Crowdfunding justice to fill a gap in legal aid

A UK lawyer introduced the idea of using the crowd to fund justice initiatives — strictly for those ineligible for legal aid.

“Salasky launched CrowdJustice in 2015. She emphasises that she never intended to sew the gap left by Legal Aid – it should be available for as many people as possible, she insists – but her model equips people ineligible for Legal Aid to take action. Since Legal Aid it was cut, it’s estimated that as few as 20 per cent of Brits would qualify.

She says: “There were a lot of naysayers at the beginning. Law as an industry is so steeped in tradition and when you’re trying something new, that can be a huge impediment. There were some articles published around our launch saying ‘this is a very noble idea, but it will never work’.”

Fast forward four years and over £10m has been raised, by 200,000 backers, for more than 500 legal cases. Cases must already be linked with a lawyer before a public page can be made on the site so that only legitimate lawsuits make it on to the platform, and CrowdJustice takes three per cent of cash raised to cover operation and compliance costs. It’s “really quite straightforward, for an industry as complex as law,” Salasky says. The company is now a team of 18, operating in the UK and the US.”

Read the full piece [here]