Crowdfunding legal cases - making justice accessible to all

Published 25/07/2017

(Author: Joanna Sidhu, CrowdJustice) CrowdJustice is the only crowdfunding platform built for legal cases. Launched in May 2015, CrowdJustice’s mission is to increase access to justice by helping communities come together around legal issues that matter to them. The site gives people the tools to raise funds needed for a legal case, whilst raising awareness around specific issues and giving communities a voice. Along the way, CrowdJustice has helped raise over £3m to fund hundreds of cases, three of which have gone all the way to the Supreme Court.

Why do people use CrowdJustice for legal cases and projects?

The CrowdJustice team is heavily composed of lawyers who understand how legal regulations and compliance issues impact the raising of funds for legal cases. CrowdJustice has been designed with numerous safeguards to fully address all concerns that lawyers, their clients and potential supporters may have.

All funds raised are transferred directly to the lawyer’s client account. As such, contributors have confidence that their contribution is being put toward a real case. Know-your-customer (KYC) checks are also performed on the person raising the funds.

Additionally, given lawyer-client account rules, the CrowdJustice team carries out sanctions and politically exposed persons (PEP) checks on all people who contribute funds to a CrowdJustice case.

What can funds be used for?

Funds raised can be used to pay for any costs specifically related to a legal case or project, including solicitors and barristers’ fees, disbursements (e.g., expert reports and court fees) and covering exposure to adverse costs. The act of crowdfunding does not affect a client’s relationship with their lawyer or the courts – clients who choose to crowdfund remain responsible for all costs associated with their case.

What types of cases can be crowdfunded?

There is no one “type” of case suitable for crowdfunding – CrowdJustice has hosted cases involving judicial reviews, inquests, the Equality Act and everything in between. The site’s core requirement is that all cases have a lawyer instructed. Once this is confirmed, the case ower is provided with the tools and guidance to make their crowdfunding effort a success.

Notably, there is a common characteristic of all successfully crowdfunded cases: they involve an issue that clearly affects a community. In some cases, that community can be quite focused, like when a group of residents let their neighbours know they’re tackling a local environmental issue. In others it can mean an entire nation bringing an issu
e to a public forum, like when the Article 50 Brexit People’s challenge brought their case to the Supreme Court (and won!).

An example of the impact of crowdfunding:

Denise Brewster and Lenny McMullan lived together as a cohabiting couple for 15 years. In 2009, on Christmas Eve, they got engaged. Tragically, less than 48 hours later, Lenny passd away. Because they were a cohabiting couple, rather than married, Denise could not benefit as a survivor through the occupational pension to which Lenny had contributed for years. Denise brought a legal challenge to fight for her rights, and those of other cohabites.

Deighton Pierce Glynn acted for Denise Brewster on a pro bono basis all the way to the Supreme Court. At that stage Denise was faced with paying the Supreme Court fee of £5,820, plus £5,000 of the other side’s legal costs if she was unsuccessful. As this was money she did not have, Denise began exploring a creative way in which she might cover some of these legal costs: crowdfunding. She decided to use CrowdJustice to raise £4,000 and she reached that goal. In February 2017, she hit another goal: the Supreme Court unanimously found that there had been unlawful discrimination on grounds of marital status.

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www.crowdjustice.com/

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