IN ORDER TO RECEIVE JUSTICE
in this country, you automatically have a right to defend yourself-be your own lawyer-in Court without enduring the expense of hiring a lawyer.

For the purpose of this series of articles, the subject matter herein is related to civil actions as opposed to criminal actions at law.

In many instances, when the controversial matter has arisen, as to whether one should represent himself in Court or use the services of a lawyer to represent him, the following quote has been used to dissuade him from representing himself: "He who has himself for a lawyer has a fool for a client." I am not aware of who coined the phrase, but I would be willing to bet a lawyer had something to do with it.

Certainly, there is not an ounce of truth in the statement that when one represents himself, he is a fool However, it is a tool used by the legal profession as a deterrent against self-representation. In addition, the false concept has effectively kept Blacks out of Court. In essence, the more litigants who represent themselves or, if they do use lawyers, actively participate in their legal representation, the less money the lawyers will extract from those litigants. Hence, pro se litigants take money from the pockets of hungry lawyers. On the contrary, when the litigant participates in pretrial and trial proceedings in the presentation of his own defense, or claim- along with the services of a lawyer- he can, without great expense, then have an input into how efficiently his cause of action will be presented in Court.

It is a fact that the litigant himself is the one who is more familiar with his cause of action

than the lawyer who represents him. In addition, the lawyer works for the litigant, so the litigant is the boss. Therefore, the litigant should not merely rely upon and turn the defense of his claim over to a lawyer and forget the matter until he appears in Court. If the litigant decides to use the services of a lawyer, he should demand that the attorney inform him on a step-by-step basis as to the strategy of each defense the lawyer plans to use on behalf of the litigant. He should understand, be apprised of and approve or disapprove of whether one motion or another will be filed by the lawyer on behalf of the litigant. The litigant himself should participate in the decisions as to what various options are available to him in pursuit of his claims or his defenses-depending upon whether he is the defendant or the plaintiff in a civil action.

In addition, the litigant should aid in the searching out and discovery of each existing piece of evidence which will be used and the discovery and questioning of each witness who will be used to help his case. The lawyer's services should be used to direct and guide the litigant on the road to winning his case. The litigant should cause his lawyer to forward copies to him of your correspondence and stipulations that transpire between the two opposing attorneys. The litigant should involve himself with the framing of interrogatories (questions) to the other side to discover information which will help the case, since he is more familiar with the controversy than the lawyer. Also, the litigant who uses an attorney should make it perfectly clear to his lawyer that he must be informed of developments on a regular basis and the litigant himself should personally approve of any decisions made on his behalf prior to their execution by the lawyer.

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As a matter of bare evolutionary survival it is your duty and obligation to yourself, if you love yourself, to participate in the defense of a lawsuit against yourself or in a lawsuit to redress your claims against others for damages inflict- ed against you. Combined with the ser- vices of a lawyer, if you can afford the expense, or, if you decide to fight pro se without the services of a lawyer, you are nevertheless obligated, as a matter of plain survival to understand the laws under which the- controversy arises and to put up a hell of a fight. If you fight hard enough and utilize all of the weapons at your disposal, you will win the majority of your legal battles because no one will fight harder for you than you. In most instances, you will fight harder and longer than your own lawyer and the lawyer of the litigant who is opposing you. Therefore, you start off with the odds in your favor.

It is now time for the Black American to understand that until he affirmatively seeks justice in America through the American judicial system, he will not receive justice from it. For too long the Black American has denied himself the benefit of justice because he felt he was not able to afford legal representation, or because he thought he could only afford inferior legal representation. He never thought of representing himself, or seeking a lawyer who would allow him to do most of the work and charge him a low rate. Because the Black man is responsible for being under-represented legally, he must now become legally educated to the extent that he becomes aware when he is not being provided with efficient legal service. When he reaches that point of legal awareness, he can at his option, obtain better legal services for himself or provide the service for himself as a pro se litigant.

Be sure to follow Bam Law in the following issues of BlackAmericaMagazine.com