epitome

I have never lost a lawsuit and have never used a lawyer.

I used to end up in court a lot on landlord/tenant issues when I was a property manager...mostly suing people because they didn't pay their rent or because they were trying to fit 15 people into a 2 bedroom house. The rent court is a different type of court and much more informal. I had to do some regular cases in front of a regular judge in accordance with regular procedures. It's a relatively straight forward process. As long as you are armed with facts and show the judge respect, they will happily guide you through the hearing. We are allowed to represent ourselves in court. I'm surprised more people don't do that. Lawyers do not scare me when I have done nothing wrong and have the facts to back me up.

That's civil. If I were to end up in criminal court (hasn't happened yet, knock on wood), then I'd lawyer up because I'd be squaring off against the state.

EDIT: Well I have had two speeding cases and one for doing a rolling stop ... but that's you against the cop. I got PBJ on those because they were far enough apart to show that I'm a mostly good driver.