While litigants in person are increasingly common in civil proceedings in Hong Kong and in other common law jurisdictions, we know very little about them. Most of the available information is anecdotal and does not answer key questions about the reasons why litigants represent themselves and the connections between self-representation, merits and outcomes. This first of two articles discusses the challenges posed by self-representation for litigants and other stakeholders, identifies the gaps in our knowledge about litigants in person and charts a course for further empirical research to fill those gaps.