I’m in the process of writing a handbook for litigants in person involved in family proceedings and I’d really like to make it the best and most useful it can be. Can you help?

I can offer a sound explanation of the law and procedure along with some insight for non-lawyers about how we lawyers go about things and this can be a powerful demystifyer, but actually what I’d quite like to do is incorporate the practical things that real litigants in person have found useful when representing themselves. Tips for organising, for presenting, for dealing with lawyers, judges, court reporters or exes – what have you found confusing, useful, disastrous? What could you really have done with knowing or having explained to you and what resources on the internet and elsewhere have you found helpful? What are the practical pitfalls that you think could be easily avoided? It could be anything, but by way of example I’m thinking of things like not realising that you need three copies of everything you want to rely on or not knowing what to expect the first time you come to court, or being confused by particular terminology.

Answers by way of comment below or, if you prefer, by email to me at familoo@pinktape.co.uk (for those of a more private disposition). Please don’t post detailed information about your case as this may mean I will be unable to post your comment even if it is anonymous.

Thanks in advance