Every lawyer has been confronted with the quandary that comes with settlement demands. If you demand too much, you risk forfeiting your credibility and you might even bring the negotiation process to a crashing halt. That’s not good for your client’s interests. Neither is demanding too little. Somehow, you have to find that “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” amount that’s just right. Pro se litigants, it seems, have no such hesitation.

Take Roderick Jackson of Waskom, Texas, for example. He filed two handwritten complaints against Walmart, purporting to sue the retail giant over an allegedly false allegation of shoplifting at a store in Omaha, Nebraska, in March 2021. Jackson’s demand is for “$100 million in damages or free unlimited shopping at any of its stores for life.” Dare to dream, Roderick—go big or go home!