A lot of lawyers suck, but for personal protection, not using one would be cutting off your nose to spite your face.
From the little bit that I read, I gathered that being a sole prop is harder to sell the business, and in the event of an untimely death (which I'm hoping to avoid), its harder to deal with as well.
I'm looking to protect myself and my wife.
If something bad were to happen, it would suck to lose the business assets, but not the end of the world, as my equipment wouldn't add up to a ton of dollars, even though its pretty dependable, as the trucks, chipper, stumper, trailers are older.
My bookkeeper told me that personally owning the equipment and renting to the corporation would be an audit trigger, so even though the equipment might not be protected, it might not be worth the risk of the hassles/ expense of an audit.
Peace of mind is a good thing, too.
Hopefully, as time goes on, I"ll be farther from having nothing. As well, my dad recently died, so there is some estate stuff to protect.