*Note: You may also read this announcement in DEhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Assistance_Program/Announcement/de- EShttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Assistance_Program/Announcement/es- FRhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Assistance_Program/Announcement/fr- IThttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Assistance_Program/Announcement/it- JAhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_comment/Legal_Fees_Assistance_Program/ja- RUhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_comment/Legal_Fees_Assistance_Program/ru *

Many Wikimedians take on key support roles that help ensure that the community’s projects run smoothly and effectively. The Wikimedia Foundation -- under the lead of the Finance Department and the Legal and Community Advocacy Department -- is proposing the Legal Fees Assistance Program. This program is intended to help find qualified lawyers or pay for the legal defense fees of eligible users in specified support roleshttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Assistance_Program#Eligibility. The assistance would be available in the unlikely event those users were ever named in a legal complaint as a defendant because of their support roles on any Wikimedia project. The program would apply to all projects and languages.

We have started a request for commenthttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_comment/Legal_Fees_Assistance_Programto see what the community thinks of this proposed initiative, and we would like those who are interested to look at the proposed program itselfhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Assistance_Programand let us know your thoughts. If you have further questions, we have prepared an FAQhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Legal_Fees_Assistance_Program/FAQ, and we will be available to discuss via the talk pages.

Many thanks,

Geoff https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:Gbrigham

Geoff Brigham General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation

Garfield https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:Gbyrd Garfield Byrd Chief of Finance and Administration Wikimedia Foundation