Page 21 - NC Triangle Vol 7 No 2

Legal Innovators
Courtroom5
BY BOB FRIEDMAN
SPONSORED BY LAWYERS MUTUAL
Sonja Ebron and Debra Slone each got a rst-hand lesson about the challenges of rep- resenting themselves in civil
court as laypersons.
When Slone returned a rental car in
2007, the company charged her for an earlier client’s dent. When she refused to pay, the rental company sued her. Slone battled the car rental company until it dropped the case.
An answering service company overcharged Ebron for services in 2010. e company sued when she re- fused to pay up. Ebron turned down several settlement o ers and won the case at trial.
During a weekly card game, Ebron and Slone shared their war stories and the idea for Courtroom5 was hatched.
“People are either getting sued for not being patsies or having to sue when someone takes advantage of them,” said Ebron.
Slone has a doctorate in library sci- ence and was a library school profes- sor. She has expertise in user-computer interactions and qualitative analysis. Ebron has a doctorate in electrical en- gineer and has been involved in several business startups.
e two women pooled their re- sources and experience and spent 18 months developing Courtroom5. e Durham-based company went live in 2017. Both work on the project full- time.
“ rough literally dozens of cases, we made a simple discovery about law- suits,” said Ebron. “Sure, we studied the basics of civil procedure, evidence and
trial advocacy. But the most valuable thing we learned was the power of ap- plying that knowledge as non-lawyers. We discovered that with a little train- ing and the right tools, we could make things happen in our cases that few lawyers could. As a result, we now kick butt in court.”
Courtroom5 is designed for people whose case is too small to warrant using a lawyer or if they can’t a ord one. It is not designed to handle non- litigation matters, such as business for- mation, criminal law, estate planning or bankruptcy. No lawyer ever gets involved in a member’s case through Courtroom5.
Step-By-Step Guidance
Ebron says anyone with a high school education should be able to navigate the program. “ e average layperson essentially needs to under- stand some core concepts like the rules of evidence, legal research, and civil procedure. e more they can delve into the speci c laws that a ect them in their jurisdiction and understand the rules of how discovery occurs and how evidence is treated, the better o they will be.”
Courtroom5 users sign up as mem- bers and pay a monthly fee. On-line re- sources then assist members in under- standing how to develop a strategy for their pro se case, provide step-by-step outlines on how to prepare for and le a case as well as providing templates and research tools. “ ere is also a pro se community where our mem- bers gather and talk among themselves about some of the challenges they have,” said Ebron.
AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com
SONJA EBRON
“Early users were desperate and happy to nd us and be able to repre- sent themselves better than they could otherwise, and there are so many peo- ple out there who need our help.” Bootstrappable Model
Marketing thus far has been grass- roots. “No one speaks to pro se liti- gants like fellow pro se litigants. We currently reach customers with our unique voice primarily through search engine marketing and email market- ing,” said Ebron, “but we’re open to working with state Bar Associations, Legal Aid o ces, or other organiza- tions that want to help us further aid the pro se community.”
“Our current business model is bootstrappable but the more funding we have, the faster we can grow, and we do want to scale very quickly be- cause the need is out there.” e com- pany received a $ 50,000 NC IDEA grant in late 2018, and it may look for additional capital for growth later this year. “We’re interested in raising capi- tal to localize our service to each state because pro se litigants in North Caro- lina have di erent needs than those in Arizona or elsewhere. To prepare, we’re continuing to research potential partners in each state and studying the local regulatory environment, and we look forward to growing our ability to assist the pro se community.”
For more information go to Court- room5.com
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