Courts Administration Editing and Proofreading Services

Court administration writes for the most poorly served readers in the justice system: people appearing without a lawyer. They are trying to work out which form applies, what a deadline means, whether they can be excused for missing a date, and what happens if they do the wrong thing. Registry staff cannot give legal advice, so the written material has to do work it was never designed for — and when it fails, the result is adjournments, defective filings, and outcomes decided by procedure rather than merits.

We edit what court services and administrative tribunals produce — court forms and their guidance notes, self-represented litigant guides and procedural information, notices of hearing and summonses, jury summonses and juror information, filing and fee schedules, practice directions and notices to the profession, registry procedure manuals for staff, scheduling and case management communications, judgment publication and citation standards, accessibility and accommodation information, interpreter and support service material, victim and witness information, enforcement and collection notices, and annual reports and statistics on court performance. Our editors respect the boundary between explaining procedure and giving legal advice, and check that every document tells its reader what to do next and by when.

The form and its guidance note are the highest-leverage pair in the whole system, and they are usually written separately by people solving different problems. The form is designed to capture what the registry and the judge need; the note explains the form. Neither answers the questions a self-represented litigant actually has: do I need this form or a different one, what happens after I file it, what if I miss the deadline, and what does the other side receive. We rewrite these so the guidance opens by helping the reader confirm they have the right form, so each field that is routinely completed wrongly carries an example of a correct entry, so the sequence after filing is set out with the timescales, and so the consequence of doing nothing is stated. We also make the note say plainly which parts a person genuinely should not attempt without advice, and where free advice can be found. Registries that get this right report fewer rejected filings, which is the clearest evidence available that the writing was the barrier.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including drafts, internal procedures and material subject to publication restrictions. We are editors rather than legal advisers and offer no view on procedure, jurisdiction or the content of any rule. What we can do is make forms, notices and guidance plain enough for the people who must use them without help.