Comments on: Communicate Simply, and Be Understood

By: The New Debtors’ Prison

The New Debtors’ Prison — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:47:30 +0000

[...] receive. Unfortunately, the rules and statutes, along with the court’s forms, are practically incomprehensible to non-lawyers. As a result, non-lawyers, like the defendants who will be tossed in jail as a result of what I saw [...]

By: Peter Pitorri

Peter Pitorri — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:29:12 +0000

Okay, John Grisham, you cannot just leave it there…. So is this fellow going to trial? Is he pleading himself out? Is he defending a felony for which conviction his life or liberty would be at stake? Hmmmm?

By: Joe Strummer

Joe Strummer — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:48:01 +0000

I was in court this week where a pro se criminal defendent with stand-by counsel was being asked by the judge whether he wanted to put on a defense, and then told about all the consequences of that.

Suffice to say that phrases like “you would be precluded” and “case in chief” and “if you testify you would be waiving your 5th amendment rights” were basically nonsense to the defendant.

And the defendant kept nodding along, not wanting, I think, to appear stupid to the court.

By: Rita K

Rita K — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:56:33 +0000

This is why I wrote a guide on Debt Collection Lawsuits and just did a podcast on how to answer a debt collection lawsuit, which will be posted soon. I get library users who come in and do not understand that a lawsuit needs to be answered! Otherwise the Plaintiff (the person or company suing) will get a default judgment (order to get money) against the defendant (the person asking me that question.)

By: Sam Glover

Sam Glover — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:12:06 +0000

What are legists? You make my point for me.

In reply to your aside, all the debts were for less than $4,000. One was for about $380.

By: Anglo-Thai Legal

Anglo-Thai Legal — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:53:12 +0000

In defence of the legists, most advocates are very clear and concise during their appearances in court; unlike most witnesses. Law is an art – to try and simplify it is like creating a ‘Surgery for Dummies’ manual.

As an aside, the reason that the debtors failed to attend court on 26.8.09 was probably because they were liable for an outstanding amount of money which they could not satisfy on judgment. Does not take a genius to realise you owe someone money!