Voices from the Justice Gap

First-hand accounts from inside the system.

Longer first-person accounts of what navigating legal institutions means in practice. Told by the people who did it, checked by us, published with their consent.

Voices / Self-representation

"I had to fight alone"

A self-represented litigant shares what happened when she took on a government agency, and what it cost her. Two years, one procedural point she never knew existed, and a question about who the rules are written for.

By [First Name] · 8 May 2025 · 11 min read

In their words

Why people went without a lawyer

"I was quoted $700 bucks an hour and I didn't earn $700 bucks a week."Unfair dismissal applicant, interviewed for the Fair Work Commission's GenAI User Research, August 2026

"I was having a great deal of trouble finding one who wasn't wanting me to pay $10,000 dollars."Applicant seeking an employment solicitor, same research

"I was already not working. I don't have a lot of savings, and here I am potentially looking at thirty thousand dollars of lawyer fees. That's just not possible."Applicant, same research

Unfair dismissal · New South Wales

The tool gave me three cases. One of them did not exist.

"Nobody told me the judgments were free. Once I knew, checking took an evening."

An applicant who prepared her own Fair Work claim with an AI tool describes the moment she found a fabricated citation, how she verified the rest on AustLII, and what the Commission said when she disclosed it.

Identity verified · Name withheld at the writer's request

Small business · Victoria

Owed $8,000. Quoted $12,000 to recover it.

"I had the contract, the emails and the invoice. What I did not have was a way to make any of it matter."

A tradesperson on walking away from a debt that three solicitors agreed was owed, because recovering it cost more than the debt.

Identity verified · Documents sighted

From the bench · Retired

What I wished I could say from the bench

"The rules assume a lawyer on each side. When one side has none, the rules do not change. The judge does."

A retired magistrate on managing a courtroom where one party has no idea what is about to happen, and why that is a design problem rather than a litigant problem.

Identity verified · Published with consent

Community legal centre · Western Australia

We turn people away every day. Here is who they are.

"They are not poor enough for us and nowhere near rich enough for anyone else."

A community lawyer describes the people who fall between the means test and the market, and what she tells them when the answer is no.

Identity verified · Centre not named at the writer's request

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