According to the Wall Street Journal, the high cost of legal representation is forcing people to represent themselves in court. The Ohio personal injury and medical malpractice lawyers believe that this under-representation will prevent individuals from getting the compensation they deserve.

Declaring bankruptcy, fighting foreclosure, medical malpractice and litigating employment funds are all high-cost cases, but this is no reason to do it alone. Legal experts find that people are losing claims and paying penalties that they could have otherwise avoided if they had the representation of a lawyer. In regards to Dave’s post, here at Elk & Elk, we believe that it is our obligation as personal injury and medical malpractice lawyers to provide litigants with the evidence that can give our clients an advantage in a legal proceeding.

In one case, a 32-year-old client from N.Y. fought an eviction notice that claimed she owed nearly $3,000. She has been looking for work since Oct. and stated that she could handle the case alone. She was also unaware of how to obtain free legal aid in the first place.

According to Raymond Brescia, professor at Albany Law School, “People will gather information from the Internet, from friends or leaflets at a courthouse, but when they get to the court, they realize they don’t have the first idea of what’s happening.”

Legal representation can be expensive and some lawyers have even raised their costs. This is a growing problem for the lower and middle class. In addition, the Legal Aid Society in N.Y.C, which provides legal aid to individuals near the poverty line, lost nearly $2M this year from its budget of about $30M.

According to the American Bar Association, 60 percent of state judges nationwide reported increases in the number of litigants who represented themselves last year in court, and according to the association, there is a duty for the bar to protect individuals from unethical and inadequate representation.