Kate Leader, currently completing her PhD at LSE Law, was recently interviewed by Buzzfeed on the growing number of litigants in person: people representing themselves in court, without a lawyer. She noted the disadvantages:
"It’s not just a lack of legal skills, it’s not having legal privileges ... If you want to access case law you need to sign in and that’s not free. You used to be able to look up the All England Law reports in public libraries but these days they don’t tend to have them. Everything has gone online but it’s all behind paywalls. One guy was going to the pub and buying barristers drinks to get access. Others have sneaked into university law libraries.”
Read the full Buzzfeed article on litigants in person here.