CrowdJustice, a Kickstarter for court cases, expands from the UK to the US

From board games to medical bills, crowdfunding campaigns powered by online platforms have raised huge amounts of money over the last decade. CrowdJustice, a startup founded in the UK, is trying to carve out a niche for itself in the world of legal battles. Its users have taken cases to the Supreme Court in Britain and won them all. More recently it was used to raise funds to battle gerrymandering and Trump’s travel ban in the United States. Today it announced that it has raised $2 million in a round led by Venrock and First Round Capital, money it will use to expand its visibility and operations in the US.

CrowdJustice isn’t the only platform that has been used to gather funds for court cases. GoFundMe, which allows for campaigns targeting virtually any cause or issue, has been used numerous times to gather money for individuals in need of legal defense. The big difference is that GoFundMe doesn’t evaluate whether a regulated lawyer has been engaged or set up a mechanism for ensuring that the cash raised is actually used on legal expenses.

CrowdJustice has a team of experts vets each campaign to ensure a qualified lawyer has been engaged. They also ensure that all funds go to the lawyer’s client trust account and disburse any leftover money should the case settle before funds run out. The company makes money by taking a small percentage of the funds raised by each successful campaign. So far it has helped campaigns raise $3.5 million in total.

Julia Salasky, CrowdJustice’s founder and CEO, grew up in the US but then spent 15 years practicing law in the UK. “The law is very inaccessible for many people,” she says. The money to hire a lawyer and the complexity to understand what makes for a strong case prevent many ordinary citizens from going the legal route. “What we’re trying to do is expand access.”

Along with the funding news, CrowdJustice is kicking off a new campaign today. The money will go toward the defense of Mike Hallatt, aka “Pirate Joe,” who is being sued by supermarket chain Trader Joe’s. Hallatt made a business of buying Trader Joe’s products in bulk and reselling them in Canada, where the chain doesn’t exist.

“The reason I’m continuing to defend myself, and not just throw my hands up and say to TJ’s, you’re bigger, you’ve got unlimited legal resource, I give up – is not just because this is my livelihood, and by the way, a legal one. It’s because I don’t think the law should be used to quash the smaller guy,” says Hallatt. “When I came across CrowdJustice, I thought, this is perfect – this is a way for me to gain equality of arms against a much bigger adversary.”