Legaler Aid is a non-profit initiative born out of Legaler, a secure and encrypted video conferencing platform created for legal professionals. Legaler Aid provides an online platform to connect litigants in social justice cases with pro bono lawyers and the funding they need to navigate an expensive legal system. Law firms are charged a ‘pay-as-you-use’ service fee of $19.99 per month to access the platform for information about opportunities to do pro bono work. In addition to matching legal needs to pro bono legal assistance, the donations platform allows social justice litigants to set up ‘Cases’ to seek funds for associated costs, like filing fees. For each ‘Case,’ Legaler Aid retains 3% of the crowdfunded donations received to sustain organization costs. Organizations that are working to expand access to justice are also able to create a ‘Cause’ page, which allows them to raise funds for their mission, with 100% of donations to ‘Causes’ going directly to the host organization. Each donation receives a “proof of justice” receipt that allows donors to trace their donation and monitor its impact. Legaler Aid also crowdfunds for building out their own efforts, and relies on volunteer contributions to support operations.
Theory of Change
Virtual platforms can help reallocate latent funds and lawyer resources in the market in a transparent and accountable manner to increase the availability of legal services for those who need it the most.
Activities
Legaler Aid raised crowdfunded donations for causes initiated by NGOs like ‘Whistleblower Aid’ to help US government whistleblowers and the ‘Feminist Coalition’ to fund the #EndSARS campaign against police brutality in Nigeria. Their platform accepts cash and cryptocurrency donations, and it uses blockchain technology to store information about the recipient and use of each donation in a reliable and transparent way. Additionally, Legaler Aid is creating a virtual legal clinic that uses artificial intelligence to direct people to the correct type of lawyer for their case. An initial pilot worked with the Supreme Court of Tennessee to match Vanderbilt Law School students to clients and provide free legal advice over Legaler video technology. Building on the pilot, Legaler Aid’s working group, the Legaler Aid Justice Alliance, is partnering with Lex Mundi’s Pro Bono Foundation, the University of Oklahoma, and George Washington University, among others, to devise a new access to justice initiative. Legaler Aid is also working on a ‘social ranking’ reputation score system for law firms and lawyers, to be integrated into their developing platform.
Results
As of late 2020, Legaler Aid has five ‘Cases’ and six ‘Causes’ that have received numerous small-dollar donations. With over 5 billion people living without access to the justice system, and $21 billion worth of latent legal services currently existing, Legaler Aid estimates that for every dollar spent on their scalable technology, there is a 40x multiplier for the amount of free legal advice that can be delivered to the public through crowdfunding and virtual legal clinic services.
