Likelihood of Success: "Even a monkey could do this!"

Or could it?

The key to evaluating the likelihood of the "benefit" side of our "cost-benefit analysis" is to make an informed decision. You need to be able to ask yourself questions about your case and somehow have enough information to make a guess as to your chance of winning, without feeling like you're guessing blindly. You may not be able to do that- if not, get ye to a lawyer.

Thinking practically, I'll continue to use the examples from the prior posts. If you have a $500 lawsuit, and you know very well that your adversary is full of it (and you have faith the Judge will agree), then where's your incentive to hire a lawyer? On the other hand, if there's $1,000,000 at stake, how sure do you want to be before you're willing to go it alone? More pressingly, could you ever be sure enough to gamble a large sum of money (or, in the example of a criminal case, your freedom) on the outcome? Probably not.