St. Francis Hospital in Chicago fired a surgical tech named Alex Gu for walking out in the middle of a case. Mr. Gu cried foul, saying that the patient wasn't in danger and that the surgeon had given him permission to leave early. Further, Mr. Gu claimed that "the hospital applied its policies differently to him" and that "two of its employees conspired to fire him because he is Chinese" and older than 40, court records show.

So Mr. Gu filed an unfair dismissal case against the hospital. He represented himself in both civil and appellate courts. Twice, the courts dismissed his case because he failed to do the lawyerly things necessary to file a claim. Chalk up a victory for St. Francis, which fired Mr. Gu for "jeopardizing a patient's safety."

As for Mr. Gu, perhaps he should have retained a lawyer. His initial proposal in civil court did not meet the criteria for entering a claim, nor did his subsequent attempts to amend the claim. The civil court dismissed the suit, and Mr. Gu's appeal of the case's dismissal was not met kindly by the appellate court. Mr. Gu was unable to compose a "short and plain statement" of his claims, say court documents. He "did not comply with the court's request that he clarify his claims," which exhibit "the lack of organization and basic coherence [that] renders a complaint too confusing to determine the facts that constitute the alleged wrongful conduct," says the ruling.