Julia Salasky from Crowd Justice

x

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHiSP7f-N9Q

Welcome, this is a transcript of the 13th edition of the LawyerFair Daily Podcast, hosted by LawyerFair CEO, Andrew Weaver.

Andrew Weaver: Welcome to the Lawyer Fair Daily Podcast. I am Andrew Weaver. There are some ideas and concepts that immediately resonate. That is exactly how I felt when I discovered Crowd Justice very recently. That’s why I’m particularly delighted that the founder of Crowd Justice, Julia Salasky, has joined us today. Welcome, Julia.

Julia Salasky: Thanks very much. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Andrew Weaver: It’s brilliant that you’ve got us some time. What I know is a ferociously busy time for you at the moment. We’ll come to that in a moment.Just a wider perspective, there are many examples about how the crowd in the community is having a direct impact on modern life, everything from petitions to finance. Julia has created Crowd Justice. Julia, tell us more about how the crowd is going to impact in Crowd Justice, is going to help impact on access to legal services.

Julia Salasky: You’re quite right that the crowd has made a big impact in other areas. The way we saw that Crowd Justice could fill a gap in the existing legal climate and legal framework is that it provides access to justice by enabling communities to come together to achieve access to justice where otherwise might not be possible.

Andrew Weaver: To break it down for people that don’t get that concept, how does it actually work? What is it doing for people?

Julia Salasky: What it does is it allows people who have a legal case or are in need of legal advice to put their case or their issue up on the site and to publicize it and to seek crowd funding for that. It essentially enables people who require access to justice or otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford getting access to justice, a way to leverage in the power of communities to help them fund their claim.

Andrew Weaver: Essentially, I know this is a new site, actually, but it allows me to access courts. It’s not just for those who can afford it anymore. This is a platform that allows people to access the court system without needing great wealth. They can get the community in the crowd to help them get there.

Julia Salasky: Completely right.

Andrew Weaver: Probably the best illustration, Julia, is I know you recently launched, which is why you’re ferociously busy at the moment. You got two cases on the platform. One of which has already been funded, which is great news. The second, which has recently been put on the platform. I think they get a great example if you could explain more about these two particular cases of how the platform is working.

Julia Salasky: Absolutely. In the two cases we have up on the platform and in the various cases that are to come on the platform in the next couple of weeks, what we have is basically vulnerable or otherwise non-wealthy individuals who are seeking funding to access different areas of legal services that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford.For example, in the first case, the claimant was funding to, even though his lawyers were doing it on a no way, no fee basis, he was funding to, try to cover other legal cost, for example, expert’s fees.

Andrew Weaver: Absolutely. The second case?

Julia Salasky: In the second case, what we have is someone who’s funding to cover the cost of a protective cost order. Essentially, that enables him to have protection if he loses the case from, for example, losing his home. He’s on a state pension, but he has a little bit of equity on the family home, which means he’s not eligible for legal aid.

Andrew Weaver: I think what strikes me, with two things that strike me, Julia, with those. First of all is the diversity of the two cases that you’ve suggested. I certainly, from my perspective, I saw the first one, and I thought this was a very global issue, big corporations and local communities. You’ve got the second case which is very much more about a local issue.I think, the thing that I found, I love about it frankly is I’ve often found reading my Sunday papers, Julia, thinking, getting outraged about how Goliath bashes David over the head all the time. Your platform allows people to reverse that and actually have it go back. I think it empowers not only the people who are involved in that, but also it actually empowers people like me who feel fairly powerless and being able to help.

Julia Salasky: Absolutely. I think that’s a really good way to put it because the idea of communities coming together and technology enabling that is really, really empowering. A lot of the issues in court cases that come up on the site are things that a lot of different people, I think, will feel like they have a personal stake. It is very empowering to be able to contribute and get case updates from someone that’s running a case that could affect you and could affect your community as well.

Andrew Weaver: In terms of the update, is that, obviously, we’ve got crowds funding and all the finance tools where you can invest and expect a return, but on this, it’s very much about helping someone. What’s the feedback? Is that a direct response from the people you’re helping or from the platform? How does it work in terms of communication?

Julia Salasky: Absolutely. From the perspective of the people who are backing the cases, we really see this and I think they really see this as an investment in their community or an investment in the legal system. Trying to have an impact on legal issues is, as you say, it’s a really empowering thing.In terms of as the case progresses, the idea is that the claimant or the case owner gives updates to backers, so that they continue to feel involved in the case as it progresses.

Andrew Weaver: I’d say, obviously, they’re backing it, you can follow it through to its conclusion. Are you expecting it to become an ongoing engagement? For example, if someone needs a small amount of cash to be raised for a particular court hearing, is there potential for carrying on with the backing of that person through whatever later tribulations they may face?

Julia Salasky: Absolutely. That’s one of the challenges of court cases in general is that they often involve several different stages which can require additional funding at later stages. There’s absolutely the possibility that a claimant could come back to the site and say, “Look, you supported me the first time around, and I’d love to have your support in the second stage of my case.”

Andrew Weaver: To be clear about the actual process, Julia, who’s responsible for the money that’s raised? That’s not Crowd Justice, is it? That’s directly with the person who’s raising the money. Is that right?

Julia Salasky: One of the additional safeguards that we provide is that the money that’s raised goes to a solicitor’s client account. For those people who aren’t familiar with the legal system, in general, the idea is that the solicitor holds money on trust for its client.In that respect, backers have a lot more sense of credibility of the fact of the case, its existence, and the fact that the money is being spent in the way that it was proposed that it would be spent.

Andrew Weaver: I understand. Now, Julia, I’m particularly thrilled that you’ve carved out some time because you launched on May the 22nd, which is what, four or five weeks ago. How are you feeling? How’s the first burst of activity going?

Julia Salasky: It has been a burst of activity, but it’s been really rewarding. I’ve been able to speak to a lot of different people who are running very, very interesting cases and cases that they’re really passionate about and that have huge community impact. It’s been very, very rewarding.

Andrew Weaver: We’ll give out the details in a moment. If you had a case that you think might be something for Crowd Justice to work with and also if you want to contribute, then obviously, there’s a website. We’ll give the details out.Are there other people and stakeholders that you’re interested in meeting and speaking with, Julia? Is there a resource that you would like to get on board or help you?

Julia Salasky: I think the idea of reaching all sorts of different communities is what we’re aiming to do because all sorts of people can have cases that have a public interest element. There’s no specific group that we’re trying to reach out to at the moment.

Andrew Weaver: Obviously, by the nature of the first two cases, one was Colombian, was native South American, and the other, UK. Is geography not an issue as well for you? This is very much a global platform.

Julia Salasky: It is and isn’t. We’re focusing at the moment on the UK court system and on accessing the UK court. Even though in the first case we had an internationally-based claimant, he’s actually bringing his claimant in front of the UK courts. We do have a UK focus, although a lot of this implicates global issues, so you never know where the crowd can come from in some cases.

Andrew Weaver: Absolutely. I suspect this will very quickly gather momentum and you’ll be dealing with that issue very soon, I suspect.Julia, thank you so much again. To be absolutely clear, if you’re interested in contacting Crowd Justice, it’s crowdjustice.co.uk?

Julia Salasky: It is. Yup.Andrew Weaver: Julia, thanks so much.Julia Salasky: Thank you.Andrew Weaver: The very best of luck with everything.Julia Salasky: I really appreciate it.Andrew Weaver: Not at all. That was the Lawyer Fair Daily Podcast. Thank you for listening.