There are two rules for getting treated fairly in the court system. The first rule is that you need someone to act like a scoundrel to advocate for you. The second rule is that you can't act like a scoundrel. There is a famous saying: "someone who chooses to represent himself in court has a fool for a client." That's the reason this saying exists.
It may sound crazy, but a person who chooses to represent themselves actually has a conflict of interest. They have an internal contradiction in how they need to act in order to pursue fair treatment.