Help To Modify The Death Penalty And Sentencing Guidelines In The United States
Anyone, anywhere in the world, can potentially help to modify the death penalty and sentencing guidelines in the United States. They can do this by contributing to the case of Gregory Swokla, who needs either a lawyer in Northern California, or funding for a lawyer in Northern California, where he has been sentenced to die in prison for a murder committed by one of his friends when he was a dumb kid just turning 19.
This murder was committed by his acquaintance during a mistaken attempt at robbery with a group of young friends, but it was his friend that committed the murder, not Mr. Swokla, who had not been previously convicted of anything and did not want this to happen, of course.
In addition to it being cruel and unusual for the United States to sentence to life in prison someone who does not have a previous criminal record for something a friend did that was wrong, it is atavistic and fairly savage. It is clear that Mr. Swokla was unable to pay for Clarence Thomas and a Dream Team of lawyers the first time around.
All contributions to Mr. Swokla´s case will be held in escrow until a lawyer has agreed to take on his case. They will then be transferred to his lawyer.
Lawyers who are interested in taking on this case are requested to confer with Mr. Swokla directly, who can be reached via his Invest4Justice profile: http://www.invest4justice.com/members/gregoryswo/.
– William Kirtley, Legal Counsel (And Co-Founder), Invest4Justice
Headline: Nineteen year old non-homicide offender sentenced to die in prison
Gregory Swokla needs legal representation, in the United States District Court, Northern District of California. Short of this, he needs funding for that legal representation.
In July of 1992 Gregory Swokla was arrested for a murder he didn’t commit. At the age of nineteen Gregory participated in a robbery in which one of his four co-defendants caused the death of one of the victims present at the robbery. Gregory had never been involved in any type of violence prior to this, so imagine his surprise when he was charged with murder! Gregory was subsequently convicted of murder, on his birthday, and later sentenced to die in prison.
Gregory is challenging the constitutionality of his sentence.
The United States Supreme Court has already used a body of scientific evidence to make rulings in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. (2012), Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. (2010) and others. The scientific evidence, in which some was provided by Ruben Gur, Professor of Psychology, clearly states that the “early twenties” is the age at which mental maturity is attained. The lack of this maturity, and the turmoil of the developing mind in these formative teenage years, has been compared to mental retardation. The U.S. Supreme Court was only dealing with individuals under the age of eighteen at the time of the above mentioned cases, so that may be why They didn’t use the scientific evidence to its full extent.
Gregory is presenting his case and asking the Courts to apply the full body of scientific evidence, to its full extent, as was indicated in all of the research. The U.S. Supreme Court, in its wisdom, accepted the assertions of the scientific community. Now They need to apply it equally to all of the class of individuals that it genuinely applies to.
We believe that Gregory’s case will lead to not only mandating that he be given a sentence that allows him to earn parole, but will help bring an end to the barbaric sentencing guidelines found in the United States. California has already taken a step in this direction with Senate Bill 9, but more is needed.
In addition, the United States Supreme Court has also stated that the sentence of life without parole (LWOP) is equal to the death penalty. In light of this: The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment “guarantees individuals the right not to be subjected to excessive sanctions.” Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 560 (2005). That right “flows from the basic ‘precept of justice that punishment for crime should be graduated and proportional‘” to both offender and the offense (quoting Weens v. U.S., 349 367 (1910)).
Graham concluded that LWOP sentences, like capital punishment, may violate the Eighth Amendment when imposed on children. The body of scientific evidence used by the U.S. Supreme Court, when fully applied, indicates that Gregory Swokla should have been treated as a juvenile, for the purpose of sentencing, according to his age at the time of his crimes.
To be sure, Graham’s flat ban on LWOP applied only to non-homicide crimes, and the Court took care to distinguish those offenses from murder, based on both moral culpability and consequential harm. But none of what is said about children – about their distinctive (and transitory) mental traits and environmental vulnerabilities – is crime specific. Those features are evident in the same way, and to the same degree, when a botched robbery turns into a killing. So Graham’s reasoning implicates any LWOP sentence imposed on a juvenile, i.e. mentally immature individual, even as its categorical bar relates only to non-homicide offenses.
Thank you for your time, I look forward to any help you can provide that will lead to the fair resolution of this case.
If You Are Offering A Reward To Funders Then Please Select “For Profit”
Non-Profit
Title For Your Legal Dispute
Nineteen year old non-homicide offender sentenced to die in prison.
Does Your Case Concern A Legal Right?
Anti-Death Penalty
Civil Liberties
Claims against Torture
Unjust Imprisonment
Recommended Contribution
70
LEGAL DISPUTE TO BE FUNDED
Country Of Dispute
United States
Featured Image For Legal Funding Campaign
Do you need a lawyer?
Need Lawyer
Legal Funding Needed
$20,000.00
What Is The Maximum Number Of Funders You Would Like To Allow For Your Case?
Large Crowd-funding (10000 stakes)
Do You Agree To The Terms And Conditions?
I have reviewed the Terms of Use of Invest4Justice and agree to be bound by them. My offer, based on the terms specified above, is a public promise under Articles 8 and 9 of the Swiss Civil code (Preisausschreiben und Auslobung/promesse publique – Public promise/Reward), and I understand that my offer will become legal and binding once 100% of the funding required for my case has been raised and been received by me. Any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of, or in relation to the contract that will be formed upon receipt of contributions, including the validity, invalidity, breach, or termination thereof, shall be resolved by arbitration in accordance with the Expedited Procedure of the Swiss Rules of International Arbitration of the Swiss Chambers’ Arbitration Institution. Swiss law will be applicable to any contract that is formed based on this public promise.
Visit the litigant’s profile and communicate with them by clicking “Contact the Litigant” to the right. “Backers” and case “Updates” may also be viewed above.
Although it has been fully open to the public for less than two months, Invest4Justice already has 60,000 visitors, and the number of members and visitors continues to increase rapidly.
Why does this matter? This matters since this means that lawyers can get more exposure on Invest4Justice than on all but the largest global websites, such as the Legal 500, which is another reason for lawyers to sign up, in addition to the tools that Invest4Justice provides to allow lawyers to meet new potential clients, who might or might not need litigation funding.
This figure also matters because this means that plaintiffs or defendants will have tens of thousands of visitors to their litigation funding campaign, who might be willing to contribute to it.
While our goal at Invest4Justice is to increase the number of visitors tenfold, we cannot do this without your help.
Please share Invest4Justice with your friends and acquaintances, as well as anyone who has a legal dispute but cannot afford to bring it at the moment, to help make justice truly blind, and to contribute to global access to justice.
Litigants and lawyers have a lot of questions, so we decided to create a user forum to see if they find it to be useful. Every litigant can get to the forum by clicking on the relevant link on the menu when logged in. This way, users can help each other and give each other tips about anything they see fit. If it is popular we will keep it up, if it is unpopular we will take it down (clever strategy, eh?). If you have a request for a feature please do not hesitate to write us at admin@invest4justice.com.
All current users were automatically made members of the forum. New members can also join automatically (we cull all spam users every week or two, and continue to develop better methods to detect them without reviewing private logs, which remain inaccessible by Invest4Justice’s administrators – spam users are not welcome).
User Forum #Crowdfunding, #Forum, #Invest4Justice, #LitigationCrowdfunding, #LitigationFunding, #Tips, #ToolsToPromoteACase
Note: This case was submitted on 31/10/2015. It is currently being validated as real by our lawyers.
Description Of Legal Dispute
My name is Christopher Gallant. I was born in MA in 1975. I came to Alabama in 1997. I’m a mechanic by trade. I also build houses. I love the outdoors. I love fishing, boating, water skiing, and hiking. I have 7 nieces and nephews. I have a wonderful Mother and my Father has passed away since I’ve come to prison.
I was arrested in 2012 for Capital Murder, that I did not commit. I took my case to trial and lost. They gave me Life Without Parole. I got denied my appeal. The evidence shows that the driver of the car wasn’t the shooter and I ws the driver.
I need to hire a private investigator, balistics expert, and a good lawyer to prove my innocence. The person that did the shooting was never arrested and living life to the fullest while I am in here.
If the table was turned around and you were the one locked up for something you didn’t do, what would you do? The same thing I’m doing right now, asking you for some help. I do admit I,ve done a lot of bad things in my life but I’ve never taken anybody’s life and never would .Please, if you could donate me anything to prove my innocence it will be greatly appreciated. I do believe in what goes around comes around and I don’t deserve to die in prison for something I didn’t do. There are a lot of people in prison that are innocent like me. If you could donate me anything to prove my innocence it will come back to you, I promise. Everybody that reads this will be in my prayers.
God Bless and thank you so much for your donation. God Bless you and your family.
Sincerely,
Chris Gallant
Christopher Gallant, 16 Bayview Lane, Kittery, Maine 03904 C/O Joyce M Gallant-Roark
If you have any questions or you want to know how my case is going please feel free to write to me at the address below. Thank you again for your donations.
Christopher Gallant
AIS# 248012 M-5
100 Warrior Lane
Bessemer, AL 35023
Country Where Your Dispute Is Located
United States
How Much Litigation Funding Do You Need?
$500,000.00
Headline For Your Litigation Crowdfunding Campaign
FREEDOM
Featured Image For Your Litigation Funding Campaign
End Date Of Your Litigation Crowdfunding Campaign
2016-03-02
Do You Already Have A Lawyer?
No, I need a lawyer
Chances Of Success
Very Good
Will You Offer A Reward Or Are You Requesting Donations?
Disorder in the court shows 20 outrageous court moments including the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.
See courtroom rage – as a litigant attacks the judge. See a hitman bragging openly about the people he shot. See a litigant attacking a prosecutor and even a client trying to shoot a lawyer who manages to get away despite being shot.
Along with a trip down memory lane (see the O.J. Simpson trial and Anna Nicole Smith in court trying to get part of the fortune of her 90-year-old husband), this program by Court TV is required watching by all law school students for what not to do when they become lawyers.
Litigation Funding For Anyone, Anywhere In The World
Invest4Justice allows anyone, anywhere in the world and with a dispute of any size, to obtain litigation funding. It also allows investors from all continents to benefit financially from litigation funding.
Litigation funding has received a considerable amount of press over the past decade, with many articles in publications such as the Economist, the New York Times, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal discussing this highly profitable new business.
Litigation Funding
Litigation funding, also known as third-party funding, was born in Australia roughly a decade ago. The idea is very simple: specialist litigation funds pay the costs of very large legal disputes, in return for a percentage of the compensation that was awarded. By selecting disputes carefully, litigation funders could make significant returns, and some litigation funders, such as Burford, became large, publicly-traded companies, earning returns that were in excess of 50% per year.
While this was a very useful mechanism for the legal financing of very large disputes, and as lawyers we used litigation funding for a large case against a billionaire in South America, it was almost totally inaccessible for the vast majority of litigants.
We spent no less than one year speaking with over a dozen litigation funders concerning a very strong case where the litigant could not pay his legal costs precisely because the opposing Party had destroyed his enterprise and left him penniless. This took thousands of hours of our time as lawyers, and ultimately no litigation funding was made available since the amount of compensation sought was “only” USD 15 million, and the litigant was not based in an OECD country. In addition to this being a huge waste of time and energy, this seemed highly unfair to our client.
If litigation funding were to be of any use to the average litigant, we thought, it clearly needed to be made available for smaller cases, and it also had to be made available outside of the 34 OECD countries. The idea of litigation crowdfunding was born, which allows any investor to invest a basket of disputes (thereby diminishing their risks), while opening up litigation funding to litigants from all countries.
In addition to widening the pool of potential investors to include billions of potential investors, Invest4Justice hopes to allow litigants from any country to have their day in court while keeping more of their compensation. Due to the high demand and low supply of litigation funding, the litigation funders were able to demand a very high percentage of the compensation that a litigant ultimately received. On Invest4Justice, the litigant decides the percent of his or her compensation that he would like to offer as a reward, keeping full control of his or her legal dispute from start to finish.
Unlike traditional litigation funders, Invest4Justice also allows defendants to request donations for their legal disputes, while opening up litigation funding to a limitless supply of capital.
Many people who cannot afford the hundreds of dollars per hour that it costs to obtain the best lawyers are forced to use State-sponsored legal aid instead, whether they are a plaintiff or a defendant.
While some legal aid lawyers are quite good, many others are quite bad. The stories of lawyers falling asleep during trials, or showing up at trials drunk, are sadly true. Needless to say, this impacts your chances of having your legal rights vindicated. This is because legal aid pays far less than market rates in almost every nation in the world, and indeed it is hard for a lawyer to survive by accepting legal aid-funded cases only.
Rather than relying upon legal aid, you can build your own “dream team,” selecting from the best lawyers in your jurisdiction, by using Invest4Justice to obtain litigation crowdfunding. By getting the best lawyers, at market rates, you increase the chance of the success for your case, and you ensure that you have the same access to justice as the wealthy.
Invest4Justice is totally free for all litigants, and you have nothing to lose by using it: before you contact legal aid, see if you can fund your own dream team to ensure that you have true access to justice. Contact us at contact@invest4justice.com, and we would be glad to help you to set up your litigation funding campaign.
Invest4Justice has only one goal: ensuring that anyone, anywhere in the world, can finally obtain equal access to justice, which is not based on the respective wealth of the Parties.
Justice is supposed to be blind, and with Invest4Justice it can finally be blind to access to financial resources.
Many people are confused about how Invest4Justice operates – are litigants paid funds immediately as they are raised, or are they paid them only at the end of a litigation funding campaign once 100% has been raised? The answer is: both.
Some supporters of cases like to invest or donate immediately, regardless of whether 100% is raised, since they believe in a case regardless of whether 100% is funded. These supporters can click “Pay Now” at checkout, and they can see their funds being sent directly to the litigant.
Other supporters (especially investors) would like to make sure that 100% of the funds are already in place, so that they can be sure that the case really goes forward with adequate litigation funding. These investors can click “Pay Only If 100% Is Raised” at checkout, which means that they do not pay anything, unless 100% of the funds required for a case are raised.
Pay Now uses Paypal to send payments directly to the litigation. Pay Only If 100% Is Raised, however, uses Wepay, which is far more flexible, allowing data for a pledge to be stored in case the litigation funding campaign reaches its goal. If the litigation funding campaign never reaches its goal, the investor who pledged in such a case pays nothing. If the litigation funding campaign reaches its goal, all contingent pledges are sent to the litigant automatically.
By providing both possibilities, Invest4Justice allows for the best of both worlds: security that sufficient funding will be available to pay for everything, as well as the ability to support the case of a friend or family member directly and immediately.
Decide To Use More Traditional Third-Party Funding Instead ? No Problem !
Unlike most third-party funders, you sign no exclusivity clause when you decide to fund your case through Invest4Justice peer-to-peer litigation crowdfunding, and you are free to leave at any time.
If you decide that you would prefer to fund your case through traditional third-party funders at any time, then you can always do this. Simply send us an e-mail at contact@invest4justice.com, and we will remove your case, while returning all of the funds to the investors who have contributed to it unless full funding has already been raised.
In short, if you are considering traditional third-party funding, you do not lose anything at all by trying to fund your case through Invest4Justice litigation crowdfunding. In fact, Invest4Justice can be a good springboard to more traditional third-party funding, since it will ensure that your legal dispute is more visible to potential funders.
If the terms you receive are unattractive, or you do not manage to sign a litigation funding agreement with traditional funders, then you can also return to Invest4Justice to fund your case on whatever terms you select afterwards. While Invest4Justice removes fraudulent claims and will allow only donations for claims that it believes are unwinnable, with Invest4Justice each litigant decides the terms of the compensation they would like to provide, and whether they wish to go forward with their case.
There is nothing to lose by attempting to crowdfund your litigation on Invest4Justice: you can walk away at any time, and you pay nothing to use at all to use the service, while keeping as much of your own compensation as you decide.
Thousands of potential investors review the cases on Invest4Justice each day. One, or ten thousand of them, could be interested in contributing to your legal dispute, either out of kindness or in order to earn a profit.
Sign up for free today to obtain access to justice and third-party funding on whatever terms that you decide for your claim !
Invest4Justice itself takes no part of a litigant’s compensation, and it is free to use by any litigant, in any country, with a legitimate claim.
The global market for justice is huge. The global legal services market had revenues of USD 610 billion in 2013. There were an estimated 4,082,100 legal professionals globally, and by 2018 the market for justice is expected to be USD 750 billion globally. In addition to being huge, the legal market is ripe for disruption, since it is essentially Medieval in nature.
The current legal systems were developed during the Middle Ages in the United Kingdom (the common law), France (civil law) and Islamic countries (Islamic law), and they have changed little over the past three or four centuries.
The market for justice is frequently criticized by economists as being an inefficient market: the high price of legal services has been ascribed to asymmetric information between users and their lawyers, since there is little transparent data concerning legal fees, as well as to State regulations which provide lawyers with a monopoly for representation. This leads to situations where, in countries such as the US, the average hourly rate for partners is USD 536, an amount which only a very small minority of individuals can afford for a complex case.
States have simply not managed to address the high costs of obtaining access to justice in a satisfactory manner. While legal aid exists in most developed countries, sadly, the tales of legal aid lawyers showing up at trial drunk, or sleeping during a case, are true, and there are two levels of justice that currently exist in today’s market for justice: justice for the rich, who have the available funds to pay for a “dream team”, and justice for everyone else. States show no signs of fixing this serious problem at any time in the foreseeable future.
Invest4Justice attempts to address this fundamental flaw in the world’s legal systems, by allowing anyone, from any country, to obtain litigation funding for their own “dream team”, whether they are a plaintiff or defendant. It also improves the transparency of the legal market, by allowing users to rate their lawyers after a case has been won or lost, so that users can ensure that they are using only lawyers of the highest quality.
The only prerequisite for funding is that (1) the case is of social interest, such as cases that aim to abolish the death penalty or promote minority rights or that (2) potential compensation is greater than the cost of legal fees and expenses for a case, in which case an investor could profit from paying for it in the place of a litigant. Anyone can access justice, while externalizing their financial risk, lawyers can obtain new clients, and investors can make a superb profit: Invest4Justice is good for everyone.
With your help, we can make universal access to justice a reality. Sign up for Invest4Justice for free, whether you are a lawyer, a litigant, or a potential investor or donor, to help bring the market for justice out of the Middle Ages.
– Invest4Justice (Invest4Justice is a non-profit incorporated in Switzerland)
As the law continues to progress at a breakneck pace during the digital age, Harvard’s free the law project has taken the first step in freeing access to legal information, at least in the United States.
Harvard librarians are feeding over 40 million pages of legal texts through a high-speed scanner, in order to create a free and searchable database available to the public at large. The stated goal of Harvard is to improve access to justice since, basically since man invented writing, only a select few controlled access to the legal texts that represented the law.
The two main constraints to the right to an effective remedy are (1) access to information and (2) the costs of obtaining an effective remedy (legal fees, court fees, arbitrator costs, etc.). While Harvard is freeing legal information in the United States, Invest4Justice’s goal is to free the law with respect to costs, since everyone should have the right to justice. Knowledge is important, but in addition to knowing that one’s legal rights have been violated, it is important to have a remedy available when this occurs.
There can be little doubt that the legal profession and legal systems will change dramatically over the coming decades and this is a good thing, since it will no doubt make the law far more relevant and accessible by all.
Invest4Justice
Free The Law #FreeTheLaw, #Invest4Justice, #LitigationCrowdfunding
It only takes a few minutes to launch a litigation crowdfunding campaign on Invest4Justice and is free – plaintiffs or defendants (or their lawyers) simply fill out the form below. Your litigation crowdfunding campaign will be immediately published in thirteen languages and a dozen social networks, and you can begin collecting funds to pay for your legal fees at once (all fake claims will, however, be removed by Invest4Justice’s legal team). You have nothing at all to lose and everything to gain, so crowdfund your case today!
Today, China officially announced the end of the one-child policy.
According to the Chinese government, the infamous one-child policy is estimated to have prevented about 400 million births since 1979.
The new policy implemented today allows couples to have 2 children. The relaxation of family planning rules is mainly due to the ageeing population. Even though, it is an important step toward change, the Communist Party of China continues disregarding human rights:
“The state has no business regulating how many children people have,” said William Nee, a Hong Kong-based activist for Amnesty International.
But the human toll has been immense, with forced sterilisations, infanticide and sex selective abortions that have caused a dramatic gender imbalance that means millions of men will never find female partners.
This birth control policy was and is the most authoritative policy ever implemented a the level of such vast country. The origins of this rule have been a heated subject of debate. In the People’s Republic of China, 13 million abortions are carried out every year.
Invest4Justice: The Only Peer-To-Peer Litigation Crowdfunding Network
On the day that Invest4Justice announced that it was opening to all potential litigants, a new website named Lexshares, which had obtained funding in September 2014, sent out a press release calling itself a crowdfunding website. We are doubtful the timing was a coincidence. It is unclear whether the website was created independently, or merely copied Invest4Justice’s idea which had been many months in preparation and had been online since February 2014 in its alpha version, but this matters little, as long as litigation crowdfunding remains a tool to enable access to justice to the many who could not previously obtain it. Unfortunately, only Invest4Justice puts litigants first and does not try to profit from them.
Invest4Justice is the only true peer-to-peer litigation crowdfunding website to exist, whose goal is to use market-based mechanisms to enable access to justice, globally, since the legal system is too expensive. Rather than taking a percentage of the compensation that is to be earned by litigants or investors, it is a non-profit that operates on a traditional crowdfunding model, taking a maximum of 4% of the revenue that is generated to pay for litigation, which is then reinvested into worthy legal disputes promoting basic human rights, globally.
Its competitor previously indicated that it took a 20% interest in each case, making it a much worse deal for litigants, as well as investors, who keep less of their proceeds. Invest4Justice does not take a cut of the litigant’s or the investor’s remuneration, allowing both investors and litigants better returns. Invest4Justice, created by Harvard grads, lawyers and a former Peace Corps Volunteer, has the goal of helping those who are having a hard time paying the exorbitant costs of litigation, not profiting from victims.
Unlike its rival, Invest4Justice does not have any minimum size dispute, does not allow only certain classes of investors, and it does not cater only to users in the United States where punitive damages can be the largest. Invest4Justice also allows both plaintiffs and defendants to raise funds, and it promotes donations to lawsuits of social interest and those that promote human rights, rather than just lawsuits that can earn the most damages.
In short, if you are considering using litigation crowdfunding to pay for your legal dispute, which we encourage if you would prefer to spend your money investing in your business or paying for your family, please know that Invest4Justice has no ulterior motives and will not attempt to profit from you. You will also get the best returns as an investor, since Invest4Justice permits true litigation crowdfunding, whose goal is simply to make the world a bit fairer of a place.
Please contact us at contact@invest4justice.com if you would like to learn more about this revolutionary new tool, which we are certain will enable access to justice to thousands of litigants throughout the world over the years to come.
We designed the public and social network post tool to get the word out about your case – fast! Just indicate something of interest concerning your case, or something that you need. Your post will be automatically published on 11 social networks within one hour in the name of your user account. Afterwards, you can find your posts here:
The Best Lawyer Commercial of All Time?: The Texas Law Hawk
It’s a showdown with Jim “The Hammer” Shapiro for the best lawyer commercial of all time: is the winner Bryan Wilson, of Texas fame, or The Hammer?
Invest4Justice will be running the best lawyer commercials as well as other funny items concerning the law, since although legal disputes are serious the law can be funny at times.
Just look for the hashtag #funnylaw.
Now, if The Texas Law Hawk would just sign up for Invest4Justice….
Many variables have an impact on the idea that justice is “fair”. For instance, media and public opinion can most certainly influence a jury or a judge’s decision. Justice is a moral principle; it is necessary in order to protect the proper functioning of a society. In other words, it is a moral ideal and aims at reestablishing a moral order amongst the members of a society when an offence is committed. However, a judge can hold his/her own interpretation of the law.
Indeed, men make laws and interpret them, that is why and by definition, men are not perfect, they have flaws. Therefore, justice is most cases subjective. It cannot exist a universal justice since the signification of the word “fair” changes from one culture to another, from one society to the next. We tend to associate justice with fairness, but if a “fair justice” were ever to exist, in this case, it would be applied to an ideal society. There are great inequalities in how justice is served in our societies today and especially in the number of people who are lucky to access it.
Our Invest4Justice litigation crowd-funding platform strives to create a global community that shares the same values and beliefs; that justice should be accessible to anyone. Our goal is to help litigants – plaintiffs and defendants- raising their voice and get the support they need. In this platform you can communicate and chat with our users and also lawyers. Legal disputes can be extremely stressful and even shameful. It is no easy task to share such stories online, but our litigants need your help to get the justice and compensation they deserve. Our team is working really hard to make each case successful by giving litigants legal advice and also helping them reach their goal.
If you wish to donate or invest in a case, you can pledge any amount and decide whether you want the funds donated directly to the case or only if 100% of the goal is reached.
Litigation crowdfunding has a number of key advantages over legal aid:
There is no limit to the amount of litigation fees that can be crowdfunded, whereas legal aid has low limits in nearly all State systems and tends to be underfunded.
Anyone who is an adult is eligible to crowdfund their case, whereas courts typically determine eligibility for legal aid, and it is typically only available for the very poor. Even the wealthy can crowdfund their case if they would like to externalize risk.
Legal aid establishes a two-tier system, where the very rich can pay for the best lawyers, but those receiving legal aid typically have little or no choice as to counsel and do not always get the best. With litigation crowdfunding, litigants can select the best lawyer for their case.
Legal aid is not available for all cases, since legal aid programs typically restrict the type of cases that can be paid for. Litigation crowdfunding is available for all cases with merit that appeal to the global community.
Litigation crowdfunding is purely democratic, where the global community determines what cases should be funded. Legal aid is not, and courts and legal aid representatives decide which cases will be funded.
In the same vein, legal aid is paternalistic, whereas litigation crowdfunding is not: litigants remain in full control of their case at all stages.
Litigation crowdfunding costs nothing for society as a whole, whereas legal aid is typically funded by taxes. A considerable amount of the costs of legal aid in most systems go to funding bureaucracy rather than to actually funding the defense of legal rights.
Litigation crowdfunding is a social experience: supporters become part of the legal team and share the ups and downs of a case. Legal aid is a largely solitary endeavor.
While there is a lot to be said for crowdfunding a case rather than relying upon legal aid, it is clear that legal aid continues to have an important role in society: only strong cases that appeal to the community will be crowdfunded, whereas legal aid will fund every case as long as the litigant and the case qualifies for legal aid, including cases that are certain to lose or which do not appeal to the community (it is difficult to imagine crowdfunding the defense of rapist, for instance).
Ultimately, litigation crowdfunding is thus complementary to legal aid. Both litigation crowdfunding and legal aid, however, are far better than litigation loans, where litigants can end up highly indebted regardless of whether they win their case.
You will receive an e-mail message in just a moment, which includes the username you chose and your password. Please keep this information strictly confidential.
If you do not see it, please check in your spam inbox and indicate that the message is not spam.
You may complete your profileby visiting it in the upper right menu for logged in users. There are specific fields that can be filled in by lawyers, litigants and other members.
Investors or donors can review cases before investing in them or contributing to them or begin contacting members to ask questions about cases and reviewing the evidence that has been uploaded, which is often password-protected for sake the privacy (investors must request the password from the litigant when evidence is non-public).
Plaintiffs and defendants can immediately begin crowdfunding their case and we have provided a number of tips on creating a successful litigation crowdfunding campaignwhich might be useful. They can also upload password-protected evidence concerning their legal dispute (which does not have to be confidential information) to share with potential investors and can create a legal team after signing in, to which they can invite their friends, family and other members of their network, including anyone who would like to be regularly informed about their case via e-mail. All investors or donors to a case will be invited to this legal team as well. If you are active on social media, your case will be far more likely to be funded.
Lawyers can begin reaching out to potential clients or create a litigation crowdfunding campaign for their client. They may also create multiple legal teams for their different cases or simply work on their profile and store password-protected documents.
Let us know if you need any help at admin@invest4justice.comand good luck! The cases that have been the most successful often include a video, so we recommend one along with a well-edited campaign.
Defendant contracts with wealthy and stable Middle Eastern government for supply and installation of specialized equipment in their airports. The contract is a “Main Contract” signed in 2012.
Defendant enters into a subcontract with Claimant in 2012 according to which Claimant is to perform some of the works required by the Main Contract. The subcontract price is approximately USD 3M and the Works concern the production of a steel structure.
Defendant is therefore Claimant’s client and obliged to pay for the Works executed by Claimant under the subcontract and the works execution beyond the scope of the subcontract mandated by Defendant (“Variations” to the subcontract).
However, Defendant refused to pay USD 2.5M of variations executed by Claimant, harmed Claimant’s reputation, and practically drove it to bankruptcy. Claimant’s claim is valued USD 10M.
The arbitration clause contained in the Parties’ subcontract provides for the resolution of the dispute by an arbitral tribunal (3 arbitrators) in accordance with the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce. The language is English and the seat is Geneva.
Open to having an individual third-party funder fund the entirety of the case.
Username
desertcase
Country Where Your Dispute Is Located
Switzerland
How Much Litigation Funding Do You Want To Raise?
$700,000.00
Headline For Your Litigation Crowdfunding Campaign
Sizeable client refusing to resolve change orders and refusing to pay dues
Description Of Your Legal Dispute
Defendant contracts with wealthy and stable Middle Eastern government for supply and installation of specialized equipment in their airports. The contract is a “Main Contract” signed in 2012.
Defendant enters into a subcontract with Claimant in 2012 according to which Claimant is to perform some of the works required by the Main Contract. The subcontract price is approximately USD 3M and the Works concern the production of a steel structure.
Defendant is therefore Claimant’s client and obliged to pay for the Works executed by Claimant under the subcontract and the works execution beyond the scope of the subcontract mandated by Defendant (“Variations” to the subcontract).
However, Defendant refused to pay USD 2.5M of variations executed by Claimant, harmed Claimant’s reputation, and practically drove it to bankruptcy. Claimant’s claim is valued USD 10M.
The arbitration clause contained in the Parties’ subcontract provides for the resolution of the dispute by an arbitral tribunal (3 arbitrators) in accordance with the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce. The language is English and the seat is Geneva.
Open to having an individual third-party funder fund the entirety of the case.”
Featured Image For Your Litigation Funding Campaign
End Date Of Your Litigation Crowdfunding Campaign
2016-02-27
How Much Compensation Can You Receive If Your Case Wins?
$10,000,000.00
Percentage Of Future Potential Compensation You Are Offering As A Reward (Contingent Fee)
Plaintiffs or defendants who desire legal funding for all or part of a claim indicate how much litigation funding they need and specify whether or not they would like to offer a reward of a contingent fee (a percentage of the compensation they ultimately receive) to encourage contributions. They pay nothing at all to bring or to defend a legal claim, allowing the global community to enable their access to justice.
Investors and donors can invest in cases offering seeking donations or offering rewards, which can exceed five or more times the amount of funding that is provided. Investors and donors can choose whether to pay the litigant immediately, or to pay only if 100% of the funds needed for a case are raised. They can ask questions to a litigant or their lawyer before funding a case via confidential messaging on Invest4Justice, and they may review the evidence that is shared by the litigant, in order to ensure that the case is strong. When they contribute to a case, they receive an I4J certificate proving their contribution and they are also invited to the litigant’s legal team where they are updated about the case at least once per month. If investors have merely pledged to pay if 100% is raised, they will obtain their certificate and be invited to the team only if 100% is in fact raised and their funds are transferred.
Invest4Justice also allows users to find lawyers throughout the world, regardless of whether funding is needed.
Investors and Donors Choose Whether to Pay Only If 100% Is Raised, Or Whether To Pay The Litigant Or Lawyer Immediately
Litigants wanted to be paid immediately, but many investors and donors wanted to pay only if 100% of funds had been raised, so that they could be certain that a case would go forward. We listened to our users and, now, investors and donors have the choice: pay a litigant or his lawyer immediately – or pay only if 100% is raised. Investors and donors simply make this choice at checkout. If 100% of funds are not raised, investors who pledge to support a case only if 100% of funds are raised do not pay anything.
Does Peer-to-peer Litigation Crowdfunding Work?
Although it is still new, it certainly does work, and a number of cases have already been funded since Invest4Justice opened in 2014 as the first litigation crowdfunding website in the world. Justin’s case, involving his illegal detention in a casino, was an early success story. Others have also been located on Invest4Justice by professional third-party funders (litigants are free to end their campaign if they receive funding elsewhere, in which case investors are reimbursed their contributions), in whole or in part. Over the past year, we have come up with a number of tips to ensure that your litigation crowdfunding campaign is a success.
Probably The Best Investment That Is Also Legal
Actually, investors can earn far more than 500% on some cases. Contingency fees can be enormously profitable, and they explain the wealth of many of the wealthiest lawyers and most successful third-party funders, such as the publicly-traded company Burford, today. Returns can be many times the amount of funding contributed and some cases that are currently online are offering returns of over 900% (i.e., for each dollar contributed you may receive 9 dollars).
To give an example, someone might have a lawsuit, but need USD 50,000 to pay for it. To encourage contributions to help him pay for his case, he can offer to give 25% of the compensation he receives if the case wins. If the litigant wins USD 5 million in compensation having offered a contingency fee of 25%, then the litigant will give USD 1,250,000 to the members who contributed to his case in proportion to their contributions. So, a user who contributed USD 100 would receive USD 2,500 in return, which is a superb profit, since they have earned 25 times the amount they put in, i.e., 2500% of the funding they provided. There are very few better investments that exist and are legal.
While the above is an extreme example, since multiples are typically more in the range of 3-10, this does mean that investing in justice is one of the fastest ways to triple, quadruple, or quintuple funds to exist, and which helps others with real problems obtain justice.
Third-party funders who invest in cases professionally (taking into account cases that have won and lost) have far better returns than almost any other investors, roughly 7 times higher than historical average returns of the stock market.
Can Both Plaintiffs And Defendants Use Invest4Justice?
Of course. Plaintiffs can offer a reward or request donations, but defendants must typically ask for donations since they will not receive compensation if they win their legal case. If 200 contacts donate USD 100, a defendant will have USD 20,000 to pay for their case (the currency may changed and payments can be made to over 150 countries). Litigants need not be worried that they will receive their funds, since they can test this: just go to checkout, and you will see where the funds that are gathered are being sent.
How Much Does This Cost To Use?
Our goal was simple: to enable access to justice in the most cost-effective manner to exist to date. It therefore costs nothing at all for litigants, contributors or lawyers to use Invest4Justice, to exchange messages, to post a case, to find a lawyer, or to use any of the free tools that Invest4Justice provides.
Nothing at all is charged if a case is not fully funded, and Invest4Justice receives only 4% of the amount of funds that are actually raised at the time of transfer to the litigant.
This makes Invest4Justice far less expensive than any other litigation funding mechanism that currently exists.
Where Does My Money Go When I Pledge To Support A Case?
The money goes to directly to the litigant or their lawyer if you pay immediately. You can see where the money goes since the e-mail address of the recipient is shown at checkout. If you select to pay only if 100% of funds are raised, nothing is charged until 100% is in fact raised. If 100% is not raised you never pay anything.
How Much Can I Contribute To A Case?
The minimum investment or donation is USD 5. There is no limit to the amount of contributions, although you should contact us at admin@invest4justice.com if you are interested in making very large investments via wire transfer (over $5,000).
Why Should I Become A Member Of Invest4Justice?
Registering allows you to privately communicate with lawyers, clients, investors and donors, to invest in legal cases, to track your investments, to obtain the contact information of other members, to submit litigation crowdfunding campaigns, to join legal teams for a particular case, to share confidential documents with other members, and to stay regularly informed of progress on a case through legal teams. It also allows you to import your Gmail, Linkedin, Yahoo and other address books, and to send up to 500 invitations per day to your friends and family requesting multiple small contributions to a case, which add up quickly.
Your user data remains entirely private and will never be used for any reason by Invest4Justice except to allow members to communicate.
How Do I Set Up A Litigation Crowdfunding Campaign?
Just sign and fill out a short form. The process takes only a few minutes, and text and images can be edited afterwards when you are logged in to your account. Below is a video showing how a litigation funding campaign is created.
Do I Need To Provide Investors With Evidence About My Case?
No you do not, but we recommend sharing some password-protected evidence so that investors and donors can perform some due diligence. Just click on “Upload Evidence” on your user profile to the right, and upload password-protected evidence about your case. Learn more about how to upload evidence about your case and to share it. Evidence can be password-protected or made publicly available (if you are making evidence publicly available, please make sure not to reveal confidential information).
How Do I Know If A Legal Case Will Win?
Invest4Justice’s lawyers weed out claims that are fraudulent and clearly lacking in merit, and the weakest cases have tended to get the fewest contributions. The strongest cases in our lawyers’ opinion are selected as featured campaigns. Lawyers on the I4J network can also be consulted about the strength and profitability of cases, and you can privately communicate with the litigant or their lawyer to learn more about a case. Approximately half of all cases win, so you can lower your risk by investing smaller amounts in multiple cases.
When Do I Get Paid If A Case That I Invest In Wins? Within One Week Of Receipt Of Compensation By The Litigant
If a reward has been offered, it must be paid by litigants as soon as possible, but no later than one week following receipt of compensation.
How Do I Prove That I Contributed To A Case?
Upon contributing to a claim, you can immediately track each pledge in “Campaigns & Contributions”. You will also receive a certificate proving your contribution and will be invited to the litigant’s legal team to follow the case. The amount owed to individual members after a successful legal dispute can be calculated using Invest4Justice´s Member Reward Calculator, and your right to compensation is also recorded in the litigation funding agreement that all parties electronically sign.
How Can I Check The Status Of The Cases That I Have Contributed To?
At the time of the first transfer of the funds, a private legal team is created by Invest4Justice to which all contributors to a case, the litigant, and his or her lawyer, are invited. The litigant is required to post updates about the case at least once per month to this legal team according to Invest4Justice’s Terms of Use. You can select whether you would like to receive updates daily, weekly or monthly in the legal team.
How Do I Know A Litigant Will Pay The Reward They Have Offered When A Case Wins?
We chose Switzerland as the seat for Invest4Justice since, in addition to the great dairy products, under Articles 8 and 9 of the Swiss Civil code an offer to the public is possible (Preisausschreiben und Auslobung/promesse publique – Public promise/Reward) and can become legal and binding when accepted with no further conditions. For public promises, the obligation of the offering person is created by the performance required by the promise declared to the persons possibly interested. Although not required under Swiss law, investors can also request that a litigant funding agreement be signed. You can find an example of such a litigation funding agreement here.
How Does Invest4Justice Organize The Distribution Of Rewards?
Investors are able to follow a case throughout its duration through the private legal team that is created. Within one week of receiving compensation litigants must to pay their investors if they have offered a reward. Invest4Justice will help to organize this if requested by the investors or the litigant. Cases seeking donations do not provide rewards in return for funding.
How Can I Edit My Litigation Funding Campaign?
You can edit your litigation funding campaign by clicking on “Your Campaigns & Contributions” and clicking “edit.” You cannot change the reward that has been offered once a litigation crowdfunding campaign has begun, although you can change the Paypal e-mail address to which funds are sent automatically and the text of your case. You can change your photos or the text concerning your case and may request that the end date of the campaign be changed, although no case can last longer than one year.
How Can I See The Investors And Donors Who Contributed To My Campaign To Thank Them?
Simply go to your litigation funding campaign and click “Investors.” You can access their profile and thank them directly. Litigants can also thank all users in their legal team.
Who Can Use Invest4Justice?
Anyone who is an adult is free to contribute to a case in a country where crowdfunding is legal. All payments are made securely via Paypal or Wepay, except for amounts over USD 5,000 which are made by wire transfer. Any disputes are settled via accelerated arbitration proceedings in Switzerland, regardless of the nationality of the litigant or the investors. There have not been any disputes to date.
Does My Information Remain Confidential?
Your information remains wholly confidential unless and until you decide to make it public. Litigants, investors and lawyers are provided a variety of means of ensuring confidentiality after registering on Invest4Justice and creating a profile. Usernames are used instead of full names, and various levels of privacy can be set with respect to each case document that is uploaded (documents can be fully private, password-protected, shared only with contacts, or publicly available). No funder or lawyer has access to case files or other information unless a litigant gives it to them, and we keep no logs of user activity on the website or messages exchanged between users, which we cannot access. Please read our privacy policy for more information concerning the measures we have taken to bring the attorney-client privilege into the digital age.
Is Invest4Justice Secure?
Everything that takes place on Invest4Justice is encrypted, with multiple layers of security to ensure that your information remains secure and that no one can access it unless you decide to release it. Using Invest4Justice is more secure than using standard email to communicate in order to protect confidential communications. Evidence concerning a case can be password-protected if chosen by a litigant.
Why Did This Not Exist Before?
Many people are amazed that litigation crowdfunding did not exist prior to Invest4Justice, since litigation crowdfunding seems like such an obvious solution to the high costs of accessing justice. The Internet, crowdfunding and third-party funding, which paved the way for Invest4Justice, as well as changes to what are known as champerty laws that led to third-party funding, made this possible. If crowdfunding and third-party funding did not already exist, we probably would never have thought of combining the two. There is obviously a great need for this.
What If My Litigation Funding Runs Out?
Lawyers should help their clients estimate the total amount of all costs that will be required to bring the case, including both their own legal fees as well as related court costs and arbitration expenses. If more money is needed, however, a new litigation crowdfunding campaign can be created.
Why Choose Invest4Justice To Crowdfund My Case?
Unlike generalist crowdfunding websites, Invest4Justice protects the privacy of the litigant to the extent desired by the litigant, and no other funding mechanism is close to as cost-effective to pay for a legal dispute. Invest4Justice’s team of lawyers have considerable experience with dispute resolution and third-party funding, and they oversee cases and funds to ensure that Invest4Justice remains a transparent and law-abiding market for justice.
Can Rewards Offered Be Changed During The Campaign?
Rewards cannot be diminished for a campaign, but they can be increased.
I’m A Lawyer. Should I Use Invest4Justice?
Sorry for putting this last, but we suspect that only lawyers will make it this far.
Our secondary goal was to use the power of the internet to make it easier for clients to connect with the right lawyer, anywhere in the world, regardless of their need for litigation funding. You can find new clients, review private documents, create a private or public legal team to coordinate a case, etc., even if you decide to take a case on a contingent fee basis.
If your client has a strong case that cannot be funded by more traditional means, or can only be funded at a prohibitive cost for your client, then by all means suggest Invest4Justice to your client and agree to register and respond to questions about its strength or its merits. This will not take long and can help your client obtain funding more quickly.
About Invest4Justice
Invest4Justice was created due to our growing frustration to see that very few people can access justice with quality legal counsel, even when they have highly meritorious cases, for purely financial reasons. Although third-party funding has existed for nearly two decades (it was invented in Australia but has spread throughout the world), whereby private investors fund lawsuits, paving the way for Invest4Justice, the terms were not always advantageous for litigants and funds were only available for the largest cases, meaning that third-party funding was inaccessible for all but the largest 5% of cases (typically cases where the amount in dispute was over $20 million). Other funding solutions were either usurious (litigation loans, which can leave a litigant in debt even if they win their case) or resulted in often sub-par legal representation and sometimes sleeping lawyers. Often, there was simply no way to raise funds at all to have a day in court, and legal rights therefore became meaningless. We decided that the time was ripe to create a better way for plaintiffs and defendants to pay for the high costs of accessing justice using technology, by creating the first peer-to-peer litigation crowdfunding network, which permits plaintiffs and defendants to raise funds for their legal disputes, directly from investors, donors and their local community, at almost no cost.
William Kirtley serves as legal counsel for Invest4Justice, a Swiss Verein (association) located at Rue Liotard 63, Geneva, Switzerland, along with Olivier Marquais. Marine, Nadine, Raymond Benjamin perform marketing and roll out technical updates. Although Invest4Justice is based in Switzerland, litigants, lawyers, donors and investors can come from any country. Please feel free to contact them collectively at admin@invest4justice.com if you have any questions about using Invest4Justice and please share the news that anyone can finally have access to justice!
