Self-Help Model

Suing well is the best revenge

If you really want to get even, get a lawyer. Despite that standard advice against representing oneself in court, Mia Lancaster could find no lawyer whom she thought willing and able to press her charges against her former boyfriend. So she argued her own case. A Manhattan jury was impressed: it awarded her more than $1 million, which, so far as court house buffs could recall, seemed to be the largest damages ever won by someone representing himself.

Presiding Judge Joseph Modugno was impressed too. Said the judge: "A remarkable achievement."

Lancaster, 28, was suing Tyrone Kinder, 38, who she says promised to marry her. Instead, Lancaster testified, he absconded with the young model's $11,000 life savings and other personal property, including her modeling portfolio. In 1975 she dis covered that Kindor had invested some of her money in the modeling career of Margaux Hemingway. Lancaster began trying to get her money back. Kinder responded by filing what she claimed were false charges of assault against her. She was arrested in the middle of a modeling assignment, and though she was acquitted, her career fell into tatters. Moreover, because of Kindor's earlier treatment of her, she told the court, she became emaciated, contracted acne, lost hair and developed emotional problems that "bordered on insanity."

Lancaster tried a variety of lawyers but was dissatisfied. In fact, she unsuccessfully brought complaints against three of them with the American Bar Association for alleged malpractice. After working briefly as a legal secretary, which she says taught her nothing about the law, Lancaster read an evidence textbook and compiled countless bulging gray folders of correspondence, depositions and affidavits.

In court, she argued that Kindor was guilty of malicious prosecution for having her arrested. The jury awarded her $ 1 million for that charge and $21,000 for the loss of her property and savings. Her obsession has yet to pay off in cash, of course, since an appeal is probable. Nevertheless, Lancaster is so pleased with her performance that she has applied to New York's highest court for permission to take the bar exam without going to law school.

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