What Brief and Stand do, what they cost, what they can't do, and everything in between. If your question isn't here, join the waitlist and ask us directly.
About the Products
Be My Own Attorney is a technology company that builds AI-powered legal research and preparation tools for pro se defendants — people who have waived appointed counsel and are representing themselves in criminal court. We are not a law firm. We do not provide legal advice. We build tools that give defendants the research and preparation infrastructure that well-resourced defendants access through expensive attorneys.
Brief is a pre-trial preparation tool. You upload your case documents and receive charge analysis, judge intelligence, comparable plea outcomes, motion research, and cross-examination frameworks — before court. Stand is a real-time voice AI coaching tool that operates through a discrete earpiece during your actual proceedings. Brief prepares you. Stand supports you in the room.
No. Be My Own Attorney is a technology company. We are not a law firm, we do not provide legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is formed by using this site or its products. See our full legal disclaimer.
We launch in Texas first — JP courts and municipal courts in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin. Brief launches before Stand. Join the waitlist for launch notification and early access pricing.
Misdemeanor cases, JP court and municipal court proceedings, arraignments, plea hearings, and suppression hearings. Class A, B, and C misdemeanors. First Amendment-related charges. Cases where most outcomes are determined before a trial begins. Not designed for complex multi-week felony trials — we are direct about that limit.
The public defender system fails defendants structurally — not because public defenders are bad attorneys, but because caseloads, incentive structures, and institutional exhaustion produce bad outcomes at scale. The criminal justice system works against people without resources. We built tools to close the information gap. Read the full mission page →
Fundamentally different. Generic AI tools don't know your judge, your jurisdiction, or your actual case documents. They hallucinate case citations. Brief analyzes your actual case through a private AI instance with verified legal databases and a live judge intelligence database. Read the full comparison →
Brief and Stand are designed for pro se defendants — people representing themselves. If you have an attorney of record (including a public defender), using AI research tools creates different legal and privilege considerations. Stand in particular is designed exclusively for pro se defendants. If you want to use these tools, going pro se is the starting point.
Your Legal Rights
Yes. The Supreme Court established this in Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975). You have a constitutional right under the Sixth Amendment to waive appointed counsel and represent yourself in a criminal proceeding. Read the full legal analysis →
You file a motion to relieve counsel (if you have an attorney) or inform the court at arraignment that you wish to represent yourself. The court will schedule a Faretta hearing — a formal colloquy to confirm your waiver is knowing and voluntary. After that hearing, you are the attorney of record for your own case.
A Faretta hearing is a formal on-the-record exchange where the judge confirms your decision to waive counsel is knowing, intelligent, and voluntary. The judge will inform you of the risks of self-representation, confirm you understand the charges and potential penalties, and assess whether the waiver is genuine. Required before you can proceed pro se.
Yes. You can file a motion to relieve counsel at any point before trial. Courts may be less accommodating close to a scheduled trial date, but the constitutional right to go pro se cannot be permanently denied.
Pro se is Latin for "for oneself." A pro se defendant is someone who represents themselves in court without an attorney. They are simultaneously the party to the case and their own legal advocate.
Yes, and judges are required to tell you this at a Faretta hearing. The risk scales with case complexity. For a Class C misdemeanor in JP court, the calculus is very different than for a serious felony with significant prison exposure. Brief and Stand exist to reduce the preparation gap that makes self-representation risky.
Brief — Pre-Trial Preparation
Charge analysis (every element the prosecution must prove), judge intelligence (ruling patterns, reversal history, how they've handled similar cases), comparable plea outcomes in your jurisdiction, motion research (suppression analysis, motion to dismiss grounds), cross-examination frameworks, and plea evaluation. All specific to your case documents and jurisdiction.
Police report, arrest report, charges filed, discovery materials, prior case history if relevant, and/or your case number for public records lookup. Brief works with incomplete information — start with what you have and add documents as you receive them.
Built from public records — PACER, state court systems, FOIA responses, news archives, appeals data. Court records, not self-reported data. Texas JP and municipal judges are being seeded for launch. We are transparent about coverage gaps in jurisdictions not yet built out.
Yes. Brief includes Section 1983 analysis for every case where it may apply — elements, applicable circuit precedent, qualified immunity analysis for your jurisdiction, and a federal court filing framework. First Amendment retaliation claims from audit arrests are a specific use case Brief is built for.
Verify before you rely. Brief provides sourcing for its analysis. Verify case citations exist and say what Brief says they say. Check local rules against the court's official website. Use Brief to identify what to research — then verify before acting. This is how all legal research works regardless of the source.
Yes. Your documents are processed through a private AI instance — not a public consumer tool. Your data does not train any model. Not retained beyond your active case period. Encryption in transit and at rest. Read our full privacy page →
Stand — Real-Time Coaching
You speak quietly into your phone and receive a response through a discrete earpiece in seconds. Stand is pre-configured with your case documents, judge profile, and court rules before your date. It responds to what you ask it — in real time, calibrated to your situation.
Stand is designed for pro se defendants who have waived appointed counsel. Courts have distinguished this situation from represented defendants. Stand does not record court proceedings. We provide court-specific device rules with every configuration. This is an evolving legal area and we track developments closely.
Faretta rights attach to defendants who have waived counsel and are representing themselves. A pro se defendant is simultaneously the party and their own advocate — a legally distinct position from a represented defendant receiving outside assistance. Courts have recognized this distinction. We operate within the constitutionally protected use case.
It fits in the ear canal and is designed to look like a hearing aid at conversational distance. Not visually distinguishable from a hearing device at the typical distance between a judge's bench and defendant's position.
JP court, municipal court, arraignments, plea hearings, suppression hearings, and first hearings. Not designed for complex multi-week felony trials.
Minimum two weeks before your court date — for hardware shipping, document upload, case configuration, and testing. Rush options will be available.
You comply. Your Stand configuration includes your court's device rules and what to say if the issue arises. Stand is not worth a contempt citation. Brief preparation before you walk in means you carry foundational case knowledge regardless of connectivity.
No. Stand takes your spoken input and responds based on what you tell it. It does not record the courtroom.
Pricing and Tokens
Access fee plus token credits. No subscription. The access fee covers case setup, document ingestion, judge profile pull, and initial analysis. Token credits are consumed per research request and don't expire. You pay for your case — not ongoing access to a service you don't need between cases. Full pricing details →
No. Token credits do not expire. Buy what you need, use them at the pace your case requires.
Yes. You can purchase additional token credits at any point during your case. Cases develop — new discovery arrives, charges change, hearings get scheduled. You buy more tokens when you need more depth.
They are designed to work together. Brief prepares you before court. Stand supports you in the room. Bundled pricing details will be available at launch.
Refund policy details will be published at launch. Join the waitlist and ask — early waitlist members help shape launch policies.
Privacy and Data
Your documents are processed through a private AI instance. They are not shared with third parties, are not used to train any model, and are not retained beyond your active case period. Full privacy details →
Courts have distinguished between pro se defendants using private AI tools and represented defendants using public consumer AI. We designed specifically for the protected use case — private instance, contractual data protections, no public data pipeline. This is not legal advice; consult the privacy page for the full analysis.
Yes. You can request complete data deletion at any time. The process is described in full on the privacy page.
Case configuration data is retained for your active case period. Documents are deleted after case close. Full retention schedule on the privacy page.
First Amendment Auditors
Yes. The First Amendment auditors page covers your specific legal situation, Section 1983, the JP court environment, and what Stand looks like in a misdemeanor proceeding.
Texas launches first. Join the waitlist and tell us your state — that directly influences which courts we build out next. See the build roadmap →
42 U.S.C. § 1983 is the federal statute allowing you to sue police and government officials for constitutional violations under color of law. Brief includes Section 1983 analysis — elements, circuit precedent, qualified immunity for your jurisdiction — for every applicable case. Read the Section 1983 guide →