Bad Ideas, Pro Se Litigants

Judge: Lawyer's Pro Se Criminal Defense So Awful He Could Sue Himself For Ineffective Assistance

A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.

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Robert Gold-Smith

Robert Gold-Smith

You have to realize that you did an absolutely terrible job representing yourself. If I want a will or a real estate deal you might be the best attorney in the state of Illinois, but you’re a terrible trial lawyer.

If I told you I needed heart surgery, you’d refer me to a gynecologist. You’d say what’s the difference, they’re both doctors. If you could sue yourself for ineffective assistance [of counsel], you’d have a dead-bang winner.

If you’d sat there, shut up and kept quiet, maybe – just maybe – my decision would’ve been different, but every hole that was in their case – you filled in.

— Judge Daniel Rozak of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit Court of Will County, Illinois, offering former bankruptcy attorney Robert Gold-Smith a rather frank assessment of his pro-se criminal-defense skills, saying the lawyer was “not only ineffective, you’re inept.” At trial, Gold-Smith was convicted of solicitation of murder after offering to pay prison inmates to kill his wife. Judge Rozak went on to say that because the government had a weak case, Gold-Smith’s damaging self-representation was “the best thing the state had going for it.” Gold-Smith will be representing himself in an appeal.

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