Why do judges hate self-represented (pro se) people?
The answer is simple – they don’t!
What they hate are people that come into court without a lawyer, assuming that none of the rules and procedures apply to them because they after all, are not lawyers and shouldn’t have to know about all these things.
At Be Your Own Lawyer we see this with people asking questions all the time. People ask why they appeared in court and received a hostile reception from the judge. Typically they relate that they showed up at a hearing, or trial, and tried to explain their position to the judge only to be stopped and told to get an attorney. “The judge wouldn’t even listen to me” is a typical refrain.
The problem usually is not the judge being biased toward pro se litigants, it is unprepared pro se litigants bogging down the proeedings, causing delays and wasting everyone’s time. Over and over agai it turns out that there was good reason for the judge to have been irate. Here are some of the things that we learn about these situations from clients:
– they never read the court rules.
– they did not even know that a particular court had local rules
– they did not prepare a written response to a pleading or a motion, assuming they could simply argue their position in court.
– If they did prepare a written response it did not include applicable law.
– they really never understood the nature of a particular proceeding and had no idea how to address it.
– they tried to introduce evidence but had no idea how to present it
And the list goes on.
Not only do some self-represented people overlook things, they often come with a sense of entitlement. We have seen the emergence of an attitude suggesting that because they are not lawyers and are not represented by a lawyer, that the rules somehow should not apply to them, or at the very least, should be relaxed.
And yes, as you can imagine showing up with that kind of attitude is not going to make a judge a happy or friendly individual.
And sadly, because of prior experience with pro se litigants, some judges may begin a proceeding with a bias against a self-represented person.
But that need never be a handicap. Any such bias will instantly disappear when a self-represented litigant makes it clear that they have read and complied with the rules, when they respond appropriately to pleadings or motions, in writing, and focus on the proceedings at hand.
The key to all of this is to first understand the procedures and rules, as well as the law that applies to your case, and to then meticulously follow those rules. If you do that it is highly unlikely that you will ever get the impression that a judge “hates” you for being pro se.