Can I handle my own legal problems?

Question

Just a general question, it's so expensive to get lawyers these days and my business isn't making any money. I live in Iraq, can I manage my own legal problems such as customer complaints, land laws etc?

Answer 1

I don't know the Iraqi legal system so I can't say whether you are allowed to appear in court without a lawyer. As to whether its a good idea, it depends.

Many Western systems have a "small claims" court (or similar name) which deals with simple low-value cases like collecting payment owed by a customer. The UK limit is £10,000. These systems discourage you from hiring lawyers and try to make the whole thing as simple as possible. If Iraq has something like this then you should go ahead and use it.

Once you get above the small claim level you should get a lawyer. Even if you are allowed to represent yourself its a false economy: a lawyer will know about the steps you have to take, the documents you have to file, deadlines, fees etc. Doing this yourself is like trying to learn chess by reading the rules the day before a game with a Grand Master: the professional lawyer on the other side will always be three steps ahead of you and you will wind up with conversations like this:

You: Here is the evidence that proves I am in the right.

Judge: Its too late to introduce that. You should have included it in your submission to the court last month. You lose. Goodbye.

Answer 2

Just a general question, it's so expensive to get lawyers these days and my business isn't making any money. I live in Iraq, can I manage my own legal problems such as customer complaints, land laws etc?

You can try to manage to start a business without a lawyer, but this is a horrible idea. The odds that your business will fail and that you will lose a great deal of money are increased at least tenfold if not more, by trying to start a significant business without legal advice.

Legal advice is a necessary cost of running a business. While there might be some aspects of the law where you can do it yourself, or learn how to do it once from a lawyer and then continue to do work without legal assistance, in general, if your business is anything of consequence, you need some significant legal counsel about something at some point in the early stages of establishing your business. The exact details will vary by type of business, but there is almost always some legal issue that requires you to get professional guidance if you are going to be successful.

If your business isn't making any money and doesn't have prospects of doing so in the near future, you should close up shop and seek employment from someone else. The whole point of a business is to make money.

If your business needs to endure a period of not making money in a business plan that will eventually cause it to be profitable, you need working capital raised from investors to start it with any prospect of success. Legal fees need to be part of your initial working capital budget, because one of the things you almost surely need legal counsel for is raising working capital for your business. Sometimes, a lawyer can take an interest in your business in exchange for advice offered "in kind" in lieu of a cash payment.

If you don't have the working capital necessary to cover necessary start up expenses like legal fees, license fees, advertising, the costs of payroll until you become profitable, and other operating costs until you become profitable, you should refrain from starting a business at all until you have a way to raise enough start up capital to get you to a point where you can become profitable.