Mackenzie Friend support

A Mackenzie Friend is a layperson who can sit beside a litigant-in-person in family court to provide quiet, practical support. The role is recognised in England and Wales under longstanding court guidance and is widely used by parents who are representing themselves.

In practice, that means I help you prepare your papers, organise your evidence, write your position statement in your own words, and, with the court's permission, sit beside you in the hearing taking notes and quietly prompting so you can speak for yourself with less panic. The work between hearings is just as important: keeping you steady, organised and clear-headed across the months a family court matter can run.

• Court preparation

  Working through what each hearing is actually for, what the judge is likely to want to hear, and how to walk in steady rather than dysregulated.

• Document organisation

  Pulling years of messages, emails, school reports and contact records into a calm, indexed bundle the court can actually use.

• Preparing your statement

  Helping you write a position statement or witness statement in your own words, focused on facts and the child's welfare, not on grievance.

• Attendance at hearings

  With the court's permission, sitting beside you in the hearing, taking notes, and quietly prompting so you can speak for yourself with less panic.

• Emotional support between hearings

  Trauma-informed coaching support for the stress, grief and fear most fathers carry in this process. This is the part of the work that keeps a man functioning while the case rolls on.

• Community Supported Space

  A lower-cost option for fathers who could not otherwise access this kind of help, run as part of MendCoaching's wider work with men in East Kent.

A Mackenzie Friend is not a solicitor or barrister. The role has no automatic right of audience, which means I cannot speak for you in the hearing, sign documents on your behalf, or formally conduct litigation. I also cannot give you legal advice on the law, the merits of your case, or the orders the court may make.

If your case involves complex finance, contested fact-finding, allegations of harm, international elements, or any matter where regulated legal advice is essential, you should speak with a family solicitor or barrister. A Mackenzie Friend often works well alongside that legal advice, not in place of it.

Most of the fathers I work with are going through child arrangements proceedings, with hearings listed at Canterbury Combined Court Centre, Medway or Maidstone. The day of a hearing is rarely the hardest part; the months around it are. Court preparation, organising the bundle, drafting a clear statement, and managing the stress of cross-examination and judgment days are where the work mostly lives.

With the court's permission, I can attend the hearing with you. We prepare a short letter that you hand to the judge at the start, explaining who I am and what I will and will not do. Permission is usually granted unless there is a good reason to refuse it.

Court preparation is the slow, careful work of getting clear: what this hearing is for, what the court is being asked to decide, what evidence sits where, what to leave out, and what to say when you stand up. We do this in sessions before the hearing, in your own words.

Document organisation is, for many fathers, the single most useful piece of practical help. Years of messages, emails, school reports, photographs and contact records get pulled into a calm, indexed bundle the court can actually use. The same work also gives you back a sense of control over a process that has felt chaotic.

Preparing for hearings means walking through the day in advance, the building, the timings, the order of speakers, the likely questions and the realistic outcomes. Most of the panic in family court comes from not knowing what to expect. We take that away.

MendCoaching's core work is trauma-informed coaching for men. That matters here because family court is not only a legal process, it is a sustained emotional pressure that can pull old grief, shame and trauma to the surface. Working with a Mackenzie Friend who also understands that side of it means the support doesn't stop at the courtroom door.

The emotional work is what keeps a man functioning while the case rolls on. Sleep, drinking, anger, contact with children, communication with an ex-partner, the relationship you have with yourself in the mirror. All of that needs somewhere to go, or it ends up in the hearing.

Fees vary widely across England. My own work is offered at a transparent hourly rate, shared in writing before anything is booked. Most fathers use a mix of preparation hours, document work and, where relevant, attendance at one or two key hearings, rather than booking the entire case at once.

For fathers who could not otherwise access this kind of support, there is also a lower-cost Community Supported Space run as part of MendCoaching's wider work with men in East Kent. The discovery call is the right place to talk honestly about what's affordable and what's needed.

I'm based in East Kent and work with fathers across the wider county. Most preparation happens online; in-person sessions and hearing attendance are available where it makes a real difference.

• Mackenzie Friend in Canterbury →
• Mackenzie Friend in Whitstable →
• Mackenzie Friend in Herne Bay →
• Mackenzie Friend in Faversham →
• Mackenzie Friend in Ashford →
• Mackenzie Friend in Dover →
• Mackenzie Friend in Deal →
• Mackenzie Friend in Margate →
• Mackenzie Friend in Ramsgate →
• Mackenzie Friend in Kent →