Q: Can a nonprofit in a one state involve lawyers from different states to help, and any other legal issues with my idea?
My idea for a nonprofit allows victims/survivors regarding an alleged sexual crime to enter information online into a database (database is not available for public access). If a second (or more) survivor submits an alleged sexual crime and the information matches that of of another alleged perpetrator, the survivors are notified and are able to "team up" to make their lawsuit stronger. My nonprofit would give the names of the "similar" victims to a lawyer who will contact both of them (I would notify the victims/survivors to expect a call or letter from the specific lawyer). Sometimes the sexual crimes may have happened in two different states, but likely the same state if the perpetrator is someone who does the crimes at work, dating, etc. I would built a database of lawyers in major metropolitan areas who would take on the cases. Lawyers would need to make truth determinations of clients' claims. Lawyers would be paid through donations from various sources/individuals.
A: There are going to be a number of ethical issues here for attorneys. For example, there are rules about referral services like this as well as how the attorneys would be paid. Because there are so many issues to discuss, I'd recommend finding an attorney to review this all in detail.
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