You Can Pay Now or You Can Pay Later

As the recession continues and seemingly worsens, people have to get more creative with their money saving decisions.There are obvious areas to save such as luxury items, entertainment, travel, and expensive clothing. Additionally statistics show that consumers are now even cutting expenses in the areas previously not affected such as non-emergency medicine and law. In medicine, people are putting off procedures, tests, m.r.i. scans and other electives which are not deemed to be an emergency. In the legal field citizens are cutting back by not hiring lawyers and instead representing themselves.

As a Harris County Texas Family Law Lawyers, I see it everyday. In all of the courts, people are more often representing themselves. It can happen from the outset of the case or it can happen after a lawyer has been hired to initiate the case. It is not just happening with the Attorney General dockets that are composed mostly of lower income but it is happening in all of the courts and in all types of cases. Every day I see numerous people representing themselves or at least making the attempt.

The end result of a client representing himself is almost never successful and it can be tragic. A pro se litigant is held to the same standard as a licensed attorney which includes full knowledge of the laws and rules including deadlines, proper document submission, and penalties for mistakes in these areas. The penalties can be severe in family court where the court has the right to make decisions in regards to your children, your property, and your freedom . A pro se litigant will almost never win a case against a licensed attorney regardless of the intelligence of the person and regardless of the facts of the case. Knowledge of the rules and the procedures is too much of an advantage to the client of a licensed attorney for a pro se litigant to overcome.

A recent American Bar Journal article expounded on the issue of the pro se litigant.

Judges Say Litigants Are Increasingly Going Pro Se—at Their Own Peril
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/judges_say_litigants_increasingly_going_pro_se--at_their_own_/68957/
Posted Jul 12, 2010 11:39 AM CDT
By Terry Carter
A survey of nearly 1,200 state trial judges around the country indicates that the weak economy has increased the number of litigants representing themselves in foreclosures, domestic relations, consumer issues and non-foreclosure housing matters; and the judges say litigants are doing a poor job as well as burdening courts already hurt by cutbacks.
Self-representation is resulting in worse outcomes for litigants, according to 62 percent of the judges. The greatest problem is failure to present necessary evidence, 94 percent of all respondents said.
That was followed by procedural errors, ineffective witness examination and failure to properly object to evidence. Seventy-eight percent of judges say the increase in self-representation is hurting the courts, especially by slowing down the docket.
Copyright 2010 American Bar Association. All rights reserved.

It is really a catch-22 situation. People either do not have money to afford a lawyer or do not want to spend the little money that they have left on the lawyer. (In family law the situation is exacerbated by the fact that many of the divorces are caused in the first place by "money problems.") However if they enter into the litigation arena on their own and without a licensed experienced attorney by their side, they will often regret this decision for many years to come. They will inevitably have to come back into court, often a short time later, and in a worse position which is much more expensive to fix the second time around.

I often tell my clients you have to look at this expense as if you are buying a house or at least a car. If you have kids involved your court orders may be in effect for 10-15 years if not more. The court orders will directly affect your relationship with your children and your ability to protect and be involved with your children. You have to look at this financial decision as one that you can amortize over the years that your children are still at home. You cannot look at family law legal expenses as a short term decision. These are funds that if spent correctly on the right lawyer the first time around, will pay dividends back to you for years to come.