'Pro se' means representing yourself in court without an attorney. It's a constitutional right in most civil matters, and plenty of people do it — but courts hold pro se litigants to the same procedural and formatting rules as licensed attorneys.
Procedure is the biggest risk, not the law
Most pro se cases don't go wrong because the person's underlying argument was weak — they go wrong because of a missed deadline, an improperly served document, or a filing that didn't follow the court's formatting rules and got rejected or ignored.
Know your court's local rules before you file anything
Every court — and often every individual judge — has formatting and procedural rules beyond the general rules of civil procedure. Page limits, caption formats, and required certificates of service are easy to get wrong and easy for opposing counsel to challenge.
Deadlines don't bend
Response deadlines to motions, discovery, and filings are typically fixed by rule, not by the judge's discretion. Calendar every deadline the moment you're served with something, and assume there's no grace period.
Where support actually helps
You don't need to hand your whole case to someone else to get help with the parts that trip people up most — making sure a filing is formatted correctly, that the right documents are attached, and that the language says what you actually mean.