For Self-Represented Litigants
Representing yourself? Know exactly what the court expects.
Most people lose procedural battles, not legal ones — a missed conferral, a wrong format, a blown deadline. BenchPath puts the court's actual requirements in plain English, cited to the official source, for free.
What kind of case?
Traffic tickets
Contest an infraction; hearing procedures
Small claims
Up to $8,000 — pretrial conference is mandatory
Eviction & landlord-tenant
Deadlines move fast — days, not weeks
Divorce & family
Financial disclosure, parenting, support
Domestic violence injunctions
No filing fee; hearing within days
County civil
Debt claims, contracts, disputes
01
Find your court and case type
Pick your county and what your case is about. BenchPath shows the rules that actually apply — statewide, circuit, county, and judge-specific — each linked to the official source.
02
Follow the checklist
Every rule comes with a plain-English action checklist: what to file, in what format, what to bring, and which deadlines control. Print it and take it with you.
03
Know your judge
A Premium Judge Report shows how your division actually operates — conferral requirements, proposed-order formats, hearing procedures — before you walk in.
Writing with AI?
Your AI can draft the motion. It can't tell you how this judge wants it filed.
Millions of self-represented litigants now draft with AI tools — and courts reject those filings for procedural reasons the AI never saw: a missing conferral certificate, a proposed order in the wrong file format, an uncoordinated hearing date, a courtesy copy nobody delivered. BenchPath is the missing procedural layer: verified, judge-specific requirements with the official source attached, so what you file actually lands.
Need the drafting side too? LegalDraft.io — our public drafting platform — writes and reviews the document; BenchPath makes sure it lands.
Before you draft
Pull the rules and format requirements for your county and division.
Before you file
Run the checklist — certificates, formats, service, portal quirks.
Before you appear
Read the judge report — hearing procedure, remote vs. in-person, what to bring.
When to talk to a lawyer
If the other side has counsel, if children or your home are at stake, if you face criminal exposure, or if a deadline already passed — procedural information is not enough. Florida's bar referral service and local legal aid offices exist for exactly this. BenchPath will always tell you what the court requires; it will never tell you what to argue.
Not legal advice
BenchPath provides procedural information from official public sources with verification dates and confidence levels. It is not a law firm, provides no legal advice or strategy, and creates no attorney–client relationship. Verify urgent deadlines with the clerk or judicial assistant.