Post #22945
September 30, 2014, 05:18:28 PM
It appears that I have a new lease on life and may not become a homeless law student this month.
Although, I have to admit that would have been somewhat pimpin'.
Now I'm drawing plans in my head to launch my own law practice...where I will charge no legal fees outside of required filing fees for written testimonies, suit filings and the like. I'd like to waive all fees if possible. I'm trying to find a sustainable business model, but I'm gonna partly mirror it on a local doctor's itinerant clinic. I would have to file for charity status, which should not be a problem.
One solution would be to take only worthy causes where I have an almost sure-fire chance of winning on the behalf of poor people, then grassroots fund the legal costs (lawyers might charge amazingly high fees, but the procedural costs are also really high, and if neither me or my client can pay them, there's no suit). Kickstarter et al. showed it could be done. For less obvious cases I might still grassroots them, but I'm trying to find a solution where the people giving would have enough for their money. I could use Internet grassroots and raise money all over the world or the old way of doing it, just collecting money from the streets.
Another solution would be to make it as a cooperative venture where people can buy "inverse shares" and donate a set cost per month, while I would reciprocate by making my legal representation free of charge to "board members". These "investors" would be able to review applications for legal actions from "non-investors" who are particularly disadvantaged. If it is a civil suit where damages can be awarded, the traditional lawyer's share could be divided among the "board members" and myself as a way of further return, but I don't really like that model because of the pressure to have returns in the first place. Lawyers can't always win, ya know, so it might give rise to impossible expectations.
Yet another solution would simply be to sustain myself on another job while taking all legal cases pro bono, but then I wouldn't have any time for myself.
If I can, I'd like to enlarge the study to some kind of massive awareness body, where people would be taught their exact rights and obligations and taught to read fuckin' Legalese so that they aren't screwed over in their next contract.
I don't even know why an "itinerant lawyer study" doesn't exist yet, what with everyone whining about accessibility to the justice system and how there's no justice if you aren't rich (they are 100% right). Everybody's whining, nobody's doing anything. This would be the first of its kind in my city, perhaps even the province or country.
