Sue in California Without a Lawyer

by Roderic Duncan

Once upon a time in California, between Small Claims Court and Superior Court, there used to be a Municipal Court where anyone could make their case without a lawyer. Although Muni is now part of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873378334
• ISBN13: 9780873378338
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: NOLO
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.4" x 10.8"

Customer Reviews

Lost over 30,000 dollars by following this excellent book

A family friend followed instructions in this excellent book only to lose over $30,000 in attorney fees to the other party. The trick is to read and follow the book completely and not just 90% of it. The most fundamental question before pursuing all the paper work nicely taught in this book, is whether you have a case. The book talks about this in the initial chapters. Answering that question can be very difficult for the layman because lawyers and judges see things differently than you and me. You may want to spend two or three sessions with one or two attorneys before pursuing with the discovery and trial procedure. I said "you may," I meant "you must." In our case, the defendant realized she did not have a case at some point but tried to respond to all the discovery requests using the book while trying to negotiate the attorney fees demanded of her. He did not want to pay $5000 of attorney fees to the opposing party and he ended up paying them over 30k after months of exchanging discovery and trial paperwork. I must add part of the problem was also a bad advice from an attorney she saw who agreed with her in that she did not have a case but gave her the bad advice to stand firm regarding how much attorney fees she should pay. The book does an excellent job of showing you ho easy it is to file and serve the various paperwork needed for a lawsuit. The writing is excellent and makes every thing real simple. But there are two elements that are heavily needed in the business of law: A) The ability to be as logical and as picky as a computer in reading every "if," "but" and "then" in contracts and legal cases (we mortal being always look at the gist of the situation) and B) to be able to negotiate the settlement etc like a seasoned Real Estate broker to minimize damage. This bit involves forgetting about who is, or wants to think is, right or wrong and looking at options, possible damage, odds and build an implicit decision tree to choose the path of minimum damage. You don't get these two elements from the book. You will get item A) from a good lawyer but good luck getting B) from an attorney. In fact it is a rare find in most brokers. The book is like a good knife that can help a lot or be used incorrectly.

EXCELLENT BOOK

This is an excellent book, as are all the Nolo's books. I filed a personal injury case using this book and the other Nolo's book about representing yourself in court and did great. There were very few things the two books did not cover. I disagree with the reviewer that was unhappy with the book. The book does not claim to put you through law school and qualify you as a lawyer by the time you are done reading it....some thinking and effort on your own is required and even then it is not easy to represent yourself in court. But if you dare to enter the world of judges and lawyers...the two Nolo's books are the best bet you have for help. I liked the author (who is a judge) because unlike any judges or lawyers I encountered, he tells it like it is. In one section he mentions judge's lying....what Judge would admit a judge lies? AND BELIEVE ME THEY DO...FREELY AND FREQUENTLY AND THINK NOTHING OF IT! I recommend this book and the other nolo's book highly.