...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
A Fool for a Client
- 336 statements
- 63 feature instances
- 77 referencing feature instances
| A Fool for a Client | type |
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| A Fool for a Client | comment |
A person who represents themselves in court without the assistance of an attorney, whether as the defendant or the plaintiff, and whether or not the issue before the court is criminal or civil, is said to be operating pro se (a Latin phrase meaning "for oneself"). In the United States, at least, the right of a member of the public to represent themselves predates the existence of the U.S. Constitution, and it is generally considered a part of the protected right to seek a redress of grievances. In general, most legal professionals consider a person going to court without the aid of an attorney to be a really bad idea, even when the litigant is an attorney themself. Not all attorneys are versed in all forms of law; how many alleged murderers does the average tax lawyer defend in their lifetime, after all? Furthermore, even if said attorney is an expert in that precise field of law, being that close to the matter at hand is a great way to lose sight of the big picture.note For similar reasons, it is also considered a bad idea for a lawyer to represent a family member or close friend. To illustrate the need for a certain amount of emotional distance, picture a scenario in which a lawyer represents her brother and is offered a plea deal of ten years when going to trial means a potential life sentence. She might feel strongly that her brother is innocent and should not serve any time for a crime he didn't commit, where another attorney would recommend taking the deal. Conversely, she might advise him to take the deal out of fear of him going to prison for life, when there's a good enough chance of winning to justify fighting the charges. Being emotionally involved, whether the client is oneself or a loved one, can color one's (otherwise good) judgment. There is a reason why the adage in full often reads as some variation of "The man who represents himself has a fool for a client and an ass for an attorney." But of course, something being a really bad idea has never stopped anyone before, even when the charge is only a parking violation. Almost always lampshaded by someone asking the character if he is aware of the adage. Naturally, this appears quite often in Courtroom Drama. In comedies, the pro se character often engages in Courtroom Antics that would get him thrown into jail in Real Life, but because it is Played for Laughs, the character will often get away with it.note A bit of Truth In Television here, as judges are usually more tolerant of irregularities from those who are appearing pro se and don't know the rules than they would be of an attorney, who should presumably know better; though it's still possible to take it way too far, and repeatedly engaging in behavior you've been warned against WILL get you jailed for contempt. Also, most (though not all) people appearing pro se are arguing against minor things like traffic violations, where even the worst outcomes are usually fairly minor. Often involves Holding Both Sides of the Conversation when the character cross-examines himself. And it is almost guaranteed that in response to the judge telling the character that he is "out of order", the character will yell back at the judge, "No, you're out of order!" because apparently a lot of comedy writers are also Al Pacino fans. It may happen when The Main Characters Do Everything, as this trope saves the need to create a new lawyer character. See also Informed Self-Diagnosis, the equivalent trope for medical doctors. Compare The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes. |
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| A Fool for a Client / int_10b8d7fe | type |
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| A Fool for a Client / int_10b8d7fe | comment |
Daniel Hillard represents himself in Mrs. Doubtfire during his second custody hearing after his cover is blown. It all comes tumbling down. | |
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Find Me Guilty: This movie loosely portrays the real-life trial of the Lucchese Crime Family in the 1980s, where gangster Jackie DiNorscio decided to defend himself in court after getting fed up with his previous lawyer, starring Vin Diesel as DiNorscio. | |
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| A Fool for a Client / int_1bf2b0de | comment |
Likewise, Colombo family boss Carmine Persico represented himself during the Mafia Commission Trial, thinking that his history of convictions was enough experience to beat the case. The result? He blew his own defense by acknowledging criminal activities while being cross-examined and spent the remainder of his life behind bars until he died in 2019. Not only that, he was mocked for using street slang while questioning witnesses (partly because he dropped out of high school for a career in The Mafia). | |
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This occurs in Chapter 4 of Tales of Monkey Island, and features the question of whether the defendant is aware of the maxim, the "I am that fool!" response, the "You're out of order!" exchange, and the Holding Both Sides of the Conversation bit. The whole thing ends with a fistfight between the pro se lawyer and his own client. This is the solution to one of the "puzzles" (more a scripted event than a puzzle, really), namely how to break out of jail. The "lawyer" calls for the guard to let him out because "his client" is assaulting him, and the guard does so. It's also worth noting that the PlayStation 3 download has a trophy if you try out all of the possible conversations between Guybrush and his client. Said trophy is actually called "Idiot for a Client". In Return to Monkey Island, Stan attempts this (offscreen). Despite actually being a former lawyer himself, it doesn't work out anywhere near as well for him as it did for Guybrush. |
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A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_261c8d3f | comment |
The Simpsons: In "The Regina Monologues", Homer represented himself instead of hiring a barrister. Marge allowed it because she didn't think Homer's chances were good enough to be damaged by the decision. Not surprisingly, Homer managed to offend the judge, jury, and the British public at large even further (he was on trial for crashing into the Queen's carriage) — ending up in the Tower of London. | |
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Dumb Lawyer Quotes IRL but in Ace Attorney 4 casts Phoenix Wright in the role of Denver Fenton Allen from the infamous case where Allen was told exactly why representing himself would be a really bad idea and responded with heavy profanity. It also shows multiple instances of other defendants (played by the Caretaker) incriminating themselves without a care. | |
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In Liberal Crime Squad, this is an available option for liberals charged with crimes. This is a very difficult path, to the point of granting Juice points for a really successful defense. | |
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A Fool for a Client | |
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Captain Planet and the Planeteers: In "Jail House Flock", the heroes are framed by the villain and put on trial. As the trial begins, Wheeler announces he's going to represent himself and his teammates. The judge is not pleased. | |
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Nemesis the Warlock: During his trial for war crimes and xenocide, Torquemada defends himself and uses it to grandstand about the justness of his tyrannical regime and his obsession with exterminating aliens. Unlike most examples, it actually works for him, as the witnesses are all too scared of the former master of torture to testify against him. When the court recognizes that the trial is going nowhere, they hand him over to Nemesis instead. | |
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Mr. Toad acts as his own defense in his trial for car theft on the The Wind in the Willows segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. He is so confident that his star witness Mr. Winkie will exonerate him that he's already making his way out of the courtroom in mid-testimony when the duplicitous Winkie claims that Toad tried to sell him the stolen motorcar, and the doors slam shut right on Toad's face. | |
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James Romine of Digital Homicide represented himself in his lawsuit against Jim Sterling for the reason that he couldn't afford an attorney. A look at the details reveals exactly why getting a lawyer is heavily advised: Romine attempted to sue in the name of Digital Homicide LLC (a company cannot represent pro se, it has to have an attorney), via a court in Arizona (Jim Sterling isn't a resident of Arizona nor do they strictly speaking conduct business in the state, so the court had no jurisdiction over them) and with poorly presented arguments that fell straight into Frivolous Lawsuit, claiming damages of $10 million which only rose as the case went on. Romine's incompetence was to the point that in Sterling's post-mortem of the case, they note that they and their allies' (including Sterling's own lawyers) reaction to Romine's antics boiled down to 'I have no idea what he's doing.' | |
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Mr. Kornada in Freefall. He's a Corrupt Corporate Executive given the boot and on trial for an attempt at a massive insider trading scam that required the effective lobotomy of almost half a billion sentients. He's such an arrogant, unrepentant jackass and a colossal idiot to boot he has the gall to declare no other lawyer has his well-being in mind after his idiotic stunt, so he decides to represent himself with the aid of a robot with extremely Skewed Priorities. The robot would be willing to represent him, but isn't legally a lawyer; still, during the trial, everyone basically treats him as the lawyer, and he almost gets his client recused because he just cannot shut his damn mouth. | |
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Calvin and Hobbes: Referenced in one strip: after Calvin nearly hits Susie with a snowball, he defends himself by saying "I didn't do it! I never threw that! You can't prove I threw it! Besides, I missed, didn't I?" Cut to Calvin face down in the snow after Susie clobbers him with the tagline "The defendant petitions the court for a new trial on the grounds that his lawyer is incompetent" (with Calvin, of course, having been his own "lawyer"). | |
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In The Dresden Files short story Jury Duty, Hamilton Luther decides to represent himself in his murder case since all lawyers he talked to wanted him to do a plea deal. He, however, wants a not guilty verdict, given that his murder of Curtis Black wasn't done in cold blood but because Black, a White Court vampire, was kidnapping an 11-year-old girl to feed on her. While Luther did a decent job, the jury was unmoved and if Harry wasn't on the jury note Only possible by Marcone manipulating things, given that Luther was one of his loyal goons who is now going legit after a prison stint when he won't rat out Marcone and prevented the White Court from kidnapping the girl note Which made the assistant district attorney and his assistant, who is the White Court vampire that orchestrate the kidnapping, drop the charges after Harry caused a mistrial in fear of the girl being brought in as a witness, he would have been found guilty. | |
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A Fool for a Client | |
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King of the Hill: In an episode, Dale represents himself while trying to sue a tobacco company for money to get Nancy a facelift, culminating in Dale examining himself on the witness stand. | |
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In Big Eyes, after the Gannett lawyers leave him, Walter megalomaniacally decides to represent himself, guided only by his vague memories of Perry Mason episodes. This works out as well for him as you'd expect. | |
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The backstory of Mr. Slant the zombie lawyer in Discworld is that he defended himself, lost, and was executed. He cannot rest until his descendants agree to pay the bill. | |
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In Knights of the Old Republic, after you cause a disturbance at the Sith embassy on Manaan, you're brought before the judges for threatening Manaan's neutrality. Contrary to the saying, your only hope is to dismiss the arbiter they appoint for you and argue your case yourself; if you let the appointed arbiter argue for you, you'll end up being executed. Later, after the events at the Hrakert Rift, you're brought before the judges yet again, again on your own. It helps that the way out of both cases is to exploit the Manaans' local politics and violations of their own neutrality rather than any actual knowledge of their legal system. | |
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A Fool for a Client | |
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In the 2015 Free Comic Book Day strip for Atomic Robo, Dr. Dinosaur represents himself in court. Since it's Dr. Dinosaur, he doesn't exactly impress anyone: he carries his papers in a briefcase labeled "My Law Box" and calls a Surprise Witness who happens to be a laser-shooting dinosaur. The judge is right in the middle of holding him in contempt when all hell breaks loose. | |
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Rocket (2017): When his lawyer runs off before the case has even begun, to go fight ninja, Rocket decides to represent himself. He pleads to being guilty... and it's only after that he's told he just admitted to being guilty of helping a megacorp try to bulldoze the land the jury live on, because no one bothered to tell him that part, and he was led to believe he was doing the exact opposite. The jury, having just heard Rocket unwittingly call them scum, go ballistic. | |
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In Neverwinter Nights 2, the player character is put on trial with a competent party member acting as the defense attorney. Naturally, the player can also opt to self-represent, and with a strong score in diplomacy, bluff, or intimidate skill, can verbally tear the prosecution's testimony to shreds. Or use Unconventional Courtroom Tactics for the same result, which is probably even more fun. | |
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At one point in Schlock Mercenary during the HTRN takedown storyline, Massey resorts to this when speaking for the Toughs, for whom he is their legal counsel. While Fleetmind jurisprudence doesn't allow for lawyers to represent defendants, he was also a co-defendant in the hearing. | |
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Pornographer Larry Flynt was known for defending himself occasionally, and causing quite a spectacle when doing so, as portrayed by Woody Harrelson in The People vs. Larry Flynt. In fact, Flynt's most outrageous antics were in response to the U.S. Supreme Court not allowing him to appear pro se. | |
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The Scott The Woz episode "The Trial" sees Scott representing himself and his friends in their case against Officer Steel Wool. When his friends express doubt in him as their lawyer, Scott reasons with this: | |
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In Striker, Eric Openshaw once tried representing himself in an obscenity case, with the presiding judge even invoking this trope word-for-word. Despite this, and Eric's chronic buffoonery, he actually manages to present a well-reasoned and coherent argument... which proves largely irrelevant to the case. He still wins, but because of MI5 pressuring the judge over reasons related to China. | |
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In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, both Ahlbi Ur'gaid and Maya Fey, the defendants of the first and third trials, respectively, initially try to refuse Phoenix's offer to defend them in court in the Kingdom of Khura'in. Neither of them believes they can win an acquittal on their own, but Ahlbi doesn't trust lawyers due to his country's prejudice against lawyers, while Maya (who's friends with Phoenix and knows what he can do) doesn't want Phoenix to suffer under the Defense Culpability Act, which gives lawyers their clients' punishments. Phoenix ultimately convinces them to trust him and wins their cases. | |
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Inverted in Law Abiding Citizen in that he does insist on defending himself but he's also highly intelligent and he did do research on it beforehand. They find books on law at his home when they arrest him. He's not a lawyer, but he's smart enough to handle his defense purely on what he taught himself. Also, he never goes to trial, it's just at his bail hearing, and he mocks the judge for accepting his legal arguments to provoke her into sending him to jail. All part of his plan. | |
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Good Will Hunting: Will regularly acts as his own lawyer in court, although unlike in most cases of the trope, he is has a history of being able to talk his way out of trouble. | |
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A Fool for a Client | |
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Wild West COW Boys Of Moo Mesa: Subverted in "Bulls of a Feather". When Sheriff Terrorbull is taken to court for his crimes as the Masked Bull, he doesn't have a lawyer but Judge Bulloney does the cross-examination and shows a good reason to deem the prosecution's witness unreliable. | |
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| Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_7676812f | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7c09f1bb | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7c09f1bb | comment |
In None Shall Escape, a 1944 film about a trial against fictional Nazi officer Wilhelm Grimm following the end of the then-ongoing second world war which is told via flashbacks from the points of view of the witnesses at the trial, Wilhelm eschews having an attorney in favor of representing himself. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7c09f1bb | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_7c09f1bb | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7c4f1adb | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7c4f1adb | comment |
Our Miss Brooks: In "Traffic Court Reckless Driving" (remade for television as "Trial by Jury", Miss Brooks defends herself in court after being given a ticket for "speeding, going through a red light, reckless driving, driving on the sidewalk, and hitting a fruit stand. Unfortunately, Miss Brooks' defense is doomed from the start as Madison High School's principal Mr. Conklin is on the jury. Still, Mr. Conklin, eager to leave the courtroom and go fishing, gets the jury to merely mete out a "rather stiff fine" and leave it at that. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7c4f1adb | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_7c4f1adb | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7cec5307 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7cec5307 | comment |
The Tattered Dress: Protagonist Jim Blane fires rival attorney Lester Rawlings and represents himself. He's a high-powered defense attorney, but he's still almost over his head. | |
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A Fool for a Client / int_7cec5307 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7dcdbde1 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7dcdbde1 | comment |
The Great Ace Attorney has Ryunosuke as this in the first case. Bonus points for not even being a lawyer yet at the time. Of course, he had the help of his best friend, Kazuma Asogi, who originally planned to defend Ryunosuke in court. However, Kazuma doing so would have come with the risk of losing the opportunity to study in Great Britain, which is why Ryunosuke chose to be his own defense. Kazuma surmises that Professor Yujin Mikotoba, who'd told Ryunosuke to announce that he was defending himself, made that decision with the expectation that doing so would eliminate the possible risk for Kazuma while still allowing Kazuma to offer his guidance to Ryunosuke. | |
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A Fool for a Client / int_7dcdbde1 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7f385321 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_7f385321 | comment |
The latter trial was fictionalized in the movie Denial, although the movie does not feature the aforementioned lowlights. | |
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A Fool for a Client / int_7f385321 | |
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A Fool for a Client | |
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Follow That Dream: The Kwimpers have to go to court so as to not lose their wards. The judge questions where their lawyer is, to which Pop replies he doesn't believe in lawyers, so it falls mainly to Toby to represent his family in court. Things work out for them thanks to Toby's unfailing honesty. | |
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A Fool for a Client / int_8016b731 | |
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A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_8ea79323 | comment |
Widdershins: The cheerfully egomaniacal Will Sharpe represented himself when being tried for crimes against magic since he "can't trust someone else with something so important"... leaving the characters scrambling to clear his name the night before he goes to the gallows. However, he's justified in underestimating the situation: the judge handed out a disproportionately harsh sentence to Make an Example of him and was bribed to do so. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_8ea79323 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_8ea79323 | featureConfidence |
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| Widdershins (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_8ea79323 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_9068877a | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_9068877a | comment |
Red vs. Blue: Subverted/Lampshaded: After Simmons paints himself blue and temporarily joins the Blue Team, Sarge tries him for treason in a mock court. He appoints Grif as Simmons's counsel. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_9068877a | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_9068877a | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_9284ad43 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_9284ad43 | comment |
In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, Athena Cykes indirectly plays this role in Case 5, in which she is accused of murdering Clay Terran (the victim in the previous case and Apollo's Childhood Friend, which results in the latter's brief Face–Heel Turn for two cases) and her own mother. Phoenix Wright is still the main defense attorney but she goes to the assistant side in both defending Simon Blackquill and confronting Fulbright, who is guilty of both murders. The Judge reminds her to go back to the defendant seat after it is all over. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_9284ad43 | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_9284ad43 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_95caf5b8 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_95caf5b8 | comment |
Howard Roark from The Fountainhead does this twice, once in the trial over the Stoddard Temple and once in the trial over Cortlandt. He loses the first case but wins the second. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_95caf5b8 | featureApplicability |
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| A Fool for a Client / int_95caf5b8 | featureConfidence |
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A Fool for a Client / int_95caf5b8 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_98bab0e5 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_98bab0e5 | comment |
In Case 4C (Fraternité) of Aviary Attorney Leonie Beaumort represents themself. They don't actually expect to be proven innocent and in fact irritably 'confess' to all charges, including the trumped-up one, to get the thing over with and, maybe, taking the fall for whoever actually did that one thing so someone will escape. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_98bab0e5 | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_98bab0e5 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_994af351 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_994af351 | comment |
To wit, in the final part of Case 2 of the first game, the defendant's role is switched from Maya to Phoenix, due to a false accusation. He knows it's a terrible position to be in, but it's his only option; Redd White used his connections to make sure no defense lawyer in town would want to help him, even going so far as to suggest that the state-appointed lawyer Phoenix would get would be so incompetent that Phoenix would look good by comparison. Then he succeeds anyway, though it helps that Phoenix is a trained (albeit novice) defense attorney. In Case 1-4, Edgeworth was going to do this, but thankfully, Phoenix essentially forces his old childhood friend to let him represent Edgeworth in court. |
|
| A Fool for a Client / int_994af351 | featureApplicability |
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| A Fool for a Client / int_994af351 | featureConfidence |
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| Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_994af351 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_a2aa0c7b | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_a2aa0c7b | comment |
In one of his monologues on My Word!, Denis Norden describes defending himself on a charge of assaulting his ballroom dancing partner (he was just trying to get his contact lens back). He lost, he thinks chiefly because he didn't realize how short the lunch break was and gave himself hiccups by eating too fast when he saw they were starting again. You can't advocate and eat at two. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_a2aa0c7b | featureApplicability |
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| My Word! (Radio) | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_a2aa0c7b | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_a4420d22 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_a4420d22 | comment |
The Venture Bros.: Tthe Monarch represents himself when he's suspected of murdering a police officer, and at one point called himself to testify about the events of that night. In a later episode he does it again while subjected to a "crucible" by the Guild of Calamitous Intent, and in a deleted scene directly quotes the phrase about "a fool for a client." | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_a4420d22 | featureApplicability |
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| The Venture Bros. | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_a4420d22 | |
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A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_a57cf54d | comment |
Darths & Droids has a succinct explanation of why this should be averted, citing the above GURPS mechanics — also works as an aversion of Only Bad Guys Call Their Lawyers; Jim as Han tried playing this straight, until Ben as Chewbacca managed to talk him into letting Chewie represent him. |
|
| A Fool for a Client / int_a57cf54d | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_a57cf54d | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_afa6cc7d | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_afa6cc7d | comment |
The Trial Of Tim Heidecker: After his first day in court, Tim fires his lawyer Mark Dwyer and opts to represent himself, despite Judge Szymczyk's strong discouragement and a warning that he must adhere to proper courtroom decorum. Needless to say, it doesn't happen. Tim engages in numerous Courtroom Antics and nets himself two contempt of court charges. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_afa6cc7d | featureApplicability |
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| A Fool for a Client / int_afa6cc7d | featureConfidence |
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| The Trial Of Tim Heidecker (Web Video) | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_afa6cc7d | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_b1cd32bb | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_b1cd32bb | comment |
Muppet Babies (1984): Gonzo does this in the episode "Weirdo for the Prosecution". | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_b1cd32bb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_b1cd32bb | featureConfidence |
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| Muppet Babies (1984) | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_b1cd32bb | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_b40513b1 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_b40513b1 | comment |
One Foxtrot arc has Bumbling Dad Roger outraged at a parking ticket and decides to represent himself in court, which he will do by perfecting his Perry Mason act. Thankfully he doesn't go through with it, the last panel is his pissed-off wife digging through her purse for the relatively tiny fine. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_b40513b1 | featureApplicability |
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| FoxTrot (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_b40513b1 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_ba63d0a9 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_ba63d0a9 | comment |
Oh, God!: Jerry Landers represents himself when he's sued for slander by the Reverend Willie Williams, whom Landers has called (at God's direction) a "phony", despite the Judge advising that a lawyer would be "most helpful" to him. Then he calls God as a witness, and God appears and takes the stand... Before God's appearance, there's a subversion of the Played for Laughs side of the trope, as the judge threatens to hold Jerry in contempt for the Courtroom Antics of calling God to the stand. |
|
| A Fool for a Client / int_ba63d0a9 | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_ba63d0a9 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c07167c6 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c07167c6 | comment |
In Return to Monkey Island, Stan attempts this (offscreen). Despite actually being a former lawyer himself, it doesn't work out anywhere near as well for him as it did for Guybrush. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c07167c6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c07167c6 | featureConfidence |
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| Return to Monkey Island (Video Game) | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_c07167c6 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c1818304 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c1818304 | comment |
Robert Kearns defends himself in Flash of Genius in his 1980 lawsuit against Ford, which ends with $10.1 million in damages after his attorney Gregory Lawson (Alan Alda) withdraws from the suit. He then sues Chrysler in 1992, receiving $18.7 million. In Real Life, he was represented by Gregory Lawson in the suit against Ford but did represent himself against Chrysler. It's possible this was changed to have a scene where he examines himself on the witness stand in homage to the King of the Hill episode below. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c1818304 | featureApplicability |
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| A Fool for a Client / int_c1818304 | featureConfidence |
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| Flash Of Genius | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_c1818304 | |
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A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c26ebc0b | comment |
Rodney Alcala, the Dating Game Killer, represented himself at his third trial. He only bothered defending himself against one of the five murders he was charged with and didn't even do a good job of that, cross-examining himself in a low monotone for five hours and at one point playing "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie in an attempt to demonstrate that he was insane like the guy in the song. He was convicted on all charges. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c26ebc0b | featureApplicability |
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| A Fool for a Client / int_c26ebc0b | featureConfidence |
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A Fool for a Client / int_c26ebc0b | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c3c457a1 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c3c457a1 | comment |
Fracture: Ted Crawford decides to represent himself in an attempted murder trial, and he does it very effectively. He manages to get himself acquitted despite a signed confession, a murder weapon, and motive. The way he was able to do this was that the investigating detective was sleeping with the victim (the killer's wife) making the confession suspect when the detective's testimony of it was undermined, and the murder weapon had never been fired (he had switched it with the detective's weapon as they were identical models). As for motive, without evidence it's useless. This was helped by the fact that the prosecutor had his foot out the door as he was about to get a job at a prestigious law firm and wasn't taking the case very seriously due to the mountain of evidence. Crawford also purposely used an Obfuscating Stupidity angle to appear like an easy win to the haughty and uninterested public prosecutor. When the prosecutor then finds a way to try Crawford for murder, Crawford hires a defense team of 4+ lawyers. He no longer has the tricks available that got him acquitted the first time. Both times rely on Hollywood Law. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_c3c457a1 | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_c3c457a1 | |
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A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_cc1ec7ec | comment |
In the 2011 Daredevil series, this actually becomes attorney Matt Murdock's new business plan. Since Matt Murdock is widely suspected of secretly being Daredevil, it becomes difficult for him to represent clients effectively. So he and his partner Foggy Nelson start a new business — coaching clients who can't afford or don't want to hire counsel to effectively represent themselves in court. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_cc1ec7ec | featureApplicability |
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| A Fool for a Client / int_cc1ec7ec | featureConfidence |
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| Daredevil / Comicbook | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_cc1ec7ec | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_dc758f58 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_dc758f58 | comment |
Ace Attorney (2016) discusses this in the "Turnabout Sisters" arc, with the Judge, incredulous that Phoenix would act as his own defense attorney, asking who will represent Phoenix now that he's been accused of the crime, and Phoenix points out that he's an attorney. The judge asks if Phoenix is sure about this, and Phoenix says yes. Though, as pointed out in the visual novels folder, it's not like Phoenix had much of a choice, since Redd White, the guy currently framing him, had most of the court system under his thumb and would've made sure that Phoenix couldn't get fair representation. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_dc758f58 | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_dc758f58 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_dd3fe595 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_dd3fe595 | comment |
Seen in Atlas Shrugged when Hank Rearden defended himself in a non-judicial hearing for violating government restrictions on the sale of Rearden Metal. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_dd3fe595 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_dd3fe595 | featureConfidence |
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| Atlas Shrugged | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_dd3fe595 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_dee6ab5b | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_dee6ab5b | comment |
In the first Serge Storms novel, a high school student represents himself and his friends on drunk driving and possession of alcohol charges, despite having never once even looked at a law book before getting arrested. He succeeds in getting them all off on a technicality and grows up to be a DA. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_dee6ab5b | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_dee6ab5b | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_df7a30e1 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_df7a30e1 | comment |
The Addams Family: "They say a man who represents himself has a fool for a client. Well, with God as my witness, I am that fool!". We then cut to Gomez losing the case.note A certain amount of Hollywood Law comes into this, as when he is next shown losing the case, we see that the judge is his next-door neighbor who hates him, even gleefully emptying a bucket full of golf balls Gomez has knocked into the judge's home for years on Gomez's lap as he passes sentence. A judge who was a neighbor of anyone involved in a court case would not be allowed to oversee that case, regardless of whether they were enemies, friends, or anywhere in between. | |
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A Fool for a Client / int_df7a30e1 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_e5c5bc22 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_e5c5bc22 | comment |
In GURPS, defending yourself in court is problematic for two reasons. One, depending on the campaign and your character plans, you probably won't be trained in the Law skill, while the opposition almost certainly will be. Two, even if you conveniently are trained in Law, anyone trying to defend themselves with the Law Skill in an official legal capacity suffers an inherent -3 penalty to their skill roll. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_e5c5bc22 | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_e5c5bc22 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_e5feb1e | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_e5feb1e | comment |
Obviously, Ace Attorney has had this. For the most part, however, the client is also a lawyer trained in criminal law (with experience in first-degree murder cases), at a criminal-law trial involving first-degree murder. To wit, in the final part of Case 2 of the first game, the defendant's role is switched from Maya to Phoenix, due to a false accusation. He knows it's a terrible position to be in, but it's his only option; Redd White used his connections to make sure no defense lawyer in town would want to help him, even going so far as to suggest that the state-appointed lawyer Phoenix would get would be so incompetent that Phoenix would look good by comparison. Then he succeeds anyway, though it helps that Phoenix is a trained (albeit novice) defense attorney. In Case 1-4, Edgeworth was going to do this, but thankfully, Phoenix essentially forces his old childhood friend to let him represent Edgeworth in court. It also happens in Ace Attorney Investigations, though there's no trial here: Edgeworth has to clear his own name in Case 2, where he faces the stewardess Rhoda Teneiro to convince her to release him and allow him to examine the rest of the airplane to find the true culprit. And do the same thing when Franziska enters the investigation. In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, Athena Cykes indirectly plays this role in Case 5, in which she is accused of murdering Clay Terran (the victim in the previous case and Apollo's Childhood Friend, which results in the latter's brief Face–Heel Turn for two cases) and her own mother. Phoenix Wright is still the main defense attorney but she goes to the assistant side in both defending Simon Blackquill and confronting Fulbright, who is guilty of both murders. The Judge reminds her to go back to the defendant seat after it is all over. In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, both Ahlbi Ur'gaid and Maya Fey, the defendants of the first and third trials, respectively, initially try to refuse Phoenix's offer to defend them in court in the Kingdom of Khura'in. Neither of them believes they can win an acquittal on their own, but Ahlbi doesn't trust lawyers due to his country's prejudice against lawyers, while Maya (who's friends with Phoenix and knows what he can do) doesn't want Phoenix to suffer under the Defense Culpability Act, which gives lawyers their clients' punishments. Phoenix ultimately convinces them to trust him and wins their cases. Also from Spirit of Justice, Dhurke, a famous lawyer, defended himself in court when he was accused of assassinating Amara, the queen of Khura'in and his wife. Dhurke won, but Ga'ran accused him of forging evidence, forcing him to go into hiding and start the Defiant Dragons' revolutionary movement to overthrow Ga'ran and change Khura'in. The Great Ace Attorney has Ryunosuke as this in the first case. Bonus points for not even being a lawyer yet at the time. Of course, he had the help of his best friend, Kazuma Asogi, who originally planned to defend Ryunosuke in court. However, Kazuma doing so would have come with the risk of losing the opportunity to study in Great Britain, which is why Ryunosuke chose to be his own defense. Kazuma surmises that Professor Yujin Mikotoba, who'd told Ryunosuke to announce that he was defending himself, made that decision with the expectation that doing so would eliminate the possible risk for Kazuma while still allowing Kazuma to offer his guidance to Ryunosuke. |
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| A Fool for a Client / int_e5feb1e | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_e5feb1e | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_f67568bb | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_f67568bb | comment |
Batman: Dark Victory: Harvey Dent represents himself when he's on trial for the Hangman killings. The prosecution objects because he's not even sane enough to confirm his own identity. It turns out to be part of a ploy to steal the evidence and escape the court. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_f67568bb | featureApplicability |
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| A Fool for a Client / int_f67568bb | featureConfidence |
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| Batman: Dark Victory (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_f67568bb | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_f72ec4f4 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_f72ec4f4 | comment |
Fielding Mellish does this in Bananas. His self-cross-examination is actually one of the less absurd scenes in this movie — except for the fact he's his own hostile witness. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_f72ec4f4 | featureApplicability |
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A Fool for a Client / int_f72ec4f4 | |
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A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_f74b5f80 | comment |
In the third book in the Babylon 5 PsiCorps trilogy, Bester defends himself in a war crimes trial. His closing statement actually gets an ovation. While he doesn't get himself completely off the hook, his sentence is reduced from death to life in prison while on sleeper (telepathic suppression) drugs. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_f74b5f80 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_f74b5f80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
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A Fool for a Client / int_f74b5f80 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_fe81f69 | type |
A Fool for a Client | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_fe81f69 | comment |
Legend Quest: Played with in "Jersey Devil". The protagonists are accused of witchcraft. Don Andrés, one of their own, represents them. | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_fe81f69 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| A Fool for a Client / int_fe81f69 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Legend Quest | hasFeature |
A Fool for a Client / int_fe81f69 |
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