Pro se legal representatives ( or ) are from Latin, literally "on their own behalf" , which basically means advocating on its own behalf in court, rather than being represented by lawyers. This can happen in any trial, whether the defendant or the plaintiff in a civil case, and when a person is accused in a criminal case. Pro se is a Latin phrase meaning "for yourself" or "on its own behalf". This status is sometimes known as propria persona (shortened to "pro per"). In England and Wales, comparable status is "litigant".
According to the 2006 National Center for State Courts report, in the United States, many state and federal court systems have an increasing proportion of litigants pros jail. Estimates of overall family law averages of 67% in California, 73% in major districts in Florida, and 70% in some regions of Wisconsin. In San Diego, for example, the number of divorce submissions involving at least one association of prose increased from 46% in 1992 to 77% in 2000, in Florida from 66% in 1999 to 73% 2001. California reported in 2001 that more than 50% of family filings were in custody and visits by pro- jects were litigated. In the US Federal Court system for 2013 approximately 27% of civil actions are filed, 92% of prisoners' petition and 11% of non-prison petitions are filed by litigants pro jed. Defendants in political courts tend to participate in more processes than defendants in non-political cases, as they may have greater ability to get out of the courtroom norms to talk to political and moral issues.
Video Pro se legal representation in the United States
History
The party's right to a legal action to represent its cause has long been recognized in the United States, and even precedes the ratification of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court noted that "[i] n the federal courts, the right of self-representation has been protected by law since the beginning of our Nation." Section 35 of the Justice Act 1789, 1 Stat.73, 92, is enacted by the First Congress and signed by the President Washington one day before the Sixth Amendment is proposed, provided 'in all US courts, parties may plead and manage their own causes in private or with the assistance of advisors.' "
In Faretta v. California, the United States Supreme Court declared that criminal defendants have the constitutional right to refuse counsel and represent themselves in the state criminal process. It is said that the right to represent oneself is not absolute. It is the Court's right and duty to determine whether a particular individual is capable of representing himself, and can investigate the clarity and individual mental status of making that determination. Maps Pro se legal representation in the United States
Rules
Most US states have either explicit constitutional provisions or with interpretations allowing an individual to represent his own cause in the country's court. In many instances, the provisions of the state constitution regarding the right to petition the government to correct complaints have been interpreted in such a way.
US Justice Act, Code of Practice for US Judges, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Proof and Federal Rules The Appeals Procedure addresses the rights of plaintiffs who are represented themselves in several places.
28 USC Ã,§ 1654 states: "In all courts of the United States, parties may file applications and conduct their own cases in private or with lawyers because, under the respective court rules, are permitted to administer and cause causes therein. "
Laws and organizations charged with governing judicial conduct may also affect procurers. For example, the California State Council of Justice has spoken through published materials, the need for Justice to act in the interests of justice for represented plaintiffs. The California Rules stipulate a preference for the resolution of each case on the merits, even if the resolution requires dislikes of reason by a litigant pros jail who otherwise would result in dismissal. The Judicial Council justifies this position on the idea that "Judges are required to ensure truth, not just refereeing... The lawsuit is not a game, in which the party with the smartest lawyers applies regardless of the benefits." This suggests "the court must take whatever reasonable and necessary steps to ensure fair trial" and say "There is only one case reported in the US that finds that the judge's special accommodation is too far away." The Committee notes on the Federal Rules of the Civil Procedure rule 56 on summary appraisal notes that "Many courts are more cautious with litigants, advising them on the need to respond and risk losing to a summary assessment if an adequate response is not put forward. to convince himself with some checking of records before giving a summary assessment of an interested person. "
Several districts in the Federal Court of the United States (for example, the Central District of California) permit prose litigation to receive documents electronically by the Electronic Filing Account (ECF), but only bar members are allowed to file files electronically. Other districts (such as the Northern District of Florida) allow pro-seizers to file and submit their documents electronically by following the same local requirements as licensed lawyers for GEN PACER NEXT qualifications and approval for electronic use in certain cases; orders from the Judge assigned to the pro i movement indicating the qualifications of the pro se may be necessary.
According to a June 2012 report from the US Courts, 18 of the 94 federal district courts passed the adoption of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) for pro i and 11 authorized the use of ADR by my pro i prisoners. A 2011 report from the Federal Judicial Center found 37 out of 94 allowing prose litigation to use the ECF.
Limit
The ability of a party to proceed without a lawyer in prosecuting or defending a civil action is largely a matter of state law, and may vary depending on the courts and the positions of the parties.
The long-standing and widely practiced rule prohibits companies from being represented by non-lawyers, consistent with the existence of companies as separate and different "people" of shareholders, officers and employees. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that "a nonlawyer can not sign and file an appeal notice on behalf of a company Requiring a lawyer to represent the company in filing a notice does not violate a guarantee that any applicant may sue or defend a lawsuit Personally, a company is not a natural person including in terms of "anyone who is willing."
Similarly, a litigious pro se may not act as a class representative in a class action lawsuit and therefore a litigant may not file a class action lawsuit. In addition, non-solicitor parents may not appear on behalf of their child, except to appeal to the child's denial of social security benefits.
Another situation where appearance through the counsel is often necessary is in the case involving the executor or personal administrator of a testament estate. Unless the executive or administrator itself is a lawyer, he is not allowed to represent himself in matters other than a probate letter.
Some federal appeals courts allow unrepresented complainants to argue verbally (although the disposition of nonargument is still possible), and in all courts the percentage of cases in which arguments occur is higher for counseling cases. In 2013, the US Supreme Court adopted the rule that all those who argue verbally should become lawyers, even though the Supreme Court claims that it only codified "long-standing practice of justice." The last non-lawyer who argued verbally before the Supreme Court was Sam Sloan in 1978.
The Connecticut Supreme Court narrows the right of criminal defendants to self-representatives, stating that "we are free to adopt for mentally ill or disabled defendants who wish to represent themselves in a court of competency standards different from the standard to determine whether the defendant is competent to be tried." A Senior Assistant Assistant State explained that the new standard basically allows judges to consider whether the defendant is competent enough to perform the skills needed to defend himself, including making inquiries for voir dire and witnesses.
Some courts issue orders against representatives in civil cases. The court ordered the former lawyer to sue the new lover of the former prosecutor. The Bergen New Jersey High Court also issued an order against litigation based on a number of laid-off lawsuits and failure to provide income tax returns if there were sanctions. The High Court of New Jersey issued an order prohibiting a lawyer from filing a new lawsuit. But the Third Circuit ruled that the restriction on pro-litigation goes too far and it can not be enforced if a dispute declares that he has a new claim that has never been wasted before. Circuit 10 decides that prior to imposing filing restrictions, the district court must set a rough sample of submissions and that if the district court does not do so, archiving restrictions must be cleared. The Columbia District District Court of Appeal writes that "individual individuals have a 'constitutional right to access the courts', that is, 'the right to prosecute and defend in court'. "
In 2011, the Federal Judicial Conference scrutinized the federal court clerk's office in connection with the issue of prose. They found that only 17 of the 62 respondents who responded to the report that the discovery was taken in the majority of non-prison inmates and only 13 reported that the findings were made in most cases of prophylactic prisoners >. In the same survey, 37% of the judges found that most pro se had problems checking witnesses, while 30% found that pro se had little or no problem in checking witnesses. 53% found that the party represented sometimes or often used the pro i party. Only 5% report a problem pro se that is misbehaving in the audience. Respondents to the FJC study did not report any orders against non-prisoners of litigation.
Some litigants who are litigants who are federal prisoners are subject to the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has affirmed: "" For more than thirteen years, the Court Reform Law Dispute Act has denied access to justice to innumerable inmates harassed, creating a system of injustice that refuses redress for detainees who accuse of serious offenses, obstacles that do not apply to others. It is time for Congress to pass legislation to return the court as a necessary check on the abuse of detainees. "54% of judges who responded to the Judicial Court survey used video conferencing for prisoners pro se .
In criminal court
The Pro se representation presents a unique but insurmountable challenge for prosecutors and the legal system. In Louisiana, for example, the Louisiana Appeals Court tracked the results of the appeal proxy against the appellate represented. In 2000, 7% of the civil appeals filed with the court were pro- vided, compared to 46% of the letters filed by lawyers. In criminal cases, this ratio is closer - 34% of the rank of pro se is given, compared to 45% of the letters filed by lawyers. According to Erica J. Hashimoto, assistant professor at Georgia School of Law,:
"After conducting an empirical study of the defendant's crimes, I concluded that these defendants were not always served by the decision to represent themselves or mentally ill.... In state court, the defendants accused of crimes and also, and arguably far better than, their counterparts representing... of 234 defendants whose pro- dres were given, just under 50 percent of them punished on any charges.... for representing the defendants of the state court, on the contrary, a total of 75 per cent were punished for several charges.... Only 26 per cent of the pro-defendants ended in criminal convictions, while 63 per cent of their representatives were convicted of acts criminal... in federal court... the free rate for defendants is almost identical to the free rate for represented defendants. "
Because of the independent evaluation of difficult cases, this study could by design not distinguish whether the defendant without representation faces greater challenges or whether the defendant is more likely to choose a representation when in doubt about the suitability of their case.
In civil court
There is evidence that self-representation is common in Civil Cases:
- In New Hampshire, one party was pro-term in 85% of all civil cases in the district court and 48% of all civil cases in the superior court in 2004. In court of ratification judges, the two sides are not represented by lawyers in 38% of cases. In cases of high-court domestic relations, nearly 70% of cases have one party pro-temporary, while in domestic courts domestic violence cases, 97% of cases have one party prose >.
- In the California study of family issues, one party emerged in 2/3 cases of domestic relations and 40% of all child custody cases in 1991-95. California reported in 2001 that more than 50% of the submissions in custody and visits were by the judiciary. The city court reported that about 80% of new divorce filings were filed pro se .
- In Maricopa County in Arizona, the incidence of pro jocks of litigants doubled in the period between 1980 (24% of cases had 1 pro litigant) and 1985 (where the rate has already reached 47%). In 1990, 88% of the cases involved at least one pro-jail term and none of the lawyers were involved in more than half the divorce.
- In Chicago 30% (in 1994 and 25% in 1995) of all new general civil actions filed for less than $ 10,000 of damage filed pro se . Landlord tenant action filed pro se 28% of the time.
- The Utah Judicial Council reports that in 2006 for divorce cases, 49 percent of petitioners and 81 percent of respondents were represented. For small claims cases, 99 percent of petitioners and 99 percent of respondents are represented.
- According to a 1998 Boston Bar Association Task Force report in every court studied by the task force, litigants without lawyers are present in surprising numbers. In some districts, over 75% of cases in Probate and Family Courts have at least one unrepresented party. In Northeast Housing Court, more than 50% of landlords and 92% of tenants appear without a lawyer in case of a summary process. Professor Lawless University, Professor Lawless of the University of Illinois, a national expert in personal credit and bankruptcy, points out that, the rate of non-attorney filings in bankruptcy court by debtors is 13.8% for chapter 13 cases, and 10.1% for chapter 7 cases. That figure is as high as 30% to 45% for large urban areas, such as California and New York City. The US Bankruptcy Court in Arizona reported 23.14% of cases filed prose in October 2011, up from 20.61% a year earlier.
- There are some important notes about pro-pros that have won over $ 2,000 as plaintiffs: Robert Kearns, inventor of a windshield wiper that won over $ 10 million from Ford for patent infringement; Dr. Julio Perez (Southern District of New York 10-cv-08278) won about $ 5 million in a federal jury trial of Progenics Pharmaceuticals for the wrongful discontinuation as a result of the disclosure of facts; Reginald and Roxanna Bailey (District of Missouri 08-cv-1456), a married couple, who together won $ 140,000 from Allstate Insurance in a federal jury trial; George M. Cofield, a janitor, won $ 30,000 from the City of Atlanta in 1980; and Jonathan Odom, a pro-prisoner who, while still in detention, won $ 19,999 from New York State in a jury trial. Timothy-Allen Albertson, who appeared in the pro. per., was awarded $ 3,500 in 1981 in an appraisal by the San Francisco City Court that entered against the Universal Life Church due to defamation by one of the ministers.
Reason
According to a 1996 report on pro-law by the University of Maryland Law Faculty, 57% of prose said they could not afford lawyers, 18% said they did not want to spend money on hiring lawyers, 21% said they believed their case was simple and therefore they did not need a lawyer. Also, ABA Legal Needs Study shows that 45% of pro-trust believe that "Lawyers are more concerned with promoting themselves than the best interests of their clients."
Defendants who choose to appear pro i can do so because they believe they can gain tactical gains against prosecutors, such as getting jury sympathy, the opportunity to personally speak to the jury and witnesses. The Pro Se appearance may also delay the trial process and increase the likelihood of subsequent misunderstandings and appeals.
Once convicted, a detainee no longer has the right to a public defender. Motions for post-punishment relief are regarded as civil movements. Brandon Moon is an example of an unsuccessful pro i person who became successful when his case was taken by a lawyer. The Moon case was taken by the Innocent Project, and he was released after 17 years in prison for rape he did not commit.
Representation by lawyer
A lawyer representing himself or herself in a matter is still considered a litigant pro i. Self-representation by lawyers is often the subject of criticism, rejection, or sarcasm, with the most famous statement on this issue is the proverbial saying of English Samuel Johnson that "a lawyer representing himself in court has a folly for a client."
Attorney fees
The Supreme Court has stated that where the law allows attorney fees to be granted to the applicable party, the lawyer applicable in cases brought under federal law as a pro-litigant is not entitled to a verdict attorneys fees. This ruling is based on the Court's decision that the law reflects the attorney-client relationship between the party and the lawyer who has tried or defended the case, and that Congress intends to encourage the plaintiffs to seek advice from a competent and separate third party. As noted by the Court, various Circuit Courts have previously agreed in the various decisions "that a lawyer who is a lawyer is not a lawyer is not entitled to attorneys fees ".
The narrow exceptions to this principle have also been suggested by other courts in the United States. For example, according to one of the district courts, a state licensed lawyer acting as a pro i seal may collect a lawyer's fees when he represents the class (where he is a member) in a class action lawsuit, or according to another court a firm the law in which he is a member. In each of these examples, a non-lawyer will be barred from any representation at all. A district court found that this policy did not prevent a pro-se lawyer from recovering fees paid for consulting with outside advisors. Pro se are not state licensed lawyers can not file a class action lawsuit.
A federal court may impose liability for the cost of a party lawyer applicable to a losing party if the judge considers the case reckless or for the purpose of harassment, even when the case is voluntarily dismissed. In the case of Fox v. Vice , the US Supreme Court stated that reasonable attorneys fees can be awarded to defendants under 42 U.S.C. Seconds. 1988, but only for charges that the defendant will not happen "but for reckless claims." Unless there are actual hearings or judgments, if there is only pre-auspective movement practices such as movements to dismiss, changes in attorney's fees may only be granted under the FRCP Rule 11 and that requires the counterpart to file Motion for Sanctions and that the court issues an order identifying the behavior sentenced and sanctioned. Pro se still has the right to appeal the sanctions order in the higher court. But in state courts, each party is generally liable solely for the solicitor's own fees, with certain exceptions.
Resources
According to the Utah Justice Board report in 2006, 80 percent of people representing him came to the district court clerk's office seeking additional help before coming to the courthouse. About 60 percent use court websites, 19 percent seek help from friends or relatives, 11 percent from court clerks, and 7 percent go to the library. In court, 59 percent did not seek help.
A lot of pro i resources come from these sources: local courts, which may offer limited self-help assistance; public interest groups, such as the American Bar Association, which sponsor reforms and promote resources for self-help, and commercial services, which sell pre-made forms that allow represented parties themselves to have a formally correct document. For example, the Litigation Network Mandiri (SRLN) is an organization whose website, srln.org, is dedicated to issues related to represented litigation and offers a curated resource library for legal professionals (courts, lawyers and allies) engaged in litigation. The organization does not provide assistance with certain complaints. "Legal" legal service providers must be careful not to cross the line for advice, to avoid "illegal law practice", which in the US is an illegal act of non-lawyers.
The American Bar Association (ABA) has also been involved with issues related to self-representation. In 2008, Louis M. Brown's Award for Legal Access was presented to the Chicago-Kent Legal Center for Access to Justice & amp; Technology to make justice more accessible to the public through the use of the Internet in teaching, legal practice and public access to the law. Their A2J Writer Project is a software tool that empowers them from courts, legal services programs and educational institutions to create guided interviews that generate document assembly, electronic archiving and data collection. Viewers who use A2J to undergo an assisted interview will be directed to a virtual street to the courthouse. When they answer simple questions about their legal issues, the technology then "translates" the answer to create, or collect, the documents necessary to file a court.
An ABA publication lists "organizations involved in the pro-problem" as including (other than ABA itself) the American Judicature Society, the National Center for State Courts, and the State Justice Institute.
The state has an organization dedicated to providing services to pro jet litigation. For example, the Minnesota Bar Association has a "pro se implementation committee".
The United States federal court created the Public Access system to the Electronic Record Court (PACER) to obtain case and listing information from the US district court, US appeals court, and US bankruptcy court. The system, administered by the United States Courts Administration Office, allows lawyers and clients who are self-represented to obtain documents that fall into this case much faster than regular mail. Several federal courts publish general guidelines for pro-plaintiffs and the Civil Rights complaint form.
There are also freely accessible web search engines to assist pro-i in finding court decisions that can be cited as examples or analogy to resolve similar questions about the law. Google Scholar is the largest database of state and federal court decisions that can be accessed free of charge. These web search engines often allow pro se to select a particular country court to search.
Many federal courts publish procedural guidelines for prose prosecution. Many state courts have also issued procedural guidelines for prosecuting prose.
There is also a guide for judges on how to be fair and accountable when one or more of the parties is pro .
Notable pro se litigant
- Despite the presence of five court-appointed lawyers, serial killer Ted Bundy will make high-profile pro-seals in a Florida homicide trial in June 1979. The trial was covered by 250 reporters from five continents , and was the first to be broadcast nationally in the United States.
- Edward C. Lawson, an African American civil rights activist, is a proclaimed pro in Kolender v. Lawson (461 US 352, 1983), in which the US Supreme Court ruled that a police officer could not arrest a citizen simply for refusing to provide identification.
- Robert Kearns is the inventor of an intermittent windshield wiper. He acts as his own lawyer in parts of his long legal battle for patent infringement against Ford and Chrysler. The legal battle is the subject of the 2008 Flash Flash film Genius.
- Clarence Earl Gideon was too poor to pay for a lawyer and then went on pro in his criminal trial in Florida in 1961. He was found guilty and later filed an appeal. He was appointed advisor (his lawyer, Abe Fortas, then Supreme Court Justice) when the case reached the US Supreme Court; The court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that the right to counsel means that states are required to give free advice to defendants who are poor in all criminal cases and that Florida's failure to appoint such advisor in Gideon's case is a violation of that right. Upon arrest, Gideon was represented in a new trial, and released.
- Jim Traficant, former US Representative of Ohio, represented himself in the case of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in 1983, and was acquitted of all charges. Traficant will represent himself again in 2002, this time unsuccessful, and was sentenced to 8 years in jail for taking bribes, filing for false tax returns, and extortion.
See also
- Private litigant
- Julia Davis (American cinema)
- Young v. Facebook, Inc. , examples of litigation pro se in civil cases in the United States
- Ouellette v. Viacom International Inc. , another example of a lucrative US pro jett.
References
External links
- Twentieth Judicial Circuit, Florida Provisar, Family Court
- Pro Se Explained in Legal Dictionary
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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