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  By Ian Austen. [New York Times: Arts]

After defending himself, U. S. Rep. James Traficant has been convicted of federal crimes.

Who represents herself has a fool for a lawyer —this proverb is offered as received wisdom. However, the fact is that Rep. Traficant had defended himself successfully twice before. I have successfully defended a civil case pro se (that's Latin for "for self" and means "without lawyer") before district (not small claims) court, in Texas. I am not a lawyer. I won the case. After losing, the plaintiff's lawyer, shocked, outraged, followed me out of the courtroom, yelling, "You can't do this!" I didn't look back to see the expression on the judge's face—I guess he was amused.

I think that, instead of citing that dumb proverb, the matter ought to be examined.

The first risk inherent to a pro se pleading is that it suggests contempt for a system of which the jurors consider themselves (not unreasonably) as the most important actors. That means that in addition to doing all the lawyering, one has an additional burden, to win the sympathy of the jurors.

Building new capital is always cheaper than recovering old capital which has been lost.