I won a £700 claim against a second hand car dealer for selling me a car with a brokenx clutch. It took a bit of work, and there were almost a year waiting time to see a judge, but any expense incurred can be added to the claim. It was a very clear cut case and the judge very clearly explained the process and asked the questions based on the evidence submitted before hand. It was actually a relatively smooth process. The fees came to something like £100 which was added to the claim (had I lost, that would have been non-recoverable)
When the government is suing you as is in criminal courts it is a 8000 pound gorilla, with all resources of state that also runs and pays for every parts of the criminal justice systems, the courts, law enforcement,prison system, prosecution and even your defense lawyer[1] .
The system is not designed to be compassionate or fair or even efficient. You are fighting for your freedom or even life, for everyone in the process else it is just another file they need to move. You get caught in it, no matter if you are found guilty or innocent your life will be altered by the ordeal.
---
Civil courts are not like that. Small claims or otherwise, the government is only involved in judging and enforcing the judgements they get paid in fees no matter who wins.
Fighting a large corporation with some protections government system affords (like discovery, precedents, torts, small claims etc) is better in most countries where government is indifferent[2] towards the large Co wining or losing, than fighting the same corp via arbitration managed by a entity who gets bulk of their revenue from large Co.
You are still disadvantaged because Large Co can expend thousands of hours of lawyer time and you don't have the same luxury. It is still better than when the "neutral" third party is being paid by one large Co in your case and thousand other cases they give them as business.
---
[1] when you cannot afford one, which is lot of us most of the time.
[2] American criminal justice system is pro business. This is effect of no limits to corporate money allowed in politics and many judicial selections only by election and not appointment, i.e. judges are also politicians who need to fund election campaigns. Even with these disadvantages, they are not as directly being compensated as in arbitration.
While your chances of winning are lower without a lawyer, they’re nowhere near what you’d see on an episode of Suits. It’s more akin to what you’d see on Judge Judy without the cameras and irritating preaching from a judge.
