About John Junk LL.M.

I am not a solicitor. I am not a barrister.

I am a McKenzie Friend. And I have spent 30 years helping ordinary people navigate one of the most complex, most stressful, and most consequential systems they will ever encounter.

Family court.

This page exists so that you can decide whether to trust what you read on this site, and whether to trust me with your case. That is a reasonable thing to want. Here is the information you need to make that decision.

Qualifications and Credentials

I hold a Master of Laws (LL.M.) with Distinction in Access to Justice from Ulster University. Access to justice is not a tangential interest. It is what my academic work was about, and it is what my professional life has been built around.

Being granted leave to address the Court of Appeal is not a routine distinction. The Court of Appeal sets the legal standards that lower courts follow. Being given the opportunity to address it is a recognition of the quality of argument being advanced.

Thirty Years as a McKenzie Friend

I have spent 30 years working alongside litigants in person in family courts across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. I have supported people through every kind of family proceedings: contested residence and contact disputes, financial remedy hearings, emergency applications, CAFCASS reports, final hearings that have lasted days.

I have sat beside clients when judges gave decisions that changed their lives. I have helped people prepare cases they thought were hopeless and watched them walk out with outcomes they did not expect.

I know what works in a family court. I know what does not. I know what judges look for and what they ignore. I know what mistakes litigants in person make repeatedly, and I know how to help people avoid them.

That knowledge, accumulated over 30 years across hundreds of cases, is what you are getting access to when you book a session.

What I Do

I work with people who are navigating family court without a solicitor. If you are new to this, start with What Is a McKenzie Friend and Do You Need One? or the practical guide on How to Represent Yourself in Family Court. My clients are at every stage of the process: people who are just starting out and want to understand what they are getting into, people who are mid-case and have lost their footing, people whose funds ran out but whose case has not finished, and people who chose from the start to represent themselves.

I offer sessions by Zoom, by phone, or in person in Northern Ireland. I attend hearings in person across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

I help people understand what the court is actually deciding and what evidence they need to present. I help them prepare position statements and witness statements. I help them understand what CAFCASS is doing and what they should say. I help them prepare for cross-examination. I tell them honestly what their case looks like from the outside.

What I do not do is give legal advice. I am not authorised to practise as a solicitor. If your case requires formal legal representation, I will tell you so clearly. The scope guarantee means that if your case is outside what I can properly help with, you are told before you spend money, not after.

Why I Work This Way

Access to justice is a phrase that gets used a lot. I have spent my career trying to make it real.

Legal aid has been cut to the point where most people facing family court proceedings in England and Wales cannot access funded legal representation. In Northern Ireland the position is somewhat better, but still many people are navigating the system alone.

The result is that outcomes in family court are increasingly shaped not by the strength of a person's case, but by whether they can afford representation. That is unjust. And it is the problem I have spent 30 years trying to address in the cases I work on.

Court Compass exists because I can reach more people this way than through one-to-one referrals. The articles on this site, the free Legal Letter Translator tool, the sessions I run, all of it is aimed at the same thing: giving people who are facing family court a genuine chance, not just a gesture toward fairness.

Who I Cover

I work across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. I do not cover Scotland, which operates under a separate legal framework.

The articles on this site are specific about jurisdiction. England and Wales use the Children Act 1989. Northern Ireland uses the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. These are not interchangeable. Every article on this site is written with that distinction in mind.

The Guarantees

What to Do Next

If you have read this page and you want to talk about your case, the next step is to book a session.

If you have received a letter from a solicitor or from the court and you are not sure what it means, start with the free Legal Letter Translator.

Pricing for sessions starts at £297 for one hour. The five-hour package at £1,297 is the most popular. There is no VAT. Veterans of HM Armed Forces receive 30% off all services.