Do I Need a Lawyer to Represent Me in Court Proceedings & Immigration Petitions?

This article tells the reasons why laypersons need lawyer to represent them in legal proceedings. Let’s start with two simple questions:

Question One: Do I have to hire a lawyer to represent me to handle my case?
The answer is “No”.

Question Two: Is it wise to represent myself in legal proceedings?
The answer is “No”.

In the U.S., self-representation in legal proceedings is a constitutionally protected right. A right means many things. But basically, it means you have the choice to do it. This further implies that nobody in the entire universe can force you to do it or nor to do it. This is the good and easy side of the jurisprudence of rights. But this is not the whole story.

There is the murky and difficult side. People are often fooled to think “I must exercise a right if I have such a right”. A right alone, however, does not say it is wise or not for a person to exercise it. The truth is, having a right is one thing, exercising a right is another. It all depends on the circumstances to determine whether exercising a right is a wise choice. In our everyday life, making a wise choice is often as important as knowing what right you have. Therefore, the right to represent yourself in legal proceedings only tells what you are allowed to do. It tells nothing about whether it is wise to do such a thing. It is always up to you to make the wise choice. But making a wise choice is often not as easy as it sounds.

For many people who are willingly or unwillingly engaged in legal proceedings, “to hire a lawyer or not to hire a lawyer” is the very question they would ask themselves. Spreading on the web or mouth-to-mouth are stories of those who successfully represent themselves in court proceedings or immigration applications. After having heard enough stories of such kind, it is natural for a layperson to incline to persuade him/herself: “I may have the same capability and luck of those successful guys.” This may be true. But what the internet and mouth-to-mouth rumors scarcely tell is the self-representing stories resulting in failure. In fact, behind one successful story, there are hundreds, even thousands of stories of those who lost their cases in such a regretful manner that a minimum competent representation by a lawyer can avoid. For some reasons, these stories are never told.

There is an old English saying “He who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer.” It means what exactly it says. Statistics show a sharp discrepancy of winning and loss in court proceedings, approval and denial in immigration petitions between those who self-represented and those who are represented by counsel.

Many people assume, before they go to court, that the judge will help him/her out. This, unfortunately, is not true. In most cases, the best advice a judge can give to a layperson in court proceedings is to hire a lawyer. This situation is no better in immigration petitions. Many immigration applicants and petitioners, with wrong assumptions that government agencies like the US Citizenship and Immigration Service and the US Department of State would help them out with defectively filed cases, end up receiving denials.

Of course, hiring a lawyer costs you money. But a mistake due to lack of legal competence in self-representation costs you more, in many cases, more than money can buy. For many people, legal proceedings and immigration petitions have an incredibly great impact on their future. You cannot afford a mistake! Under these circumstances, paying for the legal services of an experienced lawyer will more than offset the potential harm you might cause your case if you do not handle it properly.

(05/19/2004)

For more immigration news, please click here

Adjustment of Status | Adoption | Advance Parole | Application Fees | Asylum & Removal | Business Entities | Corporate Clients | Consular Processing | Divorce | E-1 & E-2 | EAD | F-1 | Family Immigration | FAQs | Forms | Investor Visa | Immigration Glossary |
K Visa | L Visa | Marriage | Naturalization | Non-immigrant Visas | O-1 | Processing Time | Road to Green Card | TN | Visa Bulletin