Is it ever sensible to appear in court without a lawyer?

When it comes to small claims court, yes, definitely. Small claims court was designed to be accessible to nonlawyers. In a regular, more formal courtroom, sometimes it's also a good idea to represent yourself. Hiring a lawyer is almost always unaffordable for disputes that involve less than $25,000 and often unaffordable for disputes in the $50,000-$100,000 range. In these cases, representing yourself may be your only reasonable option. That's why Nolo publishes Represent Yourself in Court: How to Prepare & Try a Winning Case.

Can I learn everything I need to know to represent myself in court?

The basics of how to bring or defend a case aren't difficult, but trying to get on top of every nuance of procedure and strategy isn't easy. That's why Nolo suggests a two-pronged approach: learn how to handle routine representation tasks yourself while hiring a lawyer as a self-help law coach to provide advice on strategy and tactics as needed. In many situations, hiring a lawyer to coach your self-help efforts will cost only about 10-20% of what it would cost to hire the lawyer to do the entire job.

Ten years ago, trying to find a lawyer who would help you find your own way through the legal system was next to impossible. Today, given the surplus of lawyers and a gradual change in the profession's attitude towards self-helpers, it's much easier. Because law is an increasingly specialized field, however, you'll want to find someone who is knowledgeable about your type of problem -- not just any lawyer.

Is it difficult to prepare the paperwork to initiate a lawsuit?

Actually, it's often fairly easy. Initiating a lawsuit is especially straightforward in states such as California and Michigan, where court clerks provide preprinted fill-in-the-blanks forms for many types of lawsuits, but even in states where lawsuits are filed the old-fashioned way, using paragraphs of appropriate legal jargon on numbered legal paper, the actual wording is almost always available word for word from forms books or CD-ROMs. These information sources, which are routinely used by lawyers, are available at all public law libraries (usually located in the county courthouse) and are usually fairly easy for the nonlawyer to understand.

I've filed my lawsuit. What do I need to do next?

Before a case gets scheduled for trial, a number of things need to happen. Information about most of these -- for example, whether and when a settlement conference must take place, when papers must be filed, and how to place a case on the court's trial calendar -- are available from the court clerk.

Unfortunately, how to accomplish other pre-trial tasks -- which often come under the broad title "discovery" -- is left largely up to you and the other parties to the lawsuit. For example, one type of discovery consists of your taking the deposition (oral statement) of the other party or one or more witnesses to find out what he or she is likely to say at trial. Other types of discovery consist of interrogatories (written questions to the other party), a request to produce documents, or a request that the other party admit certain facts (stipulations).

Represent Yourself in Court, by Paul Bergman and Sara Berman-Barrett (Nolo), will provide you with some basic information about pre-trial discovery and will also help you develop a trial strategy.

What are the stages of a typical trial?

Allowing for many possible variations, most trials begin with each side making an opening statement: Each party presents an overview of his case, including what he expects to prove. The next stage is the direct examination, during which the plaintiff (the person who filed the suit) presents her testimony as to what happened and supports it with witnesses' statements and other relevant evidence. After each of the plaintiff's witnesses testifies, the defendant gets a chance to cross-examine them. In doing so, the defendant attempts to produce testimony favorable to his version of events and to cast doubt on the reliability or credibility of the plaintiff's witnesses. After the plaintiff has presented all her witnesses, then the defendant presents his witnesses and relevant evidence, and the plaintiff cross-examines. Finally, each side gets to make a closing argument explaining to the judge or jury why they should win.