It is difficult to even get any case to trial, including generic
malpractice
in my expierence/ observation. If a case goes to trial as some have
over
amalgam, your are correct, it is extremely difficult to convince
every member of a jury beyond all doubt that you were injured by
dental
Hg or that representations made by dentistry are fraudulent. When i
was representing my case I calculated that just to take the case to
trial against one party from start to finish would be about $350,000+.
(I named 4 in my lawsuit). Remember if you lose in my state you pay
the court costs, that is, not lawyers fees but the cost of things like
expert testimony, about $10,000 per expert, and if you lose an appeal
you pay the cost of the appeal for the other side.

I know that many states do have arbitration requirements. You are
right
that although arbitration requirements are billed as preventing
frivolous
lawsuits they are scams because they impose an expenisve secondary
court system on top of the basic one. (That is also why credit card
companies like arbitration so much). There was an appeals decision
I read for my state during my  case where the attorney general had
said that making the court process more expensive is not
unconstitutional ,because nowhere in the state or US consitution does
it state that justice has to be affordable!! In other words the idea
is you can avoid arbitration if you are willing to
accept "loser pays" rules in the main courts,as long as access to the
main courts isn't denied there is no limit on how expensive it can be
made.

Try suing a health club, you can't win!

it went on for about six months but the case was dismissed because
I tried to bypass the arbitration requirement. I argued that not
revealing
Hg in fillings was fraud and should not be subject to arbitration. The
judge actually was somewhat sympathetic to my case (she actually
went to high school in the community where I live) but bought the
other sides argument that even general fraud claims should be subject
to health arbitration laws. (The truth is that if the judges don't
"toe the line"
they may not be reappointed). There is also a very light trigger
written in the arbitration laws in my state, where any lawsuit that
sounds remotely related to a "medical injury" must first go to
arbitration, no matter what. Of course it's a farce because an ADA
dentist shouldn't be certifying fraud claims against the ADA, which
essentially is one of the requirements for arbitration to proceed. If
you ever represent yourself, you'll find that some laws as written
don't make sense, but they are followed mindlessly by the courts
anyway. Looking back I would have
argued immediately that  arbitration requirements when applied to Hg
filling cases are unconstitutional, I also would have added a count
of
"constructive fraud"  but I caught on too late, after the hearing for
the motion to dismiss.

No lawyers would help me on a partial basis because they said they
feared being sued by a pro-se litigant if  they messed up. Going rate
for a good lawyer to take the entire case in my area, would have been
$300+ per hour,
(expert testimony, consultation usually starts at $200+ per hour). I
probably
ended up doing about $70K of legal work myself.

All that matters is what the judge thinks, and yes the defense will
fear the aribitray judge and the sympathy you elicit as someone going
it alone against
the system.  I think it's great to take the initiative to represent
yourself in court, if you have a good case, which is not an automatic
winner, and what is there to lose? Just try to avoid paying the other
sides lawyer fees, court costs.

PS- when i was researching online I remember reading about one state
in
      the Southwest where they have loser pays laws. I'm not sure if
it
      was Arizona. I would definitely thoroughly review your states
laws
      regarding loser pays and arbitration requirements. There is
also
     a lawyer group on google that can give you some legal advice.