Equipment for litigant in person

[campista]

Hi. I've been doing emails, etc on my phone. Do I need Word to do letters properly, can I get this on a Chromebook or would I need a laptop? I need to learn some secretarial skills. I have no problem with the actual legal phraseology, but am not au fait with the technology!
Any reasonably priced ways of doing this would be appreciated. I have bought a printer. Thanks.

Why can’t you just use email for correspondence?

I would love to. The defendant says they won't accept emails, though they emailed me and the court a while back, before the case they tried to bring against me was dismissed. Can someone actually say they won't accept email, nowadays?

You need a laptop at the very least. Get Microsoft 365 - available for a small monthly subscription, and make sure you have the most recent version of Adobe Acrobat installed.

So you could email, and print off the email from your phone and send in the post with proof of posting. That way you are covered both ways sgd no need to buy expensive equipment. But if the case was dismissed what’s the need?

Thanks, both. They tried to bring a case against me to get my mum's name removed from the deeds. (Tenants in common, deed of trust, mirror wills, .... I know...)
It was dismissed but of course, my counterclaim for an order for sale could not continue, so, I have it all to do again, unfortunately.

"Can someone actually say they won't accept email, nowadays?"

Unfortunately, yes, they can. At least, when it comes to service of legal documents.

Service via email is "opt-in" and cannot be done without prior written consent, even if the parties already communicate via email.

So, for example, if you are sending them your Particluars of Claim or Defence etc (sorry, I'm not sure whether you're the Claimant or Defendant here), or any other document that has to be "served" then they can insist that you do this either by personal delivery or first class post (second class doesn't count).

But also, if they try and serve you via email then that doesn't count either unless you have already said that you will accept service via email.

But "service" has a very particular meaning and only applies to certain types of communication between you and the other party.
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"Do I need Word to do letters properly"

Definitely not.

My DH is currently involved with a legal case and he has written everything on a free version of Word called LibreOffice. MS Word has got an awful lot of advanced features but you really don't need all of those just to write some documents.

It's totally free and you can save documents as standard MS Word documents.
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"...or would I need a laptop?"

Either a laptop or a desktop (but you need a separate monitor with a desktop). Generally speaking, an equivalent specced desktop is normally cheaper than a similar laptop.

But you don't need to buy a new one, there are plenty of refurbished PCs for sale that are very cheap and more than enough to write a few letters.

You can use a computer and probably printer at your local library.

Ah, thanks so much. I feel less alone. My main problem is that they have sent hundreds and hundreds of pages of absolutely non legal stuff to me. This is all evidence, but such a waste of trees to print it all! Deffo going to get a laptop( not much room)
With m365, I seem to have been getting it free on my phone as my solicitor, who I used whilst I could afford them, sent me letters that converted to this? Interesting. I hope all this is warding off dementia, lots of learning, I need to hone my office skills.

Thanks for reminding me of the library. Until I get said laptop, I could do my Letter before action there.

Use Google Docs. Or see if you can. It's free with Google Chrome and will do everything Word can do (or everything I have so far needed to do and tested out anyhow!)