Before You Represent Yourself Against Midland Funding, Consider This…

Recently I met with a great woman who had been battling hard against junk debt buyer Midland Funding here in an Arizona court. Her preparation was more than adequate – she had a three-inch three-ring binder with all of her research, motions, and trial notes organized like she had been trying cases all her life.

The day of trial arrived. She was on time, prepared, and ready to take it to the junk debt buyer. The result?

She lost.

I really felt for her. She had put her life on hold for the last eight months while she researched not only Arizona law but neighboring states in hopes of finding the perfect arguments to use against Midland Funding.

She confided in me that while she new the arguments and the law cold, she simply didn’t know how to present the information at trial and wasn’t sure what the procedure was to object to the admission of documents. In the end, this cost her the case.

If you have ever been involved in legal proceedings, and especially if you represented yourself, you know how exhausting the experience can be. It can consume every free moment you have.

One of the big benefits to hiring a lawyer to represent you in your junk debt buyer case is that your lawyer can carry the burden for you.

And not just that. A lawyer does this day in and day out. A lawyer knows the arguments, how they are to be presented, and the finer points of what it takes to win a case at trial.

A friend of mine likes to try and fix his own car when it needs repairs. He is an attorney like me, however he enjoys jumping on Youtube to see if there is a video that can show him how the repair is done.

Usually these home-done repairs take hours longer than needed and often eventually require a trip to the mechanic’s shop anyways. My father and brother are both mechanics. I have spent enough time at their shop to know that their knowledge far exceeds anything you will find on Youtube. They have years of working on engines each and every day. This is what they do. They are competent at it and if I need the job done right, I take it to them – professional mechanics.

It is very similar when it comes to representing yourself in court. You can read up on the law, watch videos on procedure, but at the end of the day it is simply difficult to represent yourself. Further, I have personally witnessed that people who represent themselves tend to end up with bad rulings. Bad rulings on their objections to evidence and often their arguments, though valid, are not taken seriously.

I understand that many people who are sued by debt collectors are not in a position to pay large sums of money to an attorney. But most consumer protection attorneys like myself are aware of that and often have alternative billing practices. Go in for a free consultation. Find out how strong your case is, and, if you can swing it, get an attorney on board. It always helps to have a professional in your corner.