The Justice Community
The Justice Community levels the playing field for litigants in person by providing legal advice and litigation finance.
Initial inspiration
Having spent over 20 years working on access to justice in some of the world’s poorest countries, I began part time volunteering at a free legal advice clinic in north London. I saw there how the justice system in the UK is loaded against ordinary people, and is skewed towards the interests of more powerful litigants with deep pockets. I wanted to do something to contribute to addressing these structural issues – and to use the power of innovation and the market to take our solution to scale.
How it all started
Having researched, and thought about it for a while, the covid lockdown was the spur to action. My son, Tom (who’s a venture start-up specialist) and I partnered up during his furlough, and worked intensively on the design of our business for 3 months – long zoom conversations!
Memorable highs along the journey
At the time of writing, our prototype business has been launched for a week, but so far-
Realising there was a work-around which enabled us to build a business to assist ordinary people, especially on low incomes to access justice
Building legal empowerment into our model- we help people to help themselves
Launching our prototype
Our first customer (last week!)
Beginning to develop partnerships with community/ faith/ freelancer/ small business organisations – so that we can help their members / clients
Formational lows
Hitting brick walls in the design process
Feeling there’s a mountain to climb
Being criticised for being a ‘for profit’ business
Foundation verses that have inspired along the way
“For I, the Lord love justice: I hate robbery and wrong-doing” Isaiah 61 v8
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed” Isaiah 1 v17
Key advice to other pioneers
Invest time in designing your business architecture
Think about commercial sustainability from the get-go – and design it in
Prototype your business – and then learn and adapt as you go
Our Why
Ordinary people are too often being bullied into accepting outcomes which don’t reflect the real merits of their case. We want to disrupt this, and put ordinary people in the same position as their well-resourced opponents. We think that disputes should be resolved on their merits, not on the depth of people’s pockets.
Team
Clare Manuel & Tom Manuel
Timing
April 2020
Funding
Currently we’re bootstrapping the prototyping. But will be looking for angel investors + venture capital finance in the longer term
Structure
Private limited company
