Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have once said, “He who represents himself has a fool for a client.” That legal adage is precisely the subject of this week’s episode of Bull. Jules Caffrey is an accomplished defense attorney, renowned for successfully representing celebrity clients facing sticky criminal charges. After his fiancée is brutally murdered, however, he is the one on trial. Dr. Bull is roped into working with Caffrey, and thinks him innocent. Considering Caffrey’s fame and gregarious trial presence, Dr. Bull decides that the best strategy is for Caffrey to represent himself.
The Supreme Court and others have readily recognized that the Constitution and certain statutes protect a person’s right to represent themself in both criminal and civil proceedings. Usually, though, litigants only resort to self-representation because they cannot afford a lawyer, cannot find a lawyer to take what is likely a non-case, or because they think that their appointed lawyer is inadequate in some way. It is incredibly rare for any litigant—especially one with any formal legal training and good sense—to affirmatively choose to represent themself as part of a trial strategy. To do so would indeed be foolish.
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