Submission Statement:  Americans barely have access to the legal system that they supposedly are the owners of. Most state courts operate under the thinking that pro-se(self-represented) litigants must be held to the exact same standards as those with attorneys, but in practice the courts actually punish pro-se litigants for mistakes they allow lawyers to make. In practice the courts take the word of attorneys and treat pro-se litigants with more skepticism. I believe this system is designed to not just discourage pro-se litigants, but also to punish people for representing themselves if they do continue forward.

In practice this gives anyone who can afford lawyers a massive leg up on anyone who cannot. It also means that the poor are far more likely to be successful dealing with their civil problems by going outside of the law. Thus is creates crime. One hypothetical neighbor can't handle the other having parties every night that the cops won't do anything about? Probably going to end in violence if they're very poor. Not necessarily murder at any particular time, but someone might get jumped at the very least. Long bitter feuds start like this. This furthers the chaos of society and the rich don't care because they run everything and they love being able to lord over us with lawyers in court. Judges and other court officials are dogs of the rich who themselves live far above the average American. Thusly they have no desire at all to change the system.

For a supposed "representative democracy", the USA excludes most of it's citizens from meaningful access to the system itself(not just the courts). You're allowed in the door, but don't you dare ever think you have a right to be there.

Could they give people better access to the courts? Nope, they are instead pondering letting non-lawyers run law firms and even exploring allowing software to represent people. Don't trust my word on this?

[https://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/governmental\_legislative\_work/publications/washingtonletter/april-26-wl/lsc-what-can-be-done-0426wl/](https://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/governmental_legislative_work/publications/washingtonletter/april-26-wl/lsc-what-can-be-done-0426wl/)

Most Americans have no reasonable access to the civil court system