Free tools for anyone making a claim without a solicitor.

free tools across four kinds of claim: employment, small claims, scam refunds and renters’ rights. Explore your route, check time limits and estimate losses. No account or card. AI document checks have fair-use limits. Nobody is contacted unless you do it yourself.

from the offence, for a Rent Repayment Order. 12 months if the offence was before 1 May 2026

to report the payment to your bank, then 6 months from its final response to reach the Ombudsman

from the breach, for most contract and debt claims

Scam & APP Fraud Refund

Where else to get help, free

What these tools won’t do

Take a guide with you

Put these tools on your site

Free legal advice clinics

Legal expenses insurance

Free half-hour consultations

Are these tools really free?

Yes. Every tool on this page is free, with no account or card needed. Calculators can be reused freely. AI document checks have fair-use limits to keep them available. Optional paid packages start at £49 per case for the listed preparation features, with no commission on what you win.

How long do I have to make a claim?

It depends on the claim. Employment tribunal is three months less one day from the date it happened, or six months where that date is on or after 1 October 2026. Scam refunds run on two clocks — 13 months to report the payment to your bank, then six months from its final response to reach the Ombudsman. Small claims usually run to six years. Tell us your date and we will work out yours.

How much does it cost to file?

Employment tribunal claims carry no court fee. A money claim of £3,000.01 to £5,000 costs £205 to issue; the court can order repayment of the fee if you win. Going to the Financial Ombudsman is free. A rent repayment order is not: the First-tier Tribunal charges an application fee and, if it goes that far, a hearing fee. Help with Fees may cover some or all of those fees if you qualify.

Do I need a solicitor or claims handler?

You can run many claims yourself, but professional advice may be appropriate where a case is complex, high-value, urgent or you want someone to act for you. Start My Claim is self-service software and cannot make that decision for you.

Is my information kept private?

AI document checks send the text or document you choose to upload to our AI service for processing. Remove names, addresses and other details that are not needed. We do not send your result to your employer, landlord or bank. Read our Privacy Policy for how information is handled.

Which country’s law do these tools use?

The small-claims tools cover England and Wales. The renters’ rights tools cover England only. Employment and scam-refund tools explain their scope on the relevant pages. Check the jurisdiction before relying on a result; different rules can apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Who are these tools for?

People running a claim themselves, and the advisers who help them. No legal knowledge is assumed. Every tool asks plain questions about what happened and gives a plain answer, with the rule it applied named so you can check it.

What happens to what I type in?

The numerical calculators work in your browser. The dismissal, bank-response and rent-notice AI checks send your submitted content to our AI service. Optional email forms and account features explain what they save or send. See our Privacy Policy for processing, retention and your rights; save any free result you need before leaving the tool.

Can I put these tools on my own website?

That is being prepared. The eligibility and deadline checkers will be available as an embed, free to use, on the condition that the embed carries a link back to startmyclaim.ai. Get in touch and tell us which tool you want first.

What if I need more than a tool?

There are other free routes and this page lists them: legal aid, Law Centres, free advice clinics run by LawWorks, volunteer barristers through Advocate, your union if you are a member, and legal expenses insurance you may already hold. A tool that tells you where you stand is not a substitute for advice on a complex case.

Renters’ tools: England only

startmyclaim.ai/free-tools

Free tools for anyone making a claim without a solicitor.

Start from what happened

The four clocks — one scale

One scale, because six years and three months do not fit on a straight ruler honestly. These are the general windows — yours depends on your dates, and each track has a checker for the general rules. Exceptions and pauses can affect your deadline.

Founder. Self-represented twice.

I built this because I have been the person at the kitchen table at 1am with a solicitor's letter, unable to get legal aid and priced out of a lawyer. And because when it mattered, people helped me who did not have to, and who I could not have paid. Not everyone gets that kind of help.

So the tools that tell you where you stand are free, for good, paid for by the people who go on to use the rest. The free Letter Before Action remains yours to use. Paid packages add the case preparation listed for each track, such as a claim form, a formal employment schedule of loss or a witness statement.

We should be straight about the incentive. We only earn if you go on to build the claim, and these free tools help you explore whether that route fits. That is a conflict, and the answer to it is on the page: every figure names the instrument it comes from so you can check it yourself, the fee is fixed rather than a percentage of what you win, and the checkers are built to say no. A tool that tells you there is no claim here is the tool working.

. Free to read online, no signup. The PDF asks for your name and email so we can send it.

· if you go on, it builds

· one fixed fee, nothing on what you win

The numbers the calculators on this page run on, with the instrument or schedule each one comes from. Checkable, and free to quote.

Check the scope and effective date of each rule. Small claims here covers England and Wales; the renters’ rights tools cover England only. The linked official sources explain eligibility and exceptions. Spot a figure out of date and

A tool tells you where you stand. It is not advice, and for some cases advice is what you need. These cost nothing.

Citizens Advice lists all of these

· with how to reach each one

They are not legal advice.

Start My Claim is self-service software. Where a case is complex, high-value or urgent, professional advice may be the right call, and nothing here can make that decision for you.

They don’t contact anyone.

Nothing on this page files a claim, sends a letter or notifies anybody. Nothing reaches your employer, your landlord or your bank unless you send it yourself.

They can’t promise an outcome.

What they can do is tell you quickly and honestly whether this is worth your time, including when the answer is that it is not.

Everything on this page

Start a case, still free

Building the actual claim

For comparison: a claims company may take up to 35% of what you recover, and published solicitor ranges for a straightforward unfair dismissal start at about £7,500 plus VAT. Both are illustrative of published ranges, not quotations.

Every survival guide above is also a free PDF: save it, print it, or read it somewhere without signal. We ask for your name and email to send the file, nothing else.

Charities, advice services and law centres, along with unions, HR consultants and law firms running a self-help page, all field the same two questions: do I have a claim, and how long have I got. The eligibility and deadline checkers answer both, and they are being prepared as an embed you can drop into your own site.

Linking to this page needs nothing from us, and you are welcome to do it today. No permission, no attribution requirement, no tracking code, and nothing your clients land on asks them for an account or a card.

The embed, when it lands, will be free on one condition: it carries a link back to startmyclaim.ai. That is the whole exchange. Your visitors get a straight answer without leaving your page, and the tool that gave it to them is credited.

· we will send the embed code when it is ready

For how submitted documents and account information are handled, read our

. Results explain general rules and information to check; they do not determine whether a claim will succeed.

The tools on this page stay free. Use them, and come back if there is a claim worth building. The clock is the only thing here that is not on your side.

Fifteen minutes with the founder

. Product conversation only, no legal advice.