Small Claims Filings Editing and Proofreading Services

Someone sues a contractor who took a deposit and never returned. Their claim says the contractor breached the agreement and asks for $6,000. At the hearing the adjudicator asks how the $6,000 breaks down. The claimant knows: $4,200 deposit, $900 to a second contractor to redo the prep work, $650 for materials bought and wasted, plus time off work. None of it was in the filing, the defendant had no notice of it, and the adjudicator awards the one figure that was actually pleaded and proved.

We edit what people file in small claims court — statements of claim and particulars, defences and counterclaims, schedules of loss and damages calculations, demand letters sent before filing, evidence lists and document bundles, witness statements, settlement offers and responses, and enforcement paperwork after judgment. Our editors work on the claim form that fixes what you are allowed to recover.

The particulars of your claim set the outer limit of what a court can award you, and their failure is a single round number standing where an itemised loss belongs. We work through these so each element of the amount claimed is listed separately with its own figure and the document that proves it, since an adjudicator can only award what has been pleaded and evidenced, and a lump sum invites a decision on the one part they can actually verify; so the specific promise or term that was broken is identified — the date it was agreed, whether it was written, spoken or by conduct, and in whose words — because a claim that says an agreement was breached without saying which part leaves the court to work out what was even promised; so the dates run in a clear sequence from agreement to breach to loss, given that the connection between what they did and what it cost you is the thing you have to establish and it is easily assumed rather than shown; so amounts you are not claiming are marked as excluded, since a claimant who mentions inconvenience and stress without claiming for them invites a defence about them; and so the claim is written so the defendant knows exactly what is alleged, because a court will not award a sum the other side had no fair opportunity to answer. Filings written this way let you recover what you can actually prove.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including claim details, evidence and personal circumstances. We are editors rather than lawyers, paralegals or court advisers, and we offer no view on your claim, the amounts involved or your prospects. What we can do is make sure the filing sets out plainly what you say happened and what you are asking for.