Former Linklaters associate turned access-to-justice pioneer Julia Salasky (pictured centre) was crowned Outstanding Innovator of the Year at the Legal Week Innovation Awards 2018 last month, for her work founding legal crowdfunding site CrowdJustice.

Since launching the site in 2015, thousands of people have donated millions of pounds to fund hundred of cases around the world.

High-profile examples include the People's Brexit challenge, a challenge against the Parole Board's decision to free black cab rapist John Worboys and the Stormy Daniels v Trump case currently ongoing in the US.

The majority of the cases funded by CrowdJustice are less high profile, but potentially life-changing for the individuals involved.

Why did you set up CrowdJustice? 

"I kept seeing the same problem crop up. Namely, most people simply can't access the legal system – and there is no clear solution for that. When I was at Linklaters, I was seconded for six months to a legal aid clinic. I saw first-hand how difficult it was for people to get access to legal services. And then I went to the UN and tried to help create a framework that could help consumers resolve disputes online. It wasn't a very effective project, because it didn't get to the heart of the problems of funding and lack of accessibility that cause the real gaps in access.

"It struck me that legal issues are human issues, at the end of the day – law can seem dry and inaccessible, but it's based on the human need to get justice or redress. So CrowdJustice was a way to use technology to harness the power of people to get behind other people who need help in some way."

How did you turn the idea into reality? 

"I started off with a lot of vague sketches of what CrowdJustice might look like. I went around asking firms what they thought of them but as you can imagine, that was not hugely successful. But one firm understood straightaway – I remember that one of the partners said they'd been looking for a way to democratise the way people access the law, and could we be ready to go live in a couple of weeks.

"So I spent a frantic couple of weeks getting the basics of the technology in place. I had no tech skills – no idea how to build a technical product. Nor did I have any experience of crowdfunding, or generating awareness of legal issues. So it was a very steep learning curve at the beginning.

"That first appeal was heart-wrenching to watch as it went live – I was permanently glued to the website, refreshing the page constantly and emailing everyone I knew to ask them to support it. It's hard to describe that level of obsession about the first thing you launch."

The legal system should be for everyone

What did you learn from that first experience?

"Mostly, that nothing much will go to plan. But also to some extent the basics – the mechanics of how and why people give, how to spread the work and how the technology needed to develop."

What happened next ?

"I had a vision of what I thought this would be but no vision of how it would pan out. People and lawyers in particular saw something in this that had been lacking that could really fill a gap. We started to have a flow of cases come on – from both firms directly and from individuals."

How does it work and what checks do you put in place?

"This is entirely client-led – the client signs up, does the work around promotion, and that's who we help support. However, most cases come via a lawyer, who has a client that could benefit from extra funding, or who they might otherwise need to turn away. Funds raised go directly to a firm's client account. So, not only do we independently verify that the person taking a case has instructed a solicitor, but we also do rigorous anti-money laundering checks on everyone involved, from the person taking the case, to those giving funds."

How much has now been raised across how many cases? 

"So far, people taking cases have raised more than £7m through the platform for about 400 UK cases, five of which have gone to the Supreme Court. Around 200,000 people from over 100 countries have donated to the cases."

What are you most proud of? 

"I think in some respects we've enabled a shift both in the way people fund legal matters, but also in the way that consumers feel that it's possible to use the law. In other words, getting behind a case makes the law feel less like an opaque, inaccessible institution that's expensive and remote. For people giving to cases, it's empowering to think you can be part of the legal system and, in some cases, create real change.

"On a more competitive level, when we first launched there was a lot of scepticism around having a mechanism or tool that would allow people to access or fund the law in a different way; and I'm proud that we've proven those sceptics wrong."

Do you feel personally invested in the cases? 

"Absolutely. I've given to a lot of cases on the platform. But I also like the fact that CrowdJustice is not political or campaigning-orientated, but rather strives toward creating more access to justice."

Do you have a standout case? 

"One is Dr Chris Day, who by taking his case has earned from the courts whistleblowing protection for junior lawyers. He's personally created an impact for tens if not hundreds of thousands of people, at what must have been a great personal cost to continue fighting a powerful institution like the health service. He's used the power of thousands of supporters to really change the law and society."

What kind of cases attract most investment? 

"One of the things that is counterintuitive to a lot of people is that the underlying nature of the case isn't necessarily relevant – a case doesn't have to be emotive or high profile for people to rally around. In practice, when the person taking the case is passionate about the issues at stake, they can find a way to tap into communities who will support them – whether that's a young person facing deportation or a local community challenging the closure of a local library."

We're only touching the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we can provide

What's happening now at CrowdJustice? 

"We are constantly trying to improve the product and reach new audiences. We have a number of really interesting legal matters on the platform now, from a challenge being taken by the Law Centres Network against the MOJ for removal of their emergency support services, to a trade union challenging the status of Deliveroo workers to try to enable more workers' rights.

"We also launched in the US just over a year ago and one case on the platform now is the Stormy Daniels vs Trump case, which is very high profile and has been an interesting case to have watched develop."

Are there ever misconceptions about CrowdJustice? 

"Very often! Some people assume it can only be big, high-profile cases that work. But in fact we've seen that a hugely broad range of matters large and small can get funded, often very quickly indeed. We are starting to see some lawyers even start new practice areas where they can see that there's a possibility to take on clients that maybe wouldn't have had any funding options before.

"Recently, there were allegations in the US that the Stormy Daniels case was being funded by big, rich, politically-motivated donors, but crowdfunding is actually the exact opposite. CrowdJustice enables thousands of people to give small amounts. They've had around 14,000 donations with an average value of $35 each – which is more or less consistent with the average values we see across the platform (£35 average donation)."

What next? 

"We have big ambitions to make the law more accessible to many more people and enable people to be more informed about their legal options and legal rights. The SRA says that two thirds of people who have a legal problem don't even access legal advice.

"There's not yet a lot of good information out there in the legal space about how you get beyond a fear of the archaic perceptions of the legal profession, so I think we can do a lot about giving more information about how to use the law, what others have used the law to achieve and help break down the barriers to getting access to legal services.

"We definitely see the problem CrowdJustice is trying to solve as a global problem. Right now, there's still a lot to be done in the UK and the US – we're only touching the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we can provide."

How do you think access to justice needs to change? 

"On the commercial side, there's a lot of innovation and a lot of activity in terms of people trying to make things better. But you don't see that so much on the consumer side. But for us, that's the most exciting place to be because there's a huge number of people who don't access legal services because they think they can't afford it, and that's just unacceptable. The legal system should be for everyone."