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What does the “Givealittle” campaign by Blessie Gotingco's family means for ‘Access to Justice’ and the NZ legal system?
Family of murdered Auckland woman Blessie Gotingco have raised more than $150,000, by asking the public to help them potentially sue the Department of Corrections for negligence.
In an open letter to New Zealanders, Blessie’s husband Antonio Gotingco says he wants Kiwis’ help to hold Corrections accountable for the “ineptitude” and “stupidity” that led to his beloved wife’s death. It’s in the best interest of all of us, he says, to ensure that the public is protected from criminals.
According to Mr Gotingco, Corrections never properly monitored Blessie Gotingco’s killer Tony Robertson after releasing him from prison five months earlier (he’d been locked up for abducting and indecently assaulting a child) and it was inevitable he would commit a heinous crime.
“While it is our fervent hope that no other family will experience the horror and tragedy that we have gone through,” the “Justice for Blessie” “Givealittle” page reads, “there is no guarantee unless we get our acts together…”
While challenging Government decisions and policies in court is usually expensive and beyond the reasonable financial means of individuals, the Gotingco family has successfully appealed to the collective coffers of the New Zealand public for help, “even if it is only $1”, to “investigate what really happened and should have happened in the ‘management of’ this criminal”.
They hope to gather enough evidence to launch a civil claim against the Department of Corrections for failing to uphold their duty of care to protect the New Zealand public from violent offenders.
“Together let us show them power to the people,” Mr Gotingco pleads. “We ALL deserve better.”
Where previously Blessie’s family would have been unlikely able to afford the costs of suing the Government, the power of “crowdfunding” to source legal fees – preliminary and for trial – has given them a chance to try. And to the benefit of us all, as members of the public entitled to protection from crime, probably.
“Democratising”, an unlikely verb, is overused by marketers in many ‘information age’ industries these days, but it’s use is apt and almost amusing – if it hadn’t taken such an awful tragedy to inspire the innovation – in this context; because crowdsourcing public-interest litigation legal fees is essentially “democratising democracy”.
Because it’s a fundamental part of democracy, and the Western democratic (Christian, Mr Gotingco would say) system we pride ourselves on, that citizens can access without impediment the courts of justice, that we can rely on the rule of law – to which government must be as equally accountable as the individual.
Crowdsourcing funds for legal investigations and fees, with the promise of a general public benefit, is a pragmatic modern response to the forces that have made access to lawyers so generally unaffordable.
However the Gotingcos go with their “Givealittle” campaign – and they’ve done incredibly well the past few days – this highly public approach to legal fee fundraising will stimulate further interest in new ways to make lawyers and justice more accessible, which will be a realisation of the promise of democracy – the rule of the people – and the rule of law.
While principally a “connection, communication, and collaboration” platform for clients and lawyers, and a place to freely learn about law, YourLaw is also designing and building a low-risk crowdfunding system for those with legal needs who can’t otherwise afford to try meritorious cases that are in the public’s interest.