Help with digital assistance for Litigants in Person

We have been working with We Are DigitalLink opens in a new window  on a consultancy basis, to enable their staff and project partners to provide more effective help to those who need it. We Are Digital  have the HMCTS contract to provide digital support  to people who need help to access online court servicesLink opens in a new windo

We have provided training packs and sessions to We Are Digital call handlers and partners in community organisations providing face-to-face digital support about how to use the

• Submit an appeal service (for benefit appeals)
• Online money claims service (for people starting or responding to a small claim about money)
• Help with fees service (for people on a low income applying to pay reduced court fees)
• Single Justice Service (for people who are accused of a minor criminal offence and need to respond to a single justice procedure notice)
• Apply for a divorce service
• Apply for probate (for people who need to sort out the estate of someone who has died)

The training not only provided participants with knowledge about what detail to put where on each of the online forms, but also procedural guidance on how to support the person receiving assistance to properly explain their case.  This is important as those with low digital capability very often also have low legal capability and the way the service was tendered precluded the digital support being provided by advice agencies.

We have also worked with We Are Digital on their referrals data and helped them to understand which groups need their service but are unable to access it (and why) and where in the process they are losing more high-need service users.

Whilst doing this work we identified that there was no quality information available for people who have received a single justice procedure notice (SJPN). This was very concerning as almost everyone responding to a SJPN would be a litigant in person. As a result, we produced a guide to help people faced with a Single Justice Procedure Notice decide how to respond.

_{Last edited in 27 March 2023}