About Litigant
Croydon Magistrates' CourtDecember 2025
“You chose to represent yourself”
A magistrate said that to a young man in front of me. First time in a courtroom, maybe twenty-one, no lawyer. He had not chosen anything. He could not afford one. That is not a choice.
He argued his own case anyway. Not innocence or guilt, but that the evidence in front of the court was incomplete. He was right. Then he thanked the bench for being lenient.
The magistrate paused
“Sir, it's your right to have all the evidence presented to you. You don't need to thank me.”
No training, no solicitor, no preparation, with his future held by people whose world he did not know. In England and Wales there is no automatic right to a lawyer, and most people find that out at the worst possible moment. A year later it was my turn.
The system
Built by lawyers, for lawyers.
Since 2013, legal aid for most private family law has gone. The people it left behind did not ask for that. They are parents trying to see their children, partners dividing a shared life, people answering allegations they never expected to face.
The court was built for lawyers. Wigs, bundles indexed in a fixed order, language that has not moved in centuries. Then it asks people to walk in alone and keep up.
I have seen evidence packs that paste whole sections from unrelated cases into someone's bundle. I have seen disclosure deadlines missed by months, then a self-represented defendant told to handle the evidence live, on the spot. No preparation. No time.
Why I built it
Built by a litigant, for litigants.
When I needed lawyers myself, I turned up to the first meeting with the whole case on four sheets of A3. Every event in date order, the evidence beside each line. They told me they rarely see a client that prepared.
Then I watched the meter. Hours billed for writing up the timetable. Hours for drafting the chronology. Hours for putting facts I already had into forms. Work that never needed a lawyer's training, charged at a lawyer's rate.
“Pay a lawyer for judgement. Not for typing up your timetable.”
A lawyer's value is judgement. Everything that is not judgement should not be on the bill. So I built the parts that were never about judgement.
What Litigant does
Whatever you would take to a lawyer or to court, Litigant helps you build. Free, or for less than an hour of a solicitor's time.
Your timetable
Every event in date order, with the evidence beside each line.
Documents
Read the paperwork in plain English and keep it in order.
Disclosure
Lay out the financial picture the court will ask for.
Cross-examination prep
Work out your questions before you are on your feet.
Guidance and structure, never legal advice.
When you have no choice but to represent yourself, you should be able to do it properly. Walk in prepared, not lost. What you can argue, organise, and understand should not come down to your bank balance.
James François, Founder
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