Hello you ridiculously generous lot.

Over the last few weeks I have not been actively soliciting donations for this blog. I have repeatedly stated that I have enough crowdfunded money in the kitty to cover the Horizon trial.

That said, I have not refused any donations as I am aware that some people may feel moved to donate again for whatever reason, or some people may come new to the blog (after being forwarded an email or seeing it on social media) and decide it’s worth joining the secret email society, which is great.

I am, however, concerned that some people are repeat-donating more than they should or perhaps can afford.

So I thought I had better make it clear how much money I have received, how much I have spent and what my crowdfunding strategy is going forward.

As of today I have received a total of:

£8397 from kickstarter (in the window it was open last year)

and

£2976.98 via the paypal tip jar, a total of:

£11,373.98

This is net of the fees that both Kickstarter and Paypal take. It would be more than £12,000 pounds gross.

Bearing in mind I raised my crowdfunding ambition from £3000 to an insanely ambitious £12000 back in October, a) we did it! and b) I am happily fully-funded for these first two trials.

Just so you know where we are – from that £11,373.98 I have “claimed” 21 days work at a fee of £250 a day. A total of:

£5250

This was spent covering the 15 day trial, two case management conferences, a pre-trial review and three days before/during/after the first trial dealing with admin, going through documents released by the court and writing up some extra posts for the blog.

The £250 day rate covers my travel, food, admin, insurance, tax and data expenses and the remainder goes towards feeding the family and paying the mortgage.

So as of now I have:

£11,373.98 – £5250 = £6123.98

which, maths fans, means I can work another 24 days on this story.

The Horizon trial is scheduled to sit for 15 days. I have managed to do all the pre-trial work (save the days the court was actually sitting for case management conferences and pre-trial management) in my own time, so I have 9 days “pay” to play with during and after the Horizon trial.

Which means – we are good. Thank you so very much for your generosity.

The future

We know there will be at least one more trial and that it is currently scheduled to last four weeks in November.

At the first case management conference for that trial, the prospect of a fourth trial in March 2020 was discussed as a likelihood, rather than a possibility.

If I can and you want me to cover rounds 3 and 4 of this epic litigation, I will need to be raising at least another £10K to make that happen.

It is almost certain that at some stage in the latter half of this year I will go into full-on fundraising mode. If you have already given me some money, and you are thinking you might like to do so again – PLEASE WAIT until I send up the bat-signal and ask for your assistance. By that stage I will know how much cash I need to raise, and will have worked out the best way of doing it.

So why have you just added a paypal button to all your emails and blog posts eh, mister?

I am so glad you asked. There are a few reasons.

Firstly the PayPal tip jar on the website is not always visible. If someone is forwarded one of my emails and then clicks onto postofficetrial.com on their mobile phone, the tip jar cannot be seen. It can only be seen on the desktop version of the website.

It is entirely possible that some people have only ever followed this trial via emails which were forewarded to them or posted on a chat forum or whatever.

Now I’m more than happy for people to disseminate what I publish in any way they see fit, but some of the recipients of that information might themselves be minded to donate and join the secret email list themselves, or just chip in a fiver. If they want to do that, I should make it as easy as possible for them.

Secondly, someone emailed me the other day asking how they could donate, and I realised I could not actually send them a direct link by reply – I had to direct them to the website and hope they weren’t reading my email on a mobile phone or they wouldn’t see the PayPal button and if they were anything like me they would probably give up.

I can send people my personal PayPal link (www.paypal.me/nickjwallis), but that only works for PayPal users or people who can be bothered to set up a PayPal account.

So I thought – if I can get the PayPal button to work via email then every time the email is forwarded, the button is put in front of a potential donor who can then donate with minimum fuss via card or PayPal.

Recipients of the last email who have tried that button will realise that my first attempt doesn’t work, however I think I’ve fixed it and the button at the bottom of this email does work. Try it – it should take you through to a PayPal landing page.

That means that if you choose to forward my emails (and I would be thrilled if you would), you are not only getting the story of this trial out there, you are putting the PayPal button potentially in front of hundreds of eyes.

If this has a significant effect – great – I don’t need to do a big push later in the year. If not, there’s no harm done.

This is all a very long-winded way of saying:

a) If you have donated before, please do not donate again. Keep your money in your pocket. If you really want to – please wait until I start a new campaign.

b) If you routinely forward these emails, please point out to the recipients that each post and email now contains a (hopefully) functioning PayPal button should anyone who has not donated fancy making a contribution.

c) If you haven’t forwarded any content before, feel free to do so, knowing you definitely have my blessing and that if the recipients feel moved to donate, they can, easily. You don’t need to try to guilt-trip or persuade ’em. If they don’t want to, they don’t have to.

d) Thank you. Thank you, thank you and thank you again. Covering this story via the crowdfunding model has been an extraordinary experience and a steep learning curve. Your generosity and interest has made it possible. I am so grateful.

Very good. What now?

We have the small matter of the Horizon trial starting and the Common Issues trial judgment being handed down in the same week. It’s going to be busy.

Secret emailers will get a daily pre-trial briefing posted before 10.30am.

I will be live tweeting here throughout proceedings from 10.30am to 4.30pm.

I will then collate those tweets and post them up on postofficetrial.com immediately after daily proceedings finish.

I will write up a daily report which I will post to postofficetrial.com and email to you afterwards before the end of each day. Unfortunately I can’t guarantee the exact time, as it depends on my post-court commitments.

I will post up the transcripts as I receive them.

And I will update the Horizon Trial Menu as each post goes up so you can easily navigate around.

For those who want to follow the trial live but remain wary of social media – you don’t need to log in to read my twitter feed – just click on this link and you will be able to read what I write as I write it. Twitter is just another webpage. No logins required.

Right. Let’s hope that the PayPal button below works. If it does – feel free to forward this email.

If it doesn’t, hit reply and tell me I’m an idiot.