Editor’s note: This is one of five startup profiles featuring the latest recipients of $50,000 NC IDEA grants. The winners were announced Thursday.
DURHAM — Sonja Ebron and Debra Slone once discovered they were victims in a racketeering scheme. They sued the property management company. But unable to employ a lawyer, they represented themselves and lost.
Not to be picked off so easily again, they became well versed in civil law, finally designing a platform to help others represent themselves in court if they find themselves in a similar situation.
Enter Courtroom5, a low-cost monthly service to help people become proficient as a pro se litigator. The platform provides litigation tools like document assembly and legal research, and hosts courses and live workshops on relevant topics, and hosts a pro se community for peer advice and support.
“Our service helps self-represented litigants level the playing field when their opponents are represented by legal counsel,” said Ebron. “People want to participate in the resolution of their cases. Courtroom5 helps them execute full control over their legal matters at an affordable price.”
It all began sometime ago when the duo had almost been wrongly evicted from a property after the management company falsely swore they owned it.
“While we’d escaped their illegal scheme, we realized that they had wrongly evicted several hundred people in the area,” said Ebron, “and we wanted to stop them from harming others.”
Sonja Ebron.
Ebron, a Durham native, knew it would be a challenge to go it alone in court. But after a small mistake snowballed, the judge dismissed the case.
“It was a devastating loss,” said Ebron, “but because of that, we invested time in learning civil procedure and legal research and all the ways people fail when they represent themselves in court.” Over time, the two became effective pro se litigants, handling negligence, debt collection, personal injury, foreclosure cases, and other matters.
“We realized that we could package our experience and automate the process for others,” said Ebron. “We decided to make pro se litigation effective for everyone.”
The company plans to use the grant to expand and polish the product and to reach a wider audience interested in pro se litigation. “The award is a strong affirmation of the company’s mission, and of our abilities as entrepreneurs,” said Ebron. “We no longer question whether we can actually pull this off.”
