M
ichael Van Deelen’s home office, on the second floor of his neat two-story house in a north Harris County suburb, sprawls across two studies, each equipped with desks and computers. One contains a library chock full of books, including Black’s Law Dictionary and hefty volumes of state and federal statutes. A sunken room, a few steps down, includes an extra window unit air conditioner and a queen-sized bed, in case Van Deelen gets too hot or too tired writing his latest legal brief.
Van Deelen is no lawyer, but he’s an experienced pro se litigant who’s filed and represented himself in plenty of lawsuits. As a result, he told the Texas Observer in a 2023 interview, he’s well used to dealing with scorn from judges and lawyers alike.