Court Buddy, a Miami-based online legal matchmaking service, is expanding to six states and and Washington, D.C., all areas where the company has already seen high demand for its service, said CEO James Jones Jr.
This week, Court Buddy launched in Texas, California and Washington, D.C., and plans to start service in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia by September. Court Buddy will remain available to people and attorneys in Florida.
James and Kristina Jones (pictured here) co-founded Court Buddy in an effort to help make legal representation more affordable for consumers and businesses and provide a marketplace for attorneys seeking clients. The online service helps people and businesses with pending court cases or other urgent legal matters get matched quickly with attorneys based on their budget and can also help with ongoing services, they said. Court Buddy launched in South Florida in January and expanded to the rest of Florida in April.
What differentiates Court Buddy, which was a People’s Pick winner in the Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge, is its a-la-carte legal services, which allows people and businesses to break up legal needs to make it more affordable and easier to financially plan for, said James Jones, an attorney. The practice areas include business law, immigration, tax, personal injury, criminal defense, real estate and family law.
There are now about 50 attorneys and about 200 members using Court Buddy. The expansion “brings us closer to fulfilling our mission of ensuring that everyone, regardless of their situation, has access to an attorney when needed,” said James Jones.