I can’t afford lawyers

Lawyers are expensive and not all lawyers are worth hiring: There are good ones and lots of bad ones. If you can’t afford a lawyer, try to get legal aid help or to do your case yourself.

Legal Aid lawyers

Legal aid will pay a fixed amount for each stage of a case. Put in an application form and wait to see if they are willing to pay for your case. They might decide just to pay for a portion of it hoping it will settle. Legal aid have their own lawyers who might be willing to act in your case. If your application for legal aid is granted, you need to employ a lawyer who does legal aid work. Not all lawyers do, because private clients can pay a lot more for legal services than Legal aid will pay.

A lawyer might be willing to do it for free, because they might be able to generate some publicity. This might enable them to get more clients in the future.

Legal aid pays a fixed amount for a certain stage of the matter. Lawyers will only do as much work as is covered by that payment. If the payment is $1000, and the lawyer charges $300 per hour, then they will do 3.33 hours of work. If more hours are needed, it won’t be done, or the lawyer will be working for free. The lawyer doesn’t personally get the $300. Expenses are paid out of it and the lawyer might get half. So if the lawyer does more than 3.33 hours of work, the lawyer still has to pay expenses. So it is possible that your case won’t be done properly.

Doing your case yourself

There is an advantage to doing your own court case. The judge has a duty to help you. Also some judges go easier on self-represented people. A good resource for helping you to do this is found here.

Also you will learn a lot which might come in handy in the future. The downside is that a lot of people like police and lawyers and some judges will try to take advantage of you. If the other party in your matter is represented by a lawyer, that lawyer will try to convince you that you have to do as that lawyer says and that you are a fool if you don’t. If you have properly prepared your case, then stand your ground. Also don’t be pressured into signing anything or agreeing to anything. Go slowly and take the time you need to understand what is going on. You can ask the judge to explain things.

Police and judges and lawyers are under time pressure. They want to get through things as fast as possible. So they will put pressure on you to move along at their pace. But you don’t have to. Remember it is YOU who has to live with whatever decisions are made, NOT them!