Question

1. If you were asked to give legal advice to a defendant wanting to represent themselves, what advice would you give?

for cja 112

Answer 1

The legal advice would be that the defendants cannot represent themselves unless the judge determines that they are enough competent to do so. The community has an interest in achieving justice and the trial in which the defendant self-represents is not a fair one.

The judge can weigh the competence of the defendant based on the following factors:

· The age of the defendant

· The level of education of the defendant

· Familiarity with the English language

· Seriousness of the crime that the defendant had committed

The defendant doesn’t need to require the skills of the professional lawyer for qualifying the self-representation. As long as the defendant knows that the right to an attorney and very well understand the proceeding of the court he can self-represent himself.

Lastly, the judge also has the power to decide whether the defendant is competent mentally for stand trial but not competent enough for representing himself.