Frequently Asked Questions:

How Does Invest4Justice Work?

 

 

• 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!

Frequently Asked Questions