope this book will offer perspective as you do further research and choose your options. In other words, it is meant as a large scale map to help you see the big picture so that you can then zero in on what you need to know and do.
2. To give you a view into a lawyer’s working office so that you can use some of the tricks of the trade that lawyers use. As in any profession, lawyers use certain tools and have certain methods to save time, to stay organized, and to smoothly advance a case. For example, most lawyers assemble a book for each trial called a Trial Book. They don’t share these books with their clients; they are just a tool for the lawyer, and it’s the lawyer’s blueprint for a trial. I’ll help you to make your own Trial Book so you can represent yourself and use this tool too.
This book is designed to address civil legal claims only. For example, the kind of litigants I had in mind while writing this book were family law litigants, small claims, and housing/eviction cases. (These are classes of litigants that are increasingly going to court without a lawyer.) Sometimes I will talk about other kinds of civil law cases, but this book does not apply to criminal cases. As well, the focus of this book is for assistance with a judge-alone trial, not a jury trial. This is for several reasons: Including that jury trials are ve