A family court judge bent on disposing of one of his oldest cases wrongly rushed a litigant who had just fired his lawyer to try his case pro se, rather than giving him to time to hire a new one, a state appeals court held on Thursday.

The litigant "had a due process right to be represented by counsel if he wished" and "suffered substantial prejudice as a result of representing himself," the Appellate Division said in Olszewski v. Olszewski, A-2000-11.