Our Mission
Justice should not be a black box.
Court decisions shape how people live, work, and are punished. Almost none of that reasoning is read by the people it binds. OpenVerdict exists to close that gap.
The problem we are working on
A court opinion is a public document. In practice it may as well be private. The record sits behind databases built for lawyers, written in language built for lawyers, and priced for firms. The result is a body of law that governs everyone and is read by almost no one outside the profession.
That gap has consequences. When expert testimony goes unexamined and judicial discretion goes unchecked, the correction usually arrives years later, if it arrives at all. Public understanding of a case is typically assembled from headlines rather than from the filings, and by the time the reasoning is available to the public, the decision has already settled into precedent.
We do not think the answer is more commentary about the law. We think it is more people reading the law itself, and having somewhere to argue about it in the open.
What we believe
The record should be readable
Every case on the platform links to the actual court record. Our summaries are a way in, not a substitute. If our framing and the filing disagree, the filing wins.
Justice can withstand scrutiny
A decision that only holds up when nobody examines it is not a decision worth defending. Public reasoning is a test the law should be able to pass.
Deliberation beats reaction
The platform is built to slow people down: read the case, hear the other side, then vote. Changing your mind is recorded as a credit, not a defeat.
Access should not depend on a subscription
Reading a case, arguing a side, and casting a verdict are free and require no account. We are a nonprofit and intend to stay one.
Why a nonprofit
The obvious business model for this is the one we refuse: charge for access to the record, or sell the attention of people reading it. Both would put us on the wrong side of the thing we are trying to fix. OpenVerdict Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity, funded by grants and donations, and the platform is free to read and free to participate in.
That also means our work is accountable in public. Our legal status, EIN, and contact details are on the contact page, and our determination letter is available to anyone who asks.