Only lawyers can list campaigns on Article Two. This preserves clients’ best interests, such as confidentiality and privilege. Any funds are paid into an account, usually a trust account, controlled by the lawyer. Any misconduct can be investigated by the legal profession regulator.
Our Compliance & Precedents Guide starts lawyers off with the knowledge they need to crowdfund responsibly and confidently. Our How It Works page helps answer the questions of donors, lawyers, and clients to see if Article Two is right for them.
Funding for litigation is already a common practice, like legal aid grants or litigation funding. Article Two only helps lawyers and clients with the guardrails to do it with trust and confidence.
Crowdfunded money can cover solicitors’ fees; disbursements, including barristers’ fees, expert report fees, filing fees, search fees, translation and interpretation, and travel costs; protective costs orders, security for costs orders, and adverse costs orders.
If legal representation is provided at no cost or at a “substantially reduced” cost, those hours can count towards the national Pro Bono Target.
We hope Article Two will enable lawyers to do more public interest law in their areas of specialisation, wherever they work. We hope crowdfunding will redress some of the pay inequity at the private Bar, where juniors and barristers from minority backgrounds disproportionately take pro bono matters. We hope to contribute to a bigger public interest law ecosystem where more lawyers can pursue a career.
If more public interest litigation can be crowdfunded with the appropriate safeguards, this also supports the role of the judiciary in holding the executive and legislature to account. There could be fewer large, expensive, slow class actions in the future if more systemic issues can be litigated earlier at the individual level for less cost. Proper basis certification and civil procedure litigation requirements would still limit frivolous cases.
We advocate for increased funding for legal aid and community law by holding out the campaigns and funding we attract. In the future, we will be able to conduct impact studies to test the effect of crowdfunding on public interest law.
Every dollar crowdfunded through Article Two sends a message to ordinary people that they have the support of a community behind them.
Every dollar crowdfunded through Article Two supports the public interest law ecosystem—lawyers, paralegals, psychologists, scientists, engineers, translators, and interpreters—who work no-fee or low-fee and risk burnout because the need is so great.
Every dollar crowdfunded through Article Two is a sign of support for better funding for community law and legal aid to use law for social justice.
Our guide helps lawyers understand how crowdfunding affects lawyers’ statutory and ethics obligations, and how crowdfunding has been taken into account in reported decisions.
We provide information for lawyers, clients, and donors so everyone can crowdfund with responsibility and confidence.
Only lawyers can create an account or log in to draft a campaign. Article Two will offer feedback to consider as part of the listing process.