Pro Se Pains

Gah, I hate pro se plaintiffs. They flaunt the rules, enforce the ones they choose, get away with not following the ones they don't like. You can't call them up and ask for reasonable extensions, because they aren't reasonable. You can't file motions against them because they just plead "poor me, I have no attorney" to the judge and get away with their vague and incomplete answers to discovery. You are left with no choice but to take their deposition, where they make your life even more difficult by claiming not to understand your questions, or just outright refusing to answer. Sure you can file a motion for that, but then you're forced to retake the deposition.

Its not quite as bad in federal court, you can arrange to have a magistrate sit in on the deposition to make instant rulings and force the plaintiff to answer. The judges are also a lot more likely to grant summary judgment motions, even if the plaintiff could make an argument for his case, but due to his lack of attorney, he doesn't. State court is much more forgiving to pro se plaintiffs and bend over backward. State court judges deny clearly meritorious motions because they too don't want the pro se plaintiff filing even more documents. More often than not, their settlement demands are outrageous, they refuse to see reason and ultimately the client has to pay a ton of money in attorneys fees to either win at summary judgment (if lucky) or at trial. Yeah, its nice to have good billing time, but the headache these plaintiffs put one through, its not worth it.

All in all, pro se plaintiffs are a PITA in every sense of the word. They really should get a clue when they can't find even a sleaze-ball attorney to represent them.