You open the envelope. There’s a stack of papers inside. Somewhere on page two it says you have 30 days to respond. Page three has a case number, a court name, and a list of legal claims you’ve never heard of. You don’t know what any of it means. You only know that something serious is happening, and you’re alone with it.
Courtroom5 was built for that moment.
Today, we’re proud to share that Courtroom5 is joining Anthropic’s launch of Claude for the Legal Industry. Through our MCP connector, anyone using Claude can now get plain-English legal guidance for civil court — across all 50 states, free in the public tier at launch.
The 80% problem
In the United States, nearly 80% of people in civil court appear without an attorney. They face landlord disputes, debt collection lawsuits, wage claims, family civil matters, and small claims — usually because they can’t afford a lawyer, and legal aid is stretched far past its capacity.
The legal system wasn’t designed for them. Civil procedure punishes the unprepared. Miss a 30-day answer deadline, and the other side wins by default. File in the wrong court, and the case gets dismissed before the merits are ever heard. Use the wrong form, and the clerk sends you home.
Most people lose their civil cases on procedure long before a judge hears what actually happened to them. That’s not justice. That’s gatekeeping.
Courtroom5 has spent years building tools for the people the legal system forgot. We’ve now served over 12,000 self-represented litigants across all 50 states, helping them learn the rules of a game they were never taught.
Three tools, built for the moment you need them
Our MCP connector exposes three of Courtroom5’s core capabilities directly inside Claude conversations.
Case intake assessment. Tell Claude what’s happening — in your own words. The tool evaluates your situation, identifies the legal claims that may apply, names the right court for your matter, and gives you concrete first steps. No legal jargon required on your end. No legal jargon coming back at you.
Deadline calculator. Tell Claude what just happened — you got served, the other side filed a motion, the judge entered an order — and it returns the deadlines you face, the dates they fall on, and what happens if you miss them. Powered by jurisdiction-specific data, not guesswork. Initial coverage spans 15 states with the highest civil litigation volume; full 50-state coverage is on the post-launch roadmap.
Next-step guidance. If you’re already in active litigation, the tool returns the 2–3 most important things you should be doing right now — based on your case stage, your role in the case, and your state. Not a generic checklist. Specific guidance for where you actually are.
All three tools are scoped to civil matters: landlord-tenant, debt collection, breach of contract, small claims, family civil, and similar. They speak in plain English at an 8th-grade reading level. And every response is built around what you can do yourself — because if you could afford a lawyer, you wouldn’t be here.
Why Claude
People already use Claude for almost everything else in their life — drafting emails, understanding medical bills, planning meals, learning new things. The most consequential thing happening to many people in any given month — a court case — should be no different.
The MCP connector meets people where they already are. There’s no new app to learn, no account to create, no paywall at the door. Open Claude. Connect Courtroom5. Describe your situation. Get answers.
This is also why we chose to launch on the public tier first. The people who need this most are the people least likely to sign up for one more service. The right approach is to lower every barrier we can.
Why us
Courtroom5 was co-founded by Sonja Ebron and Debra Slone — two women who had each navigated civil litigation without an attorney before we built the company. We lived the problem first. We know what it feels like to be the person opening that envelope on page one.
We’re a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation. We’re a Techstars graduate. Our work has been recognized by the American Bar Association’s Woman of Legal Tech award. But the credential that matters most is the 12,000 self-represented litigants we’ve served, in every state, in every kind of civil case — and the courtrooms they walked into a little less alone than they walked in before.
What’s next
The public tier launching with Claude on May 12 is the first version. Coming next: authenticated access for Courtroom5 members, deeper tools that work with their actual case files, full 50-state deadline coverage, and case law research built right into the conversation.
If you’re facing civil court without a lawyer, here’s what to do on May 12:
- Open claude.ai
- Go to Settings → Connectors
- Add the Courtroom5 connector
- Tell Claude what’s happening
You don’t need to know the right legal words. You don’t need to figure out the right questions. Just say what’s going on. The tools take it from there.
