Alone in Court by Edward Romain

About the book: ‘An enormously valuable - and long overdue - book.’

Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, from his Foreword:

"Every year, thousands of people in England and Wales walk into a courtroom without a lawyer. Nobody tells them what they are walking into. This book does.

Drawing on the case files of Blind Justice UK, Alone in Court: What Happens When Ordinary People Face the Justice System Without a Lawyer (2026) follows ordinary people through the decision to fight, the paper war, the tactics of the other side, the day in court, the cost, the obsession, the loneliness, and what winning – and walking away – really feel like.

An electrician owed twelve thousand pounds for work already done. A teaching assistant whose defence never reached the judge. A hairdresser who opened a twelve-page letter from a City firm and felt her hands go cold. A woman who won her tribunal claim on every point and recovered a fraction of the award.

Their names have been changed. What happened to them has not.

Every chapter ends with what it means for you: what to do, what to avoid, and when to stop. The book closes with a costed proposal for a litigant in person liaison officer in every court, and three appendices covering the legislation, the court forms and the free help that exists.

This is not a textbook. It is a field guide, written by someone who has stood in court alone himself, for anyone about to do the same."

About the author: Edward Romain is a writer, poet and lawyer, and the founder and CEO of Blind Justice UK, a registered charity working to improve access to justice for people who face the courts without a lawyer. He read English and History at Durham, took the Graduate Diploma in Law at Sussex and studied the Bar Professional Training Course at BPP, and is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (ACILEX). Fifteen years later he stood in a courtroom as a litigant in person, and that experience took him back into law, led him to found Blind Justice, and became the book Alone in Court, published in November 2026 with a foreword by Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Through Blind Justice UK, he has handled more than forty case files, given evidence to the Justice Select Committee, and worked with parliamentarians and ministers on court reform. His research has been published as formal written evidence by two parliamentary committees, and the charity's work has been covered by the Law Society Gazette and Legal Futures. His poetry collection The Man Who Grew Things is also available on Kindle. He lives in Brighton.