SPI stated: “Much of our current efforts involve […] litigation, which we keep confidential for operational reasons—sharing details publicly would compromise pending cases.”[1]
We do not think SPI’s statement makes it clear that SPI has not litigated any cases, and only has “potential litigation in development and preparation.”[2]
Their response disclosed that they were running on volunteer labor with a shoestring budget.
Filing cases is often free for volunteer-run charities due to fee waivers.
Moreover, the reference to a desire for confidentiality strongly implies that the referenced cases were at the pre-filing stage of the litigation process. Civil actions are almost always a matter of public record, and the case-initiating documents
There is often a lot of information that you’d still want to keep confidential even if the lawsuit you’ve filed can be found with a docket number. Some of this confidentiality is even legally required.
In practice, it is also much less likely that people would find your cases if you don’t mention them to anyone (i.e. confidentiality).
Your implication seems to be that the filing fee is the only resource bottleneck, but there are other resource-consuming tasks involved (extensive fact finding, legal research, finding and consulting with witnesses, plaintiffs, hiring local counsel, etc.). These things take time and money, even when volunteers are working for free in their spare time.
Filing cases is often free for volunteer-run charities due to fee waivers
The filing fee isn’t the issue—getting to a proper complaint in an impact-litigation case generally requires a lot of resources. Consider, for instance, LIC’s 58-page complaint in the Costco case.
But if the resource was time, which in SPI’s case is free as they are volunteers, then having filed a case is consistent with operating on no budget or a shoestring budget, because of free waivers.
SPI stated: “Much of our current efforts involve […] litigation, which we keep confidential for operational reasons—sharing details publicly would compromise pending cases.”[1]
We do not think SPI’s statement makes it clear that SPI has not litigated any cases, and only has “potential litigation in development and preparation.”[2]
Filing cases is often free for volunteer-run charities due to fee waivers.
There is often a lot of information that you’d still want to keep confidential even if the lawsuit you’ve filed can be found with a docket number. Some of this confidentiality is even legally required.
In practice, it is also much less likely that people would find your cases if you don’t mention them to anyone (i.e. confidentiality).
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KuwEsBTGXSSxrkh6m/society-for-the-protection-of-insects-review?commentId=MicynucEovxbejNeL
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/sk9btzq9MjivvYtXG/spi-the-litigators-that-have-never-litigated-a-case?commentId=TiyoBgmn4fGRaHH8S
Your implication seems to be that the filing fee is the only resource bottleneck, but there are other resource-consuming tasks involved (extensive fact finding, legal research, finding and consulting with witnesses, plaintiffs, hiring local counsel, etc.). These things take time and money, even when volunteers are working for free in their spare time.
The filing fee isn’t the issue—getting to a proper complaint in an impact-litigation case generally requires a lot of resources. Consider, for instance, LIC’s 58-page complaint in the Costco case.
But if the resource was time, which in SPI’s case is free as they are volunteers, then having filed a case is consistent with operating on no budget or a shoestring budget, because of free waivers.