Self-incrimination, Representing Yourself, Why Not to Represent Yourself.
What To Do When… You’re Representing Yourself.
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The objective of the What To Do When… podcast is to discuss common legal scenarios faced by everyday citizens in Virginia. Critzer and Cardani practice law throughout Virginia and focus their practice around the state’s capital of Richmond, in the Piedmont region. Tune in and subscribe to learn about legal topics such as reckless driving by speeding, bad lawyers, Will Knows Weed, juvenile defense, juvenile sex crimes, reckless driving, the legalization of marijuana in Virginia, divorce 101, Child Support, There is Still Hope, and others.
What To Do When… You’re Representing Yourself.
On this legal video podcast chat in Critzer Cardani’s What To Do When… podcast series, join our host Jackie Critzer as she chats about What To Do When… You’re Representing Yourself. This video and audio podcast episode focuses on why you should not represent yourself here in Virginia.
Tune in today for not only our top take-aways, but also some chat about the following subject matters and other helpful action items from a ‘legal chat slant’ from Critzer Cardani’s legal partners.
* Reasons why you should not represent yourself.
* Emphasizes the importance of consulting with an attorney or doing thorough research to understand the best course of action.
* Highlights the time-consuming and complex nature of gathering and presenting evidence in criminal cases.
* Emphasizes that both lawyers and non-lawyers should avoid self-representation due to the high standards and complexities involved.
The objective of the What To Do When… podcast is to discuss common legal scenarios faced by everyday citizens in Virginia. Critzer and Cardani practice law throughout Virginia and focus their practice around the state’s capital of Richmond, in the Piedmont region. Tune in and subscribe to learn about legal topics such as reckless driving by speeding, bad lawyers, Will Knows Weed, juvenile defense, juvenile sex crimes, reckless driving, the legalization of marijuana in Virginia, divorce 101, Child Support, There is Still Hope and others.
Thank you for sending us your feedback, questions, or topic suggestions for future #WTDW | What To Do When… episodes by emailing [email protected].
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Transcript:
What To Do When… Intro 00:01
Welcome to What To Do When… A podcast from real lawyers with real perspective, where we explore a variety of legal issues and scenarios. Each week we focus on a new topic and discuss what to do when and if any of these legal scenarios ever happened to you or a loved one. With over 40 years of combined legal experience, our hosts offer their unique perspectives and insights on a range of real life legal situations.
Jackie Critzer 0:28
Hi, welcome back to another podcast here at Critzer Cardani in Richmond, Virginia. I’m Jackie, not together with my partner, Scott Cardani, today. It’s just me, and the reason is because today’s topic, what’s on the docket today is What To Do When… You are Representing Yourself in court, out of court, in any legal proceeding. So first and foremost, let’s be clear. You shouldn’t do it. You shouldn’t represent yourself. Lawyers should not represent themselves, lay people or non lawyers should not represent themselves for lots of reasons. Number one, you are held to the same standard as a lawyer, even if you are untrained. What does that mean? It means that any documents you turn into the court we lawyers call those pleadings, whether it’s a petition for something or it’s a motion to amend something, let’s say, for example, you want to file a motion to amend your custody. Okay, on this motion to amend custody, it’s a form. It seems relatively straightforward to be able to fill out, but you have to have certain information. You have to have your information, the other party’s information, the date the last order was entered. You also have to have the requirements of the current order, then you have to put down what you want to change about the current order. And here comes an important piece, why you want to change the current order. It doesn’t seem like a difficult concept, except when you go to court and you’re presenting your case to the judge, you are bound by what you put down on that piece of paper. Now that’s not the only thing you can talk about. But in Virginia, in our example, on a motion to amend custody, and you say three reasons why you want to amend custody, because these, these three things have changed. Maybe the child is older, and you’ve moved to a different location, and the other parent got married. Okay, let’s just say you’ve put down those three things. Well, the law requires that you not only say why, but how those three things have materially changed the custody situation, such that custody or visitation needs to change, so in that process, now you’re bound by this pleading, and you have to go by what’s on the pleading, at least for the court to entertain the motion when you start a trial. But you’re that’s part of the procedure, so you got pleadings and procedure, because procedurally, you have to go by what’s on your pleading. You also have to be able to present enough evidence to support that pleading. And if you don’t know the rules of evidence, you’ve maybe watched TV and seen a few episodes of different lawyer shows. But that’s really not always, and almost not ever how it’s really done in court. So you’re held to these same standards of asking questions of witnesses or trying to introduce pictures, okay? But in this example, for the custody case, a motion to amend custody, you have to be able to tell the court what was going on at the time the last order was entered. Let’s say it was three years ago in September. This is what was happening. This is why the order was entered, the way that it was. And here are the things that have changed since that order was entered, and up to the date that you filed your motion to amend. Okay, that’s the period of time you have to talk about, and then you have to present evidence on on how a change is necessary. So just this alone is complicated to me. It’s simple. We do these things every day. Of course, when you go into court and you’re sitting at a table when it’s just you and you’ve got no one sitting next to you like I am today, you don’t have your attorney. All you have are your notes. Maybe you have some papers, maybe have some emails, maybe have some text messages and some pictures. You don’t know how to introduce those, and it’s important that you if you’re going if you have to represent yourself, perhaps there’s a financial reason. That’s usually the only reason why people represent themselves. You need to figure out what procedure is appropriate, so what filings are necessary in order to bring the matter to the courtroom. So to get you actually into the courtroom, and not just in this waiting or this holding pattern for pre court, you have to know the rules of evidence. Okay, you’ve got to be able to present your case and present the evidence, and know what questions to ask of what witnesses, so that the information that you have maybe have a great case, but if you don’t know how to get it in front of the judge in a way that that provides the judge with the evidence sufficient to do what you’re asking, it’s not going to do you any good. So you have to have the the the pleadings, you have to have the procedure, you have to have the evidence, you have to have all of these things in place when you are preparing to go to court. And you just have to remember that the same rules are going to apply to you that apply to lawyers, whether they’ve been doing it for a day, a week, a year or 50 years, the same rules apply to you, and so if the other side has an attorney and you don’t, you’re not likely to get the evidence you have in front of the judge in a way that will persuade the judge to do what it is you’re asking the judge to do. And that’s all on a civil side. Okay, so the everything I’ve talked about so far would be in a civil matter where you’re talking about custody, family law matters, maybe even a contract dispute. Okay, when we’re talking about criminal cases and wrapping representing yourself in a criminal case, that’s an even more important time for you to discuss with an attorney or someone do some research to figure out what it is you should do, what you shouldn’t do. Should you take the stand and tell your story? Most of the time, criminal defense attorneys will tell you, of course, you shouldn’t take the stand and tell your story. Your story really isn’t going to be what wins the day. It’s the other side’s inability to prove that they that you did what you what they say you did. So there’s so many important pieces to all of this, and and doing the research and getting yourself in a position where you can present evidence is very difficult, and that’s that is why hiring an attorney is so expensive. It takes time to gather the evidence, review the evidence, put it in an order that makes sense, so that your story is being told to the court in a way that will be persuasive and convincing to the judge, for the judge to do exactly what it is you want to do. So first things first, don’t represent yourself. Right? What to do when you’re going to represent yourself? Don’t – first thing, do not do it. But if you must, you need to, at the very bare minimum, do a whole lot of research, and you’re going to spend hours and hours and hours learning how to have the proper pleadings, to learn the proper procedure and the proper rules of evidence, just to get in front of the judge and to get that information in front of a judge in a way that’s convincing and persuasive to a judge. We’re always available to answer your questions. You might even consider consulting with an attorney. Maybe you have an hour or two with worth of attorneys fees, and you want to consult with someone, and they can help you organize the information. We’re allowed to do that, even if we’re not going to represent you in the full matter. These are things you should really be thinking about. You can reach us at info, at [email protected] we’re happy to answer your questions or schedule an appointment for you if you feel like you need and you must represent yourself. The first thing we’ll do is try to convince you not to, but then we’ll do our best to help answer your questions and prepare you for your journey. Thanks so much. Look forward to hearing from you. Be sure to Like and Subscribe. Thanks.
What To Do When… Outro
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of What To Do When… For more episodes, be sure to subscribe to our podcast and we encourage you to check archives to listen to previous topics. Tune in next week for a new episode and some fresh perspective from Critzer Cardani.
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We look forward to helping you in this venture and Good Luck!
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