Pro se litigants filling the nation’s courts are met with varying degrees of success. Yet, it’s not always clear what winning looks like. I’m not sure it looks any different for those with lawyers, though. You either want to win outright, gain a favorable settlement, or delay the inevitable adverse judgment.
When the law is on your side and you’re able to marshall the facts to make your case, you can often win outright. For example, if someone borrows money and doesn’t pay you back, you go to court with an IOU and get a judgment against them.
But when you’re the borrower and you kick up enough dust to make the outcome unclear, you can show the other side that a settlement is in their best interest. Can you deny a fact or two in the complaint and offer a good reason not to pay? Does the IOU have an original signature, or is that just a copy? Did the creditor make it difficult to repay the loan in some way? Have you completed all the discovery you want?
Sometimes there’s no settlement to be had, and you plainly owe the money. In those instances, skillful use of civil procedure can create lengthy distractions in your case. You can delay the inevitable judgment and take the time to arrange your affairs. Say you’ve lost your job and stopped paying your mortgage, and now the bank is foreclosing. There’s no way to pay off the house, and you have no funds that would make for a reasonable settlement. But the truth is, every day the sun rises with you still in the house is another day you’ve won.
Winning is never strictly about a court judgment. It’s more about aligning your goals with a strategy to achieve them. Harassing the other side with discovery or raising their litigation costs above the value of the claim are tactics every litigant should consider. Being able to use them is what winning looks like for the pro se litigant.
Drop a comment below and share ways you’ve succeeded without winning.
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Paul says
What to do if your adversary tells the Court to go to hxxx, there is absolutely nothing the court can do or enforce… Bad people laugh at Court every single day, and the system allows it and profits from it,
Sonja Ebron says
Paul, I hear your frustration and share it. I wish I could say you were wrong, but that is the state of our courts. We have to satisfy ourselves that we’re able to give people hell when they injure us, whether we collect damages from them or not. At least they know you meant business! But yes, I also wish the courts would be more active in enforcing their judgments.
Paul says
The win is the only satisfaction, and if there is no Enforcement – no win, if the other side runs the delay game of motions and hire an attorney then fires an attorney and hires another, or worse “judge shopping”, and appeals – then tells the Court the hxxx with the verdict? Really, where is the WIN for the law biding citizens?
Ben says
Good evening I have a case against my former employee which I worked for them for 24 years. I’m a Pro Se in my case , there attorney filed a motion to dismiss 12 b. I filed with the EEOC and won my sexual harassment claim.
Sonja Ebron says
Thanks for sharing your story, Ben. Congrats on getting past dismissal, and continued success in your case.
Pattt McGuire says
My case is being passed from one court to another. I just received a ruling from the federal appeal court of “AFFIRM” of the previous federal judges’ ruling. This put me in the position to file a Petition for Rehearing En Banc/Rehearing by Panel. It seems to me that the federal appeal court judges did not want to take the hit of ruling in my favor so they pulled from the previous judges’ ruling. This case has been going on for about three years. God has been ordering my footstep this whole time. I am trusting in God and I believe, I will win my case. This long-suffering season will end soon.
FearlessGirl says
I’m praying with you !!!!