Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yes. That is my point. Dealing with THE TEDIUM, TIME, EFFORT and COURT PROCEDURE is the MAIN SERVICE that lawyers provide to litigants-in-persons for small-time civil and crim court cases. Not their 'astounding' legal knowledge from Year 1 Torts or Year 3 Family Law elective. Unless you're too dense to read what I wrote (I'm the poster you're replying to).

We're talking specifically about the man-in-the-street type of cases which OP has mentioned, which is basic civil, crim, matri. Obviously not complex commercial or corporate liti.

Court process and evidential rules are the main pain points for LIPs for these cases. The law is settled in the lower courts - nothing groundbreaking happens there. As for weaving facts and docs into a coherent case, the LIP who is personally invested in his case is more intimately familiar with the facts than anyone else. The problem is putting these facts and docs into a coherent presentable case that can hold up to forensic scrutiny - which is a problem of procedure and process (i.e. my original point).

Don't overblow your legal education. I'm a lawyer too and I know whatever legal principles in the MC, some DC, and FJC cases can largely be understood by legally-untrained litigants with a lot of free time to do some reading. The service that lawyers provide is to remove the tedium of complying with processes.

In case your dense brain needs another example: - everyone with a brain can buy and sell houses by themselves (the concepts are not groundbreaking), but the majority still choose to do so through real estate agents because it removes all the various procedural pain points of doing so, such as putting the house to market, and arranging for viewings.