" Sound familiar.....

• Really dont understand the legal process?
• Dont qualify for legal aid?
• Your lawyer never returns your calls?
• Never met your barrister?
• Never seen an itemised bill?
• Tired of haemorrhaging money for little progress?
• Case always adjourned?
• Never even got in to see the judge?
• Less than impressed by your lawyers grasp of the issues?
• Other sides lawyers seem more switched on than yours?
• Feel pressurised into taking what you think is a bad deal?
• Wondering why you wife seems to be getting everything following divorce?
• Frustrated that you cant get to see your children?
• Grandparents cant get to see their grandchildren after separation or divorce?
• Want to sue for refund of extortionate bank charges for the last six years?
• Feel you have been sacked or unfairly selected for redundancy?
  

Contrary to popular opinion, and portrayals on television, court cases are rarely decided in your favour due to having a Rottweiler type solicitor or barrister, or on swashbuckling advocacy. They are more often decided on the papers provided to the court. If you can hold a decent conversation or can read a broadsheet without getting brainfrreze you are a real contender to be able to represent yourself with the assistance of Belfast Litigant in Person Services . Rather than spend thousands on lawyers fees why not save them for your childrens education, or a relaxing holiday?

Belfast Litigant in Person Services (Belfast LIPS) can help you ;

• prepare necessary paperwork 
• with the legal research that will yield the relevant case law
• with the vital pleadings such as skeleton arguments. 
• by running a mock court service, run training sessions for groups of people representing themselves and
• by preparing questions for the cross examination of witnesses
• by providing an experienced lay advocate to assist you at court
  

We also offer consultations via SKYPE througout the UK and Ireland, offer rapid support by text and email, and offer an out of hours service at no extra cost. Our rates start from £60 per hour with a fully itemised account provided every month, and to ensure rapid access to our team payments can be made by PayPal and NOCHEX. Access to our staff can also be purchased by purchasing time credits online at eBay.
 
With the education system we have in Northern Ireland and the dissatisfaction levels that people have with their lawyers, more and more people are questioning what they are actually paying for. Before coming to Belfast LIPS some of our clients had paid £10k's on barristers and  solicitors and got nothing for their outlay but a reducing bank balance.

Our staff
 
John Junk

John Junk leads our Belfast team, and it was his vision that inspired the concept of Belfast LIPS. The Belfast office will be the first of many in Northern Ireland and GB.

John is a long standing and greatly respected member of the charity Families need Fathers and he specialises in child access (contact) and custody (residence) disputes. He is a frequent and much sought after contributor to the media and has appeared as a panellist on the BBC current affairs program Let’s Talk, as well as contributor to the Nolan Show, UTV's Insight and BBC Newsline.

In 2003 as a mere first year law student he won a merit internship to the Ivy League law school at Cornell University, at Ithaca, New York. What John saw there in his time working in Child Protective Services and the family court in Ithaca made him realise how family law ought to work. There an order for Joint Custody was far from abnormal, whereas here in Northern Ireland such an order was like ‘hen’s teeth’. It is John’s intention to persuade and argue for equal treatment of parents following divorce and separation.

John is a person who knows from first hand experience that people who do not  live most of the time with their children are treated poorly by statutory bodies, being denied status in areas such as student loans, bursaries, child benefit and the like. And despite assurances by such notables as Mr Justice Gillen that there is no bias in family law against fathers; John’s 8 year experience at every level of court tell him different.  John lobbies fearlessly and tirelessly on behalf of parents, and is frequently to be seen at Social Service case conferences advocating for vulnerable parents.

John McCord LLB

John graduated with a First in Law and Government from UUJ in 2006, and is currently reading for his Masters in Human Rights Law at Queen's University Belfast.

John is a frequent McKenzie friend at the High Court in Belfast and drafts documents for all levels of court.