Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 347.73504
EAN num: 9781413303698
ISBN number: 1413303692
Label: NOLO
Manufacturer: NOLO
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 510
Printing Date: January 31, 2006
Publishing house: NOLO
Sale Popularity Level: 166797
Studio: NOLO
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Prepare and present a winning civil court case!
Written in plain English, Represent Yourself in Court breaks down the trial process into easy-to-understand steps so that you can act as your own lawyer -- safely and efficiently. Find out what to say, how to say it, even where to stand when you address the judge and jury.
Armed with these simple but thorough instructions, you'll be well prepared to achieve good results, without the cost of an attorney. Find out how to:
*file court papers
*handle depositions and interrogatories
*comply with courtroom procedures
*pick a jury
*prepare your evidence and line up witnesses
*present your opening statement and closing argument
*cross-examine hostile witnesses
*understand and apply rules of evidence
*locate, hire and effectively use expert witnesses
*make and respond to your opponent's objections
*get limited help from an attorney as needed
*monitor the work of an attorney if you decide to hire one
Whether you are a plaintiff or a defendant, this book will help you confidently handle a divorce, personal injury case, landlord/tenant dispute, breach of contract, small business dispute or any other civil lawsuit.
The 5th edition is completely updated to include the latest rules and court procedures, and more sample documents to help guide you through your case.
Table of Contents
1. Going It Alone in Court
2. The Courthouse and the Courtroom
3. Starting Your Case
4. Pretrial Procedures
5. Investigating Your Case
6. Settlement
7. Pretrial Motions
8. Proving Your Case at Trial: The Plaintiff's Perspective
9. Proving Your Case at Trial: The Defendant's Perspective
10. Selecting the Decision Maker
11. Opening Statement
12. Direct Examination
13. Cross-Examination
14. Closing Argument
15. Exhibits
16. Basic Rules of Evidence
17. Making and Responding to Objections
18. Organizing a Trial Notebook
19. Expert Witnesses
20. When Your Trial Ends: Judgments and Appeals
21. Representing Yourself in Divorce Court
22. Representing Yourself in Bankruptcy Court
23. Getting Help From an Attorney: Hiring a Legal Coach
Glossary
Index
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
Having to go to court with out the money to hire a Lawyer several times, this book proved to be a valuable resource. It taught me that Judge and Arbitrators like individuals who are ready and prepared for their cases. If you can not have a lawyer present, you can at least prepare like one.
The authors give honest information on every part of the trial and the trial process. You will learn how to file a complaint to answering a complaint. It gives real information on the process of the trial from filing motions, seeking discovery and settling your case. It caps with judgments and appeals.
I like how the authors make everything easy to understand and the advice is completely useable. This can be used if this is you very first time in court or your tenth.
Footnote: Nolo press is the best company that produces law books for the common person. They are always easy to read and pact with good advice.
Enjoy
Rated by buyers -
I decided to represent myself as a pro se litigant, and turned to this book since it got such good reviews.
I was NOT disappointed. It does a great job chronologically illustrating common judicial patterns, and it will even give you a spectrum of scenarios in case your court system operates a bit differently. There are example dialogs and mock situations to help you understand what to do in certain situations.
Believe it or not, I didn't need the book in the end. There is a statistic that is published in the book pointing out that over 90% of people who go into court usually settle before an actual trial. Because of this statistic, I mentioned it to the Plantiff's attorney and was surprised to hear, "well, then, make us an offer!"
Had I not had the chance to settle out of court, I would have been very prepared to represent myself.
There were a couple of weak spots in the book, but they were of my own wanting to have more information. One of those areas that the book needs to get up to speed on is electronic documents, such as dealing with e-mails, and techniques in proving that e-mails are legitimate.
I'd also like to mention for those of you who are looking for Child Support help, this is not a good book for that. It has a tiny section on Child Support, then leaves you hanging. This may be because laws vary so much, but I thought I'd at least point it out. The book is more for general concepts, so the info falls short once you begin specializing in certain subject matters.
Whatever your case is about, I can't emphasize enough for you to take a morning off from work to go watch some cases in court. You'll eliminate some fear of the unknown, you'll start to see that attorneys go through a similar set of procedures that you are just as capable of performing yourself, and you'll get a feel for how to talk to the judge and those who might be in the same room as you.
Rated by buyers -
As a Pro Se Petitioner, I have found this book to be incredibly helpful! It explains all of the ins and outs of trial, how to organize a trial notebook, how to arrange your questioning, and how to cross examine among many other important facts. This book contains the inforation that lawyers know, that we need to know, but have not gone to many years of school. It is written in plain English, and is a MUST for anyone looking to go into or try to avoid going to trial!
Rated by buyers -
I was thoroughly impressed how well written and easy to understand this book is. Each step is completely explained, referenced and many documents have examples printed right in the book. There are great tips and tricks to deal with opposing counsel as well as warnings for what type of blue flags and tricks to watch for from the other side. This book is an asset for the novice to the more experienced pro se litigator. Definitely a Five Star book.
Rated by buyers -
This is one of the best books I have read and enjoyed about pro se litigation. The large font, great white space, and properly displayed summary tables render the book easy to endure and utilize. The authors offer many proverbs and examples for lay people that alleviate the harshness of legal lingo. Moreover, they even translate the formal and non-technical English words into layman's language. For example, words such as "sanction, impeach, strike, motion, cross, re-cross, direct, and re-direct" are simplified to common readers to mean "punish, discredit, delete, request, and questioning of witnesses in different setting".
The authors realize the hardship of hiring a good and trustworthy lawyer and assist the readers in understanding their rights for self-representation. Not only you will learn how not to be a fool pro se, but also how to expose the foolishness of ill-prepared lawyers and how to feel home among busy birds of a feather different from yours.
The book dissects the court room like an anatomy specimen and shows the reader where everyone belongs. (In one of the traffic violation I attended, a defendant brought his 5-year old son to the courtroom, was not able to control his running between the judge's legs and messing up stacks of papers on the reporter's desk.) This book will familiarize you with the territory such that you will avoid acting childishly. Aside from running between the judge's legs, the pro se will learn how to seek permission to approach a witness, to admit exhibits, to strike evidence, and so on.
The paper work phase is explained in great details to remove the anxiety of the long and contentious process that follows. It offers assurance that anxiety and fear are natural reaction to performing on a stage of adversarial nature. Actors, teachers, lawyers go through what a pro se litigant goes through in laboring to defend his or her arguments. It offers forms for different filing purposes, describes exhibits and trial notebook, and explains how to respond to and make objections.
The trial dissection is also magnificent in describing in details the phases of paper work filing, subject and personal jurisdiction, statute of limitation, and the development of the trial process from filling answers, motions, pretrial material, discovery, and evidentiary issue.
The trial process is well described as well to entail opening statement, direct and cross examination, closing statement. It is preceded with extensive elaboration on how settlement, aberration, and mediation most of times cut the process short of a trial.
The elaborate description of informal and formal discovery process is very helpful to pro se litigants since it saves the exuberant amount of money spent on lawyers to gather documents, depose witness, and disclose evidence. The thorough details of the techniques of discovery are presented in bulleted subsections, each with its advantages and disadvantages.
The book extends it discusion to post-trail phases of appeals and judgment. It then delves into specialized areas such as divorce and bankruptcy. The coherence of the book topics serves the readers a great deal in enabling pro se to focus on pertinent legal claims, their elements, the facts that address each element, and the evidence required to prove the facts.
Three trivial problems are noticeable. One, pages are numbered according to chapters which forces the reader to remember two instead of one number when trying to memorize latest page read. Two, referencing to legal coach is excessively used while the book is intended to self-represented parties. Three, excessive branching of references for further reading are everywhere despite the good 24 healthy chapters of the book.
Mohamed F. El-Hewie
Author of
Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training
Find other books like this one:
