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CrowdJustice
Type of site
Crowdfunding (Social business)
Founder(s)Julia Salasky
URLwww.crowdjustice.com
Launched2014; 10 years ago (2014)

CrowdJustice is a commercial crowdfunding platform in the United Kingdom and the United States for projects aimed at improving access to the legal system.[1][2]

Overview

CrowdJustice is a crowdfunding platform where individuals, communities or organizations can raise money specifically for legal cases. This platform uses a team of experts to evaluate each campaign to ensure a qualified lawyer has been engaged for that campaign and that all funds go to the lawyer’s client trust account.[2] Originally started in the United Kingdom in 2014, CrowdJustice expanded to the United States in 2017 and moved their headquarters from London to New York City.[3][4]

If a campaign does not meet its minimum tipping point, then donors are not charged. In 2015, CrowdJustice stated that it takes a commission of 5% from the cases it funds and then the credit card company takes an additional percentage.[5][6] In 2017, the company raised $2 million in a seed round co-led by Venrock and First Round Capital in order to launch operations in the U.S.[7]

United Kingdom

Funded in 2015, Jengba (Joint Enterprise: Not Guilty by Association) raised £10,145 to intervene in a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom case on the law of joint enterprise in 2016.[8] It was also the first crowdfunded case brought before the UK Supreme Court.[8]

Funded in 2016, the “People’s Challenge” to Brexit campaign raised £170,550 with 4,918 pledges.[9][10] Once funded, this campaign brought a successful legal challenge to Brexit in 2017 to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom resulting in the court determining an act of Parliament was necessary to trigger any final action.[11][12]

In January 2017, Liberty launched a campaign to raise funds to challenge the Investigatory Powers Act in the High Court, raising more than £53,000 in a week.[13] In April 2018, the High Court issued its ruling on the first part of the challenge, giving the government six months to rewrite core parts of the Act, which it found incompatible with EU law.[14] Liberty's challenge to various parts of the Investigatory Powers Act is ongoing and, in May 2018, they completed a second crowdfunded campaign to support their challenge.[15]

In January 2018, the Centre for Women's Justice crowdfunded on behalf of two women who were raped and sexually assaulted by John Worboys for a judicial review against the Parole Board and the Secretary of State for Justice (SSJ) to challenge the decision to grant Worboys parole.[16][17] By November 2018, the Parole Board had reversed its decision and Nick Hardwick, the parole board chair, was forced to resign.[18] The Centre for Women's Justice has gone on to crowdfund multiple cases on CrowdJustice. In June 2019, the Centre for Women's Justice launched two fundraising campaigns to bring two different judicial reviews against the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). In the first campaign, they are representing the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) to challenge alleged CPS covert policy changes that are blamed for a collapse in the number of rape cases going to court.[19][20] In the second, on behalf of Emily Hunt, to challenge how the CPS regards voyeurism in private settings under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.[21][22]

United States

The week CrowdJustice launched in the United States, the Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC) created a campaign on behalf of green card holders Tareq Aqel Mohammed Aziz and Ammar Aqel Mohammed Aziz who were initially trapped at Dulles Airport due to a 2017 executive order.[11] The Aziz brothers were in the air when the executive order went into effect and detained upon arrival. The LAJC filed suit in Virginia, independent from similar cases filed by the ACLU. Over a nine day period, the Aziz brothers were sent back to Ethiopia and then to Djibouti before being allowed to return and enter the United States.[23][24]

In September 2015, OneVirginia2021 filed a lawsuit asking to have 11 different Virginia House of Delegates and Senate districts be redrawn due to allegations of gerrymandering.[25] In February 2017, the non-profit organization started to crowdfund on CrowdJustice in order to raise $5,000 for the case. Ultimately, they raised $51,423 from 1,068 donors to support their lawsuit.[25][26] In May 2018, the Supreme Court of Virginia rejected the challenge to the state's 2011 redistricting process and found the districts to be constitutionally valid.[27][28]

The organization Equally American (formerly We the People Project) brought a lawsuit to challenge the prohibition on residents of U.S. territories voting in federal elections in February 2017.[29] This was the second U.S. case on CrowdJustice.[citation needed]

In March 2018, Stormy Daniels and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, launched a campaign on CrowdJustice to raise funds for her legal case to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement she signed with Michael Cohen in October 2016.[30] The campaign raised $587,415 with 16,862 donors.[31] In November 2018, Avenatti launched a second CrowdJustice campaign to raise additional funds for Daniels.[32] However, Daniels publicly stated that she did not authorize the campaign and CrowdJustice soon pulled it from their website.[33][34] CrowdJustice also launched an investigation into another campaign (to help families at the Mexican border) created by Avenatti.[34] This campaign was not pulled from their website.[35]

See also

References

  1. ^ Ford, Jonathan (August 9, 2015). "Crowdfunding sites aim to make the law accessible to all". Financial Times. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Popper, Ben (2017-05-30). "CrowdJustice, a Kickstarter for court cases, expands from the UK to the US". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  3. ^ Munford, Monty. "After Disrupting Brexit, Crowdfunding And CrowdJustice Come To The US". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  4. ^ Ross, Janell (February 11, 2017). "Want to help fight legal battles? There's a crowdfunding site for that". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  5. ^ Rozenberg, Joshua (2015-05-25). "Is crowdfunded litigation the future of justice? | Joshua Rozenberg". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  6. ^ Kozlowska, Hanna. "Crowdfunding for public-interest lawsuits has come to the US, just in time for Trump's presidency". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  7. ^ "CrowdJustice raises $2 million to crowdfund social justice". VentureBeat. 2017-05-30. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  8. ^ a b O'Hara, Mary (2015-10-21). "Lawyer's crowdsourcing site aims to help people have their day in court | Mary O'Hara". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  9. ^ "The Supreme Court Brexit case only happened because of crowdfunding – and you won't have heard of the people who did it". The Independent. 2016-12-06. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  10. ^ UK, Oscar Williams-Grut, Business Insider. "People have already crowdfunded over £75,000 to defend the Article 50 ruling in the Supreme Court". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-06-12. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ a b Lithwick, Dahlia (2017-10-23). "A New Way to Support Legal Challenges in the Trump Era: Crowdfunding Lawyers". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  12. ^ Rathi, Akshat. "Britain's Supreme Court has made leaving the EU easier and keeping the UK together harder". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  13. ^ "Surveillance powers legal challenge launched". BBC News. 2017-01-10. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  14. ^ Cobain, Ian (2018-04-27). "UK has six months to rewrite snooper's charter, high court rules". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  15. ^ "The People vs the Snoopers' Charter: Part II". CrowdJustice. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  16. ^ "Update on CrowdJustice: 'Why was John Worboys granted parole? His victims need answers.'". Centre for Women's Justice. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  17. ^ "Crowdfunding is opening up Britain's justice system". The Economist. 2018-11-24. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  18. ^ Siddique, Haroon (2018-11-19). "John Worboys must stay in prison, says Parole Board". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  19. ^ correspondent, Owen Bowcott Legal affairs (2019-06-10). "CPS faces challenge over 'covert policy change' on rape cases". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-06-13. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  20. ^ "Women's organisations threaten to sue CPS for 'dropping rape cases without good reason'". The Independent. 2019-06-18. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  21. ^ Das, Shanti (2019-06-16). "No prosecution for man who secretly filmed naked woman sleeping". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 2019-06-16.
  22. ^ "Decision not to prosecute man who secretly filmed sleeping naked woman challenged". The Independent. 2019-06-17. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  23. ^ "Yemeni brothers at center of immigration lawsuit finally allowed to enter U.S." NBC News. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  24. ^ Lithwick, Dahlia (2017-01-29). "On a Terrible Day in U.S. History, Officials at Dulles Airport Were Particularly Cruel". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  25. ^ a b "OneVirginia2021 Launches Crowdfunding Campaign for Lawsuit". www.nbc29.com. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  26. ^ "Redistricting Reform in Virginia". CrowdJustice. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  27. ^ Times-Dispatch, PATRICK WILSON Richmond. "Virginia Supreme Court upholds 11 challenged state legislative districts". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  28. ^ Writer, DENISE LAVOIE, AP Legal Affairs. "Virginia court rejects challenge to 11 legislative districts". www.whsv.com. Retrieved 2019-06-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  29. ^ II, Vann R. Newkirk (2017-02-27). "Crowdfunding a Century-Old Fight for Voting Rights". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  30. ^ EDT, Gillian Edevane On 3/19/18 at 11:32 AM (2018-03-19). "Stormy Daniels's crowdfunding campaign rakes in almost $250,000 in less than a week". Newsweek. Retrieved 2019-06-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  31. ^ "Clifford (aka Daniels) v. Trump et al". CrowdJustice. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  32. ^ Briquelet, Kate (2018-11-27). "Michael Avenatti and Stormy Daniels Launch Second Crowdfund". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  33. ^ Briquelet, Betsy Woodruff|Kate (2018-11-28). "Stormy Daniels: Michael Avenatti Sued Trump For Defamation Against My Wishes". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  34. ^ a b Woodruff, Kate Briquelet|Betsy (2018-11-29). "Two Avenatti Fundraisers Under Review After Stormy Claims". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  35. ^ "Stop Forcibly Separating Families at the Border". CrowdJustice. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
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