Straight from the horse's mouth: dealing with unrepresented litigants

Key Points:

You don't have to do their work for them, but patience and plain-speaking will go a long way with unrepresented litigants.

There is an increasing number of unrepresented litigants appearing in courts and tribunals in Australia at every level, placing added obligations on courts and, in many cases, on the other parties to the litigation.

A small percentage of unrepresented applicants can be identified as vexatious, and they frequently target large organisations such as banks and government agencies. Whether vexatious or simply unrepresented, these sorts of litigants can be expensive opponents. In this article we'll focus on unrepresented litigants – the challenges they pose, the obligations on you and the court, and how to manage them both.