When you decide or are required to go to court, you are faced with a decision: to hire an attorney to represent you or to represent yourself. Most people choose to hire an attorney, but there are definite upsides to pro se litigation.
Pro se is Latin for “in one’s own behalf.” It means that you are advocating on your own behalf in court instead of hiring someone to advocate for you. You become the attorney of record for your case and perform most of the same courtroom actions as a certified lawyer.
Representing yourself pro se comes with both advantages and disadvantages. The primary disadvantage is an increase in risk: if you haven’t attended law school, you will be unfamiliar with court procedures, which could make your case much more difficult. In addition, a certain degree of emotional detachment from the case is valuable for being able to see both sides and predict how your opponents will try to make their case. Thankfully, ProAdvocate Group can help mitigate these concerns by teaching you to defend yourself properly, helping make you comfortable with court procedure and assisting you with developing your case.
The inherent advantages in pro se representation—aside from having the support of a group like ProAdvocate—are mostly financial. Representing yourself allows you to avoid paying what can be extremely expensive legal fees. But representing yourself provides other benefits as well: only you know all of the details of your situation, so there is a strong chance that you will have the best idea of how to construct your case.
Overall, the advantages of pro se representation can definitely outweigh the disadvantages, especially when you have the support of ProAdvocate Group. Contact us for more information about how we can help you with pro se representation.