Can i represent myself in a German court without a lawyer?
<p>I want to represent myself in german court because I don't have money for a lawyer (i am a student international )
and I also don't know anything about german laws at all</p>
<p>I have many evidence(gmails/WhatsApp/recordings/pictures) against someone who files a false lawsuit against me
so the guy(my landlord) wants me to pay him an amount of money that I don't owe him
I refused of course so he accused me with tons of false stuff without  proof
this guy is known to be a scammer among students and he abuses the law and he did call the police on other students as well  (using vague contracts that he abuses)</p>
<p>let me give you an example:
in the contract, it says that <em><strong>&quot;the landlord has the right to bring a cleaning service when it seems fit&quot;</strong></em> so what he does he find a paper or any small amount of salt on the table he takes a picture and he shows us that the house is dirty so he brings a cleaning service for like 3 hours and he charges every student in the house like 90 euros (there is 10 of us in the house) meaning he made <em><strong>900 euros</strong></em> in one day and he did this like 2 times for no reason although we showed him that the house was clean when we told him and showed him how clean the house was he said <em><strong>&quot;you ARABS will never learn in less we take your money&quot;</strong></em>
and there are many other long examples</p>
<p>so long story short anyone who see my evidence will totally agree with me that I got take advantage of, and they will know that my landlord is a huge scammer
but the problem that I think Germany is a country that doesn't care about logic but rather  <em><strong>laws and the books</strong></em><br />
meaning they can ignore my evidence in a favor of a contract even if it very vague
so all I want to say can I just give my evidence to the court and hope they just accept it?</p>

<h1>Yes and No</h1>
<p>In the lower court (Amtsgericht), yes you can proceed without a lawyer, but for certain cases. In those cases and in the upper courts, you have to have a lawyer. That is called <a href="http://www.rechtslexikon.net/d/anwaltszwang/anwaltszwang.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;Anwaltspflicht&quot; or &quot;Anwaltszwang&quot;</a>.</p>
<p>You need a lawyer whenever the case is in the layers of Landgericht, Oberlandesgericht, Oberstes Landesgericht, Landesverwaltungsgericht, Bundesverwaltungsgericht, and the Bundesgerichtshof - so any court that is at the state or federal level, as regulated in § 78 ZPO. There's a level of damages that automatically puts the Landesgericht in charge of a case, thus mandating a lawyer.</p>
<p>Atop that, you need a lawyer in front of the Lower Amtsgericht if the case is either about family law, or it is a case including a <a href="http://www.rechtslexikon.net/d/verbrechen/verbrechen.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Verbrechen</a> that requires <a href="http://www.rechtslexikon.net/d/notwendige-verteidigung/notwendige-verteidigung.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;Notwendige Verteidigung&quot;</a>. This is regulated in § 140 Abs. 1 StPO (Strafprozessordnung ~ Regulations for the conduction of criminal processes). Another case that demands for a lawyer is if you can be banned from your profession as a result of the case (e.g. medical or judicial personal in some cases), if the Staatsanwalt requests Untersuchungshaft (confinement during investigation) and some more. Also, if a criminal lawsuit - even when not about a Verbrechen - contains a person below 18, that one has to have a lawyer in any case.</p>
<p>Verbrechen here is any crime in the StGB that has a minimum punishment of confinement of at least one year as defined in §12 StgB.</p>
<h1>Endnote</h1>
<p>While allowable, it is not always advisable to proceed with a case yourself and without a lawyer and alone. Especially in rental cases, the local Mieterverein often can assist with legal advice on how to proceed and might have a lawyer on call for such cases. Also as a student, your ASTA might be able to help you free of charge. Both can also help to find either a lawyer with an affordable rate or even help to <em>renegotiate</em> the contract by the weight they hold as interest groups and their expertise (and the ASTA might remove a bad landlord from the list of landlords they suggest to students).</p>

<p>You should apply for a <strong>Beratungshilfeschein</strong> at your local court (<strong>Amtsgericht</strong>), if you cannot afford a lawyer.</p>
<p>See link for list of documents (passport, registration, rent cobtract, financial situation) that you will need to show.</p>
<p>You should collect all relevant information to the case  (as you would when bringing this to a lawyer for the first time), which they will then review. You should be accompanied by someone who speaks German.</p>
<p>After reviewing this they will issue <strong>Beratungshilfeschein</strong>, which will allow you to get advice from a lawyer of your own choice and the court will cover any fees.</p>
<p>The lawyer will then decide how to proceed. Any costs would then be covered by the <strong>Beratungshilfeschein</strong>.</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>Sources</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/326037/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Rechtsangelegenheiten - Beratungshilfe - Dienstleistungen - Service Berlin - Berlin.de</a></li>
</ul>

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