A view from the ground: the form and function of Litigants in Person (LIPs)

This thesis seeks to contribute to the current scholarship surrounding the unabating tide of Litigants in Person in the Family Court. Broadly, the thesis will argue that the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) has created 'new' court-users who require different assistance and responses from those who traditionally engaged with the Family Court. This is more so as court applications are often a once in a life-time event for court-users, and the journey of a court-user becomes a momentous experience. Equally, court outcomes have a significant impact on the daily life of a court-user. The significance of both the court journey and court outcomes suggests that legal-systems should be designed and aligned to support the experiences of court-users. To a large extent, legal system support was traditionally channelled through lawyers and through the availability of public funds by way of Legal Aid for those who could not afford to pay for a lawyer. However, within the trajectory of Lega