About Us
Why Briefcase exists
Briefcase began with my years-long frustration at the complexity of family law. After more than thirty years of practice at the Bar, working in family courts across four jurisdictions, I watched too many people make life-changing decisions from a place of fear rather than understanding. Not because they lacked intelligence or capability, but because the legal system speaks a language they were never taught.
Legal forms are the first hurdle. Hong Kong's Family Court forms are primarily available only if you queue at the court registry; some are buried in the Matrimonial Causes Rules, one long PDF that, until 翰途 Briefcase, was impossible to separate; and others are found within the Practice Directions. Fill in a form incorrectly and it gets rejected, and you start all over again. In 2024 alone there were 22,000 divorces in Hong Kong. That is millions of pieces of paper moving through an already overloaded Court.
We decided to fix the paperwork, so that people can focus on the decisions that actually matter.
What Briefcase is
Briefcase is an online form completion service for Hong Kong Family Court forms, fully bilingual in English and Traditional Chinese. Bring up the form you need, type in your information, download your PDF, and file it at court. Alongside the forms sit step-by-step procedural guidelines, free to read, so you always know where you are in the process and what comes next.
We built Briefcase using the best of modern AI technology, but the product itself is straightforward and human: accurate court forms, in a format you can actually use, with clear guidance at every step.
Briefcase is not a substitute for legal advice, and it was never designed to replace lawyers. It serves law firms, NGOs and litigants in person. Solicitors and their staff spend an estimated 35 to 40 per cent of their time on routine administrative work. Our client link allows a lawyer to send forms directly to a client, who completes them in their own time and raises questions as they go. The administrative burden lifts, and the lawyer's time returns to actual lawyering.
Our hope is bigger than forms. When paperwork is done properly the first time, cases move much more efficiently, for clients, for lawyers, and for the Court itself.
Meet the team
Caroline Langley
CEO and Co-Founder
Caroline is a barrister and legal innovator based in Hong Kong with over thirty years of frontline experience in law. She is qualified and has practised in four jurisdictions: Hong Kong, England and Wales, Ireland, and the USA, where she served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Colorado. She has lectured at three Hong Kong universities and is a Certified National Institute for Trial Advocacy Trainer.
Caroline founded Just Law Education to make legal knowledge clear, practical, and accessible. Her forthcoming HKU Press book on Hong Kong Family Court procedure (2027) builds on that mission, offering step-by-step guidance for litigants in person. Briefcase is the natural next step: taking what she learned from decades in the courtroom, and from hundreds of conversations with people navigating it alone, and turning it into a tool anyone can use.
Alex Santos
CTO and Co-Founder
Alex is a technology consultant and software developer based in Westport, Ireland, specialising in accessible, human-centred digital solutions. His guiding principle is making tech make sense: building applications that let people navigate technology with confidence and ease.
His work includes Passenger.ie, an app that transforms the train booking experience, using AI agents to book tickets for elderly passengers, and FuelWatch.ie, a fuel price comparison service cited by Ireland's Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. Alongside his development work, Alex has delivered digital literacy training to seniors and government organisations across Ireland. He brings that same philosophy to Briefcase: deep user empathy, technical rigour, and an insistence that complex systems should never feel complex to the person using them.
Our promise
We respect the Court, we respect the law, and above all we respect you. Knowledge is power, and everyone deserves access to it.
If you are starting out, read the guidelines. They are free, and they will always be free. When you are ready, the forms are here.