Pro Bono Jury Trials for Self-Represented Litigants

Early screening and an engagement are different. You may submit a written inquiry before the final pretrial window so the firm can screen the basic facts, but this program never takes over the case early. If a case is accepted, the engagement operates only in the narrow final period described below.

If your California civil case is set for a jury trial, you have been prosecuting it yourself in propria persona (“pro se” — without an attorney), and the court’s mandatory settlement conference has come and gone without a settlement, we will consider substituting in as your attorney of record for one limited purpose: to prepare over the final weekend and try your case to the jury, through verdict. No attorney’s fee is charged for that work.

This is a public-service program of a Board-Certified civil trial practice. It exists because jury trials are the craft of this office, and because people who have carried a case to trial alone deserve one fair shot at having it tried well. It is not a volume service. We are very selective and most inquiries will be declined; acceptance is subject to the criteria below, conflict checks, the firm’s capacity and professional judgment — and is ultimately the firm’s decision.

1. A California civil case, set for a jury trial. A jury trial — not a court (bench) trial, and not an arbitration. You must have already demanded the jury and already paid the advance jury fees (Code of Civil Procedure § 631) — the right can be lost in several ways, and we verify the jury posture from the court’s docket. If the jury has been waived, there is nothing for us to try to a jury, and the program does not apply.
2. You are the plaintiff, representing yourself. The program is for people currently prosecuting their own case in propria persona.
3. The mandatory settlement conference has already failed. We will accept and enter a case only after the parties have been to the MSC and did not settle. We may conduct preliminary factual screening before then, but screening is not acceptance or an engagement.
4. The applicable pre-trial document deadline has not passed — and is at least five days away. A trial order, local rules, or other court instructions may set dates to file and serve such materials as the trial brief, motions in limine, jury instructions, verdict forms, and witness and exhibit lists. Whatever dates govern your case must still be open, and we must be retained at least five days before the applicable deadline, so there is time to prepare, file, and serve the required documents. That five-day interval is this firm’s acceptance criterion, not a universal California filing deadline. If an applicable deadline has already passed before an engagement is formed, we will almost certainly be unable to take the case — a last-minute substitution cannot cure a missed deadline. We may screen an inquiry earlier, but we take the case on, if at all, only in this final stretch. We are not offering to litigate your case; we are offering to try it.
5. The case is small. Small means the whole of it can genuinely be prepared in a matter of days — the court-required pre-trial documents within the five days after we step in, and the rest of the trial preparation, exhibits, and witness examinations over the single weekend before trial begins (typically a Monday start). As a rule of thumb: a trial expected to run about one to three days, a short witness list, and a manageable set of exhibits. If your case needs more preparation than that, it is not a fit for this program.
6. Your trial subpoenas are already served. Before an engagement, you must have served every trial subpoena your case needs — for each witness you want on the stand, for any records or materials you are requesting for trial (subpoenas duces tecum), and for foundational witnesses such as custodians of records. The offered scope does not include serving or curing trial subpoenas. The firm accepts only a matter it reasonably determines can be tried competently and diligently with those tasks excluded.

If we accept your case, the representation is a limited-scope engagement, set out in a written agreement you sign before we appear. Here is exactly how it works:

• We substitute in for trial. You and Attorney Milligan sign a substitution of attorney making him your attorney of record, filed with the court, solely so the jury trial can be conducted by counsel.
• How the limited appearance is completed. The agreed services cover the trial setting then scheduled through verdict or another conclusion of that setting. If that trial concludes or is continued, the firm will promptly file a then-effective signed substitution or seek relief through the applicable court procedure. The firm remains counsel of record until the substitution or relief order is filed, served, and effective, and will take reasonable steps required to avoid reasonably foreseeable prejudice. A continuance does not automatically add the new date, and any further representation requires a new written agreement.
• What we do: once retained, we promptly prepare, file, and serve the pre-trial documents your court requires — the trial brief, motions in limine, jury instructions and verdict forms, and witness and exhibit lists — by the deadline in your court’s trial order and local rules. (This is why we must be retained at least five days before that deadline.) Over the weekend before trial we complete the trial preparation from the file you provide — exhibits and witness examinations — and then we conduct the jury trial itself: jury selection, opening statement, the examination of witnesses, closing argument, through jury verdict. Pre-trial documents prepared after we substitute in, and motions made during trial itself, are included.
• What the offered scope excludes: discovery or discovery motions; serving or curing trial subpoenas; dispositive motions and other pretrial law-and-motion work; seeking a continuance to repair the case; settlement negotiation (if an offer arrives, we relay it promptly and the decision is yours alone); post-trial motions; cost memoranda; enforcement; and appeal. The program does not promise a full case workup or automatic cure of earlier problems. The written engagement identifies who is responsible for excluded work and deadlines, subject to the firm’s continuing professional duties and any court order while counsel remains of record.
• Screening is not acceptance. Before the mandatory settlement conference, the firm may review a written inquiry only to decide whether the matter may fit the program. The firm may decline before an engagement is signed. If it accepts, it does so through a written limited-scope agreement signed by you and the firm, and it becomes counsel of record only when its substitution is filed. The firm will not file that substitution until the agreed onboarding conditions are met, including jury fees posted, the court reporter arranged and paid, and proof that trial subpoenas were served.
• Material changes require reassessment. The firm accepts only a matter it reasonably determines can be tried competently and diligently within the agreed scope. If circumstances materially change after the firm appears, the firm will consult you and comply with its professional duties and applicable court procedures. A material change does not automatically expand the engagement to excluded work; the firm may seek withdrawal or other appropriate relief and remains counsel of record until that relief is effective.

Understand what stepping in at the last minute means. By the time we appear, your case has already been shaped — by how discovery was or was not done, by the motions that were brought, won, and lost, and by the rulings the court has already made. We had no control over any of that, and on the eve of trial, most of it cannot be changed. Some of it may seriously limit what can be presented or recovered at trial.

Concretely, and among other things: expert testimony may be excluded when the predicates of Code of Civil Procedure § 2034.300 are met; documents and witnesses not disclosed or produced in discovery may be excluded; admissions and prior rulings may materially limit the trial. Seeking relief from those earlier problems is outside the offered scope, and the program does not promise to cure them or conduct a full case workup. The firm will accept only a matter it reasonably determines can be tried competently and diligently within that scope. If a material problem emerges after the firm appears, the firm will consult the client and comply with its professional duties and applicable court procedures.

Adverse cost exposure is also yours. A losing party generally owes the winning party’s allowable costs (Code of Civil Procedure § 1032), and if you rejected a statutory settlement offer (Code of Civil Procedure § 998) and do not beat it at trial, you can owe the defendant’s post-offer costs and, in the court’s discretion, their expert-witness fees. Those consequences flow from decisions made before we appeared, and they belong to you. Settlement decisions are yours alone: if any offer is made before or during trial, we will promptly relay it, but whether to accept it is solely your decision.

If we take your case, our commitment is this: we will do the best we can with the case as it exists — prepare it over that weekend, with the evidence that is actually available and admissible, and try it to the jury with the full skill of this office. That is the whole commitment. No outcome is promised, predicted, or implied. Jury trials are inherently uncertain, and a case that arrives with problems keeps its problems.

The written engagement will explain that the firm is entering for a limited trial assignment, did not control the earlier litigation, and promises no verdict. It will also record the client’s informed consent to a scope the firm reasonably determines it can perform competently and diligently. The agreed scope does not override the firm’s professional duties, duties imposed by the court, or the need to reassess material changed circumstances after the firm appears.

This program does not include seeking a continuance to repair the case, serving or curing trial subpoenas, seeking expert-designation relief, reopening discovery, or repairing earlier litigation. The firm accepts only a matter it reasonably determines can be tried competently and diligently with those tasks excluded, and the written engagement records the client’s informed consent to that scope.

If circumstances materially change after the firm appears, the firm will consult the client and comply with its professional duties and applicable court procedures. A material change does not automatically expand the engagement to excluded work or a full case workup; the firm may seek withdrawal or other appropriate relief. The agreed scope and any advance client instruction do not override duties of competence, diligence, communication, or duties imposed by the court.

If your case already needs excluded repair work, this program is not a fit. Before any engagement, consider retaining full-service counsel (the State Bar of California’s Lawyer Referral Services, (866) 442-2529, can connect you with one), seeking appropriate relief while you remain self-represented, or continuing to represent yourself. The firm may decline any matter before an engagement is signed.

The point of this program is the jury trial. It is not a device to make the other side offer more money, and we do not lend this firm’s appearance as negotiating leverage. If your real goal is a better settlement, do not apply. Your inquiry must summarize nonconfidential settlement status — whether the mandatory settlement conference concluded without settlement, and the last demand and offer only if those amounts are not confidential — and confirm that your intention is to try the case to a verdict. Inquiries that appear aimed at leverage rather than trial will be declined, and acceptance is conditioned on that stated intention.

Before an engagement is signed, cases that are already close to settlement will be declined. If your last demand and the last offer are within striking distance of each other, or a statutory offer (Code of Civil Procedure § 998) is pending, this program is the wrong vehicle and the answer will be no. If the settlement posture materially changes after an engagement begins, the firm will consult the client and comply with its professional duties; the change does not by itself end the representation.

To be equally clear about your rights: the decision to settle always belongs to you, the client, at every stage. If an offer arrives after we appear, we will relay it promptly and the choice will be yours alone. If you settle, the scheduled trial work ends, but the firm will complete the limited representation and any required transition under applicable court procedure. Settlement does not by itself make an unfinished withdrawal effective.

If we accept your case, we charge no attorney’s fee for the trial. Costs are a different thing, and they are all yours: every cost of the case and the trial — jury fees and mileage (including the daily jury fees during trial), court-reporter fees, witness fees, exhibit preparation, and similar charges — is, and remains, your responsibility as the party. This office does not pay or advance any costs. Two deserve special mention: your jury fees must already be paid (part of keeping your jury right intact), and you must arrange and pay in advance for a court reporter to report the trial proceedings. (A court-granted fee waiver, if you have one, is between you and the court.) The written engagement will confirm all of this before we appear.

Inquiries for this program are accepted in writing only. Please do not call about this program — it cannot be evaluated over the phone, and the office cannot take program inquiries or give status updates by phone. Use the contact form, and put “PRO BONO TRIAL” at the start of your message.

You may contact us before the mandatory settlement conference for preliminary factual screening, or promptly after the conference fails. To be accepted for an engagement, the MSC must have failed and the firm must be retained at least five days before the applicable pre-trial document deadline. That five-day interval is the firm’s acceptance requirement, not a universal California filing deadline; the actual dates governing your case come from the applicable court orders, rules, and instructions. An early inquiry does not by itself reserve the firm, guarantee later review or acceptance, begin an engagement, protect any deadline, or start a full case workup. Include:

• Your county, court, case number, and trial date;
• Confirmation that the case is set for a jury trial and that your jury fees were posted;
• The date and status of your mandatory settlement conference — scheduled, completed, or not yet set — whether it concluded without settlement, plus nonconfidential settlement status — include the last demand and offer only if those amounts are not confidential — and confirmation that your intention is to try the case to a verdict, not to improve an offer;
• Any deadlines to file or serve pre-trial documents in your trial order, local rules, or other court instructions, if known, and whether any exchange has already happened;
• Confirmation that your trial subpoenas have been served — witnesses, records and materials (duces tecum), and foundational witnesses — with proofs of service if you have them;
• Whether a court reporter for the trial has been arranged and paid in advance;
• Whether you designated expert witnesses, and any settlement offers (including Code of Civil Procedure § 998 offers) made, rejected, or still pending;
• A short, plain summary of your claims, the defense, what the case is worth and why, and what work remains before trial;
• How many witnesses and exhibits you expect, and how many days the trial is estimated to take;
• Do not send originals, your entire file, privileged documents, settlement communications, mediation communications, medical records, or your trial strategy — provide only the nonconfidential summary requested above. Do not disclose information covered by a confidentiality obligation. If we are considering the case, we will tell you exactly what to provide.

Submitting an inquiry does not guarantee a response or acceptance. If you do not hear from us, we are unable to take your case, and you will not receive a reply — please continue preparing to try it yourself, and do not wait on this office for anything.