Court paperwork is hard enough. The formatting shouldn't be the part that breaks you.
Unfussly is a small set of file-ready tools and plain-English explainers for people who are handling their own case — federal or California state. Exhibit covers. Deadline math, with the work shown. A notice translator. A packet checklist. No advice. No drama. The boring stuff, done correctly.
for the Northern District of California
Small tools that each fix one annoying thing about doing it yourself.
Most of these are free. The exhibit cover generator runs on credits, because printing 200 separator sheets shouldn't be how someone makes their first court appearance worse.
Deadline calculator
FRCP Rule 6 and California CCP §§ 12 and 1010.6 — weekends, court holidays, the mailbox-rule add-on. With the full calculation shown.
Exhibit cover generator
Caption block + exhibit letter + footnote in one clean separator sheet. Free to preview & regenerate; credits only on final download.
Court order explainer
Paste a minute order or notice. Get a plain-English breakdown of what happened, what (if anything) you need to do, and by when.
Filing packet checklist
Local-rule page limits, certificate of service, meet-and-confer language, exhibits referenced but not attached — the seven quiet ways pro se motions get denied on form.
Case timeline builder
Drop in every filing, hearing, and deadline you know about. Get a chronological print and a Gantt view you can show to anyone helping you.
Exhibit index generator
Feed it your exhibit list. It returns a clean numbered index page and a matching set of cover sheets — all consistent.
Filing summarizer
Paste an opposing brief. Get the asks, the legal theories, the cited authorities, and what you're being accused of — at a glance.
Neutral letter drafter
Write to opposing counsel or chambers without escalating. Tone-controlled. No embellishment. Sounds like a person who has done this before.
Template store
Fillable, plain-English templates: proof of service, notice of appearance, request for judicial notice, fee-waiver applications.
Exhibit covers that actually look like exhibit covers.
Type your caption once. Get a stack of clean, numbered separator sheets — properly formatted, bates-friendly, ready to print or attach behind a tab. The kind of thing a paralegal would knock out in three minutes that takes you an evening.
- 1Edit & regenerate freely.Tweak the caption, swap district, renumber the whole packet. Previewing and editing never touches your credit balance.
- 2Credits only count on final download.One cover = one credit. The same packet re-downloads for free for 24 hours.
- 3Print or attach as PDF.Letter size, 8.5×11, 0.25" footer reserved for chambers stamps and bates numbers.
for the District of Massachusetts
If you're handling a federal civil case, start at the federalprosekit.com handbook.
The federal courts have their own vocabulary, their own deadlines, their own service rules. We made a dedicated, plain-English starter handbook for that: a glossary, a checklist, the deadline calculator, and short federal-only explainers. All the tools live here on Unfussly — the handbook is the on-ramp.
- 01What "pro se" actually means in federal practicep. 02
- 02The first six things to do after you’re servedp. 08
- 03Deadlines, FRCP Rule 6, and the mailbox rulep. 14
- 04Building a clean filing packetp. 22
- 05Glossary: 40 federal terms in plain Englishp. 31
Free tools, plus credits for exhibit covers.
The deadline calculator, the order explainer, the checklist — all free, no account. Cover credits keep the lights on and let us avoid putting ads next to your case caption.
Single filing
- 50 covers per pack
- Re-download for 24h
- Subtle unfussly.com footer
- Letter size · PDF + print
Working packet
- 150 covers per pack
- Re-download for 24h
- No footer branding
- Custom court header text
- Bates-range field
Trial binder
- 500 covers per pack
- Re-download for 24h
- No branding · all options
- Multi-case caption library
- Email support, 48h
Three things we hold ourselves to.
Not legal advice. Not even close.
Unfussly formats documents and explains procedural mechanics in plain English. It does not tell you what to argue, predict outcomes, or stand in for a lawyer. If you have any doubt, contact your district's pro se clerk, a federal pro bono program, or a licensed attorney.
Your files stay yours.
The cover generator runs in your browser. We don't keep your caption text after the 24-hour re-download window, and we never sell or share what you type. The privacy page lists every event we log (basically: when something fails) and why.
Built by a former pro se litigant.
The first version of the cover generator was a Python script written at 2 AM the night before a motion was due. Everything here is the version I wish I’d had — a tool, not advice, and certainly not a chatbot pretending to know what it doesn’t.
One more time, because it matters: Unfussly is a document utility. Using it does not create an attorney–client relationship. We do not review your filings, predict how a judge will rule, or recommend a course of action. Federal and state practice vary by court, district, and judge — when in doubt, check the local rules, ask the pro se clerk, or talk to a lawyer.
Plain-English templates for the forms that aren't on the court's website.
Fillable, downloadable, no login. Read-and-edit instead of guess-and-pray.
Plain-English writing about how the courts actually work.
Five running series. No filler, no SEO bait, no "as an AI" energy. Read the lead piece for tone.
What actually happens after a default is entered against the other side
The clerk's entry of default is not the same as a default judgment. Here's the boring three-step sequence between them, who has to file what, and the most common ways pro se plaintiffs accidentally lose the ground they just gained.
"Request for ruling" — what it means, what it doesn’t, and when to actually send one
Three words that show up in every pro se forum. Most people use them wrong. Here is the narrow situation where this is the right tool.
Seven things to check before a motion leaves your hands
Local-rule page limits, meet-and-confer language, certificate of service, exhibits referenced but not attached, and three other quiet ways pro se motions get denied on form.
What I learned losing my first MTD as a pro se plaintiff
An anonymized recap from a reader: the brief that worked, the brief that didn't, and the moment they realized they'd been arguing the wrong standard for six weeks.
"Without prejudice" vs. "with prejudice," in actual English
The difference between these two words determines whether you can refile. Why it matters more than almost anything else in a dismissal order.
Why pro se litigants need document tools, not a robot pretending to be a lawyer
The case for boring software. Formatting is solvable. Strategy isn't — and a confident chatbot guessing at strategy is worse than no help at all.