I have always wondered when looking up terms in dictionaries and found a single term as an equivalent for the term sought, e.g. pro se: without legal counsel, is it all I need to know about it?
I had the feeling that legal terms exist not in isolation, but in context, linked to other terms, synonyms and existing in typical sentence patters.
Let’s see some synonyms and typical sentence patterms in this topic (acting w/ or w/o legal counsel in a court action):
>Person with representation
1 representative
person + act / serve + as representative + for / of person
person + act + in capacity + of representative + for / of person
person + act / sue + in representative + capacity + on behalf of person
2 represent
person + represent + person
person + is represented + by person
>Person without representation
3 pro se person + act + pro se person + act + in pro se + capacity
The book entitled ”A Practical Guide to English for Law” describes legal terms this way, by presenting synonyms, typical sentence patterns for the terms. I am confident that the above decription nicely reflects the expertise of native professionals in relation to this topic. Small wonder that the Oxford Law Professor having written a preface to the book acknowledged it as being a masterly work.