Your posts are always interesting, Yassine, and they always make me very grateful for my career path of being a civil litigator. (I very occasionally have to deal with pro se parties, but fortunately mostly as opponents.)
It's tangenital to your story here, but I was in court for a traffic ticket a few years ago and in the case that was before mine, the judge was explaining to a criminal defendant that he wasn't actually entitled to a public defender because he earned too much money, and that he'd have to hire a private attorney. How is that determination made, do you have to submit financial statements to prove that you can't afford an attorney? Is it possible to be stuck in a zone where you don't get appointed an attorney at no cost, but you can't really afford to hire one yourself?
IANAL: I have a “pro-se” story that was a disaster but the twist is that this is a happy (or at least amusing) story. I met my uncle for the first time when I was 5 when he was released from doing 5 years in a minimum-security prison in 1989; for smoking a lot of crack and “making threats” to some official.
Almost 5 years for this always struck me as unusually punitive; my dad (tax attorney) later told me it was because uncle Jim was so out of control he not only insisted on “representing himself” but it was like a comedy of errors where he would object by standing up and yelling “that’s horseshit!” with my dad scrambling to try to get him to shut up. He wouldn’t stop so that’s why had all this extra time on; it was a mess!
But he ended up turning his life around to such a degree that I’ve actually never known him as anything but sober and responsible; in a way it’s the only “exception” addiction isn’t a joke because he was able to shield my (still very young) siblings and me from the reality of his situation that whenever we would ask he would just bullshit these “crazy and funny” stories that I didn’t realize WHY he didn’t tell us until we learned about drugs in DARE and stuff;
He died two years ago; there was only thing of his I REALLY wanted that he had hanging up over his bed for 4 decades; i had it framed “nice” to hang up in the “master-bathroom” https://imgur.com/a/AEbFnng
I am *loving* these stories. More, more!
Really, really love these stories, and your writing.
(My law professor called the hearsay calzone “marsupial hearsay”!)
Well, at least when he’s in prison he won’t be stabbing innocent passers by.
Very interesting story- thank you!
Take my like for the Darkness that Comes Before reference.
More wonderful work, Yassine! Thank you! I’ll eagerly anticipate your next piece!
I cannot express how much joy it brings me to see a Second Apocalypse/Prince of Nothing fan in the wild.
Your posts are always interesting, Yassine, and they always make me very grateful for my career path of being a civil litigator. (I very occasionally have to deal with pro se parties, but fortunately mostly as opponents.)
I'm definitely subscribing.
It's tangenital to your story here, but I was in court for a traffic ticket a few years ago and in the case that was before mine, the judge was explaining to a criminal defendant that he wasn't actually entitled to a public defender because he earned too much money, and that he'd have to hire a private attorney. How is that determination made, do you have to submit financial statements to prove that you can't afford an attorney? Is it possible to be stuck in a zone where you don't get appointed an attorney at no cost, but you can't really afford to hire one yourself?
IANAL: I have a “pro-se” story that was a disaster but the twist is that this is a happy (or at least amusing) story. I met my uncle for the first time when I was 5 when he was released from doing 5 years in a minimum-security prison in 1989; for smoking a lot of crack and “making threats” to some official.
Almost 5 years for this always struck me as unusually punitive; my dad (tax attorney) later told me it was because uncle Jim was so out of control he not only insisted on “representing himself” but it was like a comedy of errors where he would object by standing up and yelling “that’s horseshit!” with my dad scrambling to try to get him to shut up. He wouldn’t stop so that’s why had all this extra time on; it was a mess!
But he ended up turning his life around to such a degree that I’ve actually never known him as anything but sober and responsible; in a way it’s the only “exception” addiction isn’t a joke because he was able to shield my (still very young) siblings and me from the reality of his situation that whenever we would ask he would just bullshit these “crazy and funny” stories that I didn’t realize WHY he didn’t tell us until we learned about drugs in DARE and stuff;
He died two years ago; there was only thing of his I REALLY wanted that he had hanging up over his bed for 4 decades; i had it framed “nice” to hang up in the “master-bathroom” https://imgur.com/a/AEbFnng
You should pick an image that is more realistic, not some cliche from 100-200-300 years ago.