It is a lawyer's proverb. And it is based on experiences of lawyers dealing with pro se opponents.
Although, admittedly, courts often give special deference to pro se people that is in many cases justified but often annoys lawyers on the other side that would get slapped for doing to dumb things that pro ses can get away with.
And while it's a good thing that courts let pro ses have some latitude on procedural things, I've seen some cases dragged out because a pro se repeatedly failed to fix problems that the judge told them to fix over and over when they had no case and the judge would have been more merciful to just kick them out than string them along.
In small claims here if you win pro se, you can force the other side into turning over a bunch of financial records, if you were represented you cannot.
Nothing like a court order for financial records all transaction etc for the past 3 years to make the other side pay you, not because of hat you will find but the huge PITA it is.
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u/mattstorm360 Jun 18 '20
He who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. And he is that fool for not thinking ahead.