People, books & tools worth knowing
Starting a family court case can feel like being handed a new language while you are already under pressure. You may be trying to understand court procedure, a Cafcass report, domestic abuse, a child's behaviour or the evidence sitting in years of messages and documents.
This is a starting point: researchers whose work is worth exploring, organisations offering reliable guidance, books that explain difficult subjects and digital tools that may make preparation more manageable.
Start with the problem, not a hundred open tabs
The most useful information depends on the question in front of you. If you have a deadline, a hearing or a safeguarding concern, identify that first. Books, social media and research are valuable, but they should support your preparation rather than distract from it.
What are you trying to understand?
Choose the situation closest to yours. You do not need to understand all of family law before finding one useful starting point.
I've received family court papers
Start with official guidance, the latest court order, the correct application and your next deadline.
Trusted websites → 02I'm concerned about a child or domestic abuse
Understand coercive control, child welfare, risk and why patterns of behaviour matter.
Family justice researchers → 03I want to understand Cafcass or court reports
Find information about safeguarding checks, professional recommendations and how to identify evidential concerns.
Start with reliable guidance → 04I want books that explain the bigger picture
Explore accessible reading on family court, coercive control, child protection and justice reform.
Browse the reading shelf → 05I'm interested in AI and legal technology
Meet researchers questioning how digital systems can improve — or undermine — access to justice.
Meet legal tech researchers → 06I need practical online tools
Find tools for researching judgments, preparing certain applications and organising information carefully.
Explore digital tools →Reliable websites to bookmark
These are sensible places to begin. Official sources explain current rules and procedures; independent organisations provide accessible information and support.
Family Procedure Rules
Rules and Practice Directions governing family proceedings.
Visit website ↗GOV.UK / HMCTS
Court forms, fees and official information about applications.
Find court forms ↗Cafcass
Information for parents and carers in private law children proceedings in England.
Visit Cafcass ↗Cafcass Cymru
Information about Cafcass Cymru's distinct role in Welsh family proceedings.
Visit Cafcass Cymru ↗Advicenow
Practical guides for people managing legal problems without a lawyer.
Visit Advicenow ↗Support Through Court
Practical and emotional support for people facing court without representation.
Find support ↗Rights of Women
Specialist legal information and advice services, including family law and domestic abuse.
Visit website ↗Find Case Law
Search judgments through The National Archives rather than relying on second-hand summaries.
Search judgments ↗Remember: an organisation's guidance is not the same as a court order. Check your own proceedings, current legal requirements and any applicable Welsh or English service arrangements.
Researchers and professionals worth following
These people have helped shape important conversations about children, domestic abuse, coercive control, family justice and legal technology. Their work offers insight and questions worth asking — not findings about an individual family court case.
Family law, children's welfare & coercive control
Dr Emma Katz
Researches how coercive control affects children and mothers, including continuing harm after separation. Particularly valuable for understanding children's experiences of abuse.
Dr Adrienne Barnett
Family law academic and former practising barrister whose research examines domestic abuse, court procedure and contested parental alienation claims.
Lucy Reed KC
Family barrister, author and founder of The Transparency Project. An especially useful voice for understanding court procedure, public reporting and litigants in person.
Jane Monckton Smith
Criminologist known for the homicide timeline and research into patterns that can precede intimate partner homicide. Important for understanding escalating risk.
David Mandel
Founder of the Safe & Together Institute. His work focuses on perpetrator behaviour patterns, children's safety and keeping responsibility for abuse visible.
Robert Kaiser
Writes about domestic abuse, escalation and behavioural trajectories. His work encourages readers to consider patterns over time rather than only isolated incidents.
Professor Liz Kelly
Researcher whose work on violence against women and the continuum of sexual violence helps place individual incidents in their wider context.
Legal technology, artificial intelligence & access to justice
Richard Susskind
Author and legal futurist whose work considers AI, online courts and the changing delivery of legal services. Useful for thinking about what justice could become.
Professor Katie Atkinson
Researcher at the University of Liverpool working on AI and law, computational legal reasoning, argumentation and trustworthy legal technology.
Dr Natalie Byrom
Researcher focusing on justice data, digital courts, transparency and measuring whether justice reforms genuinely benefit the people using them.
Margaret Hagan
Executive Director of Stanford's Legal Design Lab. Her work examines how legal systems, services and AI tools can become easier for ordinary people to use.
Why these people? They bring different perspectives: academic research, advocacy, court practice, child protection, data, legal design and AI governance. Inclusion does not imply that they agree with JSH Law, endorse this website or should be instructed as experts in a particular case.
Books worth keeping on your radar
The right book will not solve a case for you. But it may help you understand the language, recognise an evidential problem or see why a particular safeguarding concern matters.
Research-led understanding of the ways children experience and respond to coercive control.
Explore the book ↗Practical procedural reading for litigants in person who need to understand the court process.
Explore the book ↗Accessible research on coercive relationships, escalation and domestic homicide risk.
Explore the research ↗Important foundational scholarship on domination, isolation and entrapment as patterns of abuse.
Explore Oxford University Press ↗Challenges practice that obscures perpetrator responsibility and fails to recognise protective parenting.
Explore the author ↗Useful for thinking critically about online courts, legal technology and access to justice.
Explore the author ↗Margaret Hagan's open-access book explores how legal information and services can be made easier for people to navigate.
Useful technology — with sensible limits
Technology should help you find, organise or understand information. It should never give you false confidence about the law or the evidence.
CourtNav
A guided online service for certain non-molestation and occupation order applications.
Open CourtNav ↗ChatGPT
Can help organise information and draft checklists, but legal claims, cases and citations must be independently checked.
Explore ChatGPT ↗Find Case Law
Find published judgments and read the original reasoning before relying on a legal proposition.
Search case law ↗Stanford Legal Design Lab
Research into improving the usability of legal services, court information and digital justice tools.
Explore the lab ↗Frolo
A single-parent community. Useful for connection and shared experience, but peer experiences are not legal advice.
Visit Frolo ↗Evidence & Chronology Guide
Practical help turning documents, reports, messages and events into material a family court can follow.
Read the guide →Check confidentiality, disclosure restrictions, provider data handling, accuracy and the risk of exposing children's information. Do not assume that a plausible AI response is correct. AI should support human judgment, not replace it.
If there is a safeguarding concern, research comes second
If someone is being threatened, monitored or subjected to domestic abuse, the immediate priority is safety. Use a safe device where there is a risk that online activity is being monitored. Contact specialist support where appropriate, and call 999 in an immediate emergency.
National Domestic Abuse Helpline
Confidential support for women experiencing domestic abuse. Freephone 0808 2000 247.
Get support ↗Knowledge matters. So does knowing what to do with it.
You do not have to become a family law expert to prepare a clearer case. JSH Law helps litigants in person understand the procedural position, organise evidence, examine Cafcass and safeguarding issues, prepare court documents and get ready for hearings.
Rooted in Integrity. Driven by Innovation.