Litigants in person

A Civil Justice Council working group has looked at how litigants in person are likely to be affected by reductions to public funding for legal advice and representation, and ways in which public and voluntary bodies can best respond to the challenges this will present. The numbers of litigants representing themselves will be increasing. The fear is many individuals will not know how to bring or defend legal proceedings in the absence of legal advice and representation and will either suffer a reduction in the quality of justice or they will entirely abandon their efforts to enforce or defend their rights or will try to take their cases to court but not do so properly.