Escalate dispute resolution

Escalate is transforming how SMEs tackle bad debts, late payments and other types of disputes.

Businesses will encounter occasional bumps in the road – that is inevitable with clients, suppliers and other partners as part of their day-to-day operations. The challenge for these companies is to make sure that too many resources and management time do not get tied up in the process.

Escalate could be the solution – it provides a fast, risk-free, and cash flow-friendly alternative to the traditional legal process. By looking at the process from your perspective, Escalate is transforming how small and medium-sized businesses manage bad debts, late payments and other types of disputes – and is already helping to unlock almost £100 million of cash for businesses in a variety of commercial disputes.

Key facts:

No financial risk – you do not pay out unless we make a recovery.
No initial outlay – we pay for all the up-front costs.
Rapid results – we aim to get your money back in just three months; if we cannot settle quickly, we have the financial backing to support you all the way to a High Court resolution (including cover for all disbursement costs such as court, barrister and experts fees).
A fixed fee basis – complete transparency from the start.
Not just current or future cases – we can go back to disputes up to three years old.
We tackle all types of commercial disputes – bad debt, contractual disputes, negligence, IP infringement, etc.

Escalate has been recognised at prestigious industry awards: Named ‘Innovation of the Year’ at the British Accountancy Awards and the Modern Law Awards, ‘Best Collaboration Initiative’ at The Lawyer awards, ‘Excellence in Business Development’ at the Law Society Excellence Awards, the ‘The Legal Services Innovation Award’ at the British Legal Awards and won the ‘Next Gen Banking, Finance and Business Services’ category at the Management Today NextGen Awards. Lloyds Bank National Business Awards also recognised Escalate as one of the top ten most promising new business initiatives.

Frequently asked questions

What are the costs of using Escalate?

We work on a capped-fee basis, which is a maximum of 30% (plus VAT) of any damages recovered. Any liability for legal costs is contingent on recovery being made from your opponent. There is no initial outlay, as we pay for all up-front costs. By focusing on keeping legal arguments to a minimum at the outset, you – the client – will always be the largest beneficiary of any recovery made. We aim for claim resolution rather than fee generation.

What are the costs of resolving a dispute?

Escalate charges a capped fee of 30% (plus VAT) of the amount recovered, ensuring you will receive at least 70% of the damages received. Everything is included in this fee, including up-front costs such as court fees and expert witness and barrister fees, so you have complete transparency and certainty from the very start of the process. And remember, you do not pay unless there is a successful outcome.

In contrast, we estimate that a £200,000 dispute undertaken through a traditional mechanism would incur costs of over 50% of the recovered amount*. The costs will increase further if you take out insurance to protect yourself against the defendant’s costs with an unsuccessful outcome. In these circumstances, you could end up with as little as one third of the original value of the claim under a traditional dispute resolution approach.

*Assuming a 70% recovery of damages and 50% recovery of costs from the defendant.

What types of cases can you pursue?

There are no restrictions on the disputes Escalate can tackle – For example, bad debt, contractual, negligence, IP infringement.

How long does the Escalate process usually take?

Once a case is officially accepted and engaged by the Escalate team, we aim to resolve the dispute within three months. The timetable depends on the complexity of the case, but we always strive to resolve a dispute as quickly as possible.

There are three stages to delivering Escalate – Engagement, Mediation and finally, Litigation if a successful outcome at the mediation stage cannot be achieved. In most cases, the claim will never make it to court as both parties are keen to settle during the mediation phase. Our system keeps the pressure on the defendant to settle quickly, using our corporate recovery experts, rather than the case ending up in a long drawn out court battle.

Can I use my existing lawyers through Escalate?

Escalate works with a panel of specialist law firms that are experts in dispute resolution. If your existing lawyers are not on that panel, they can apply to join.

What happens if I lose my case?

There is no cost to you. In a traditional dispute resolution process, you will be liable for your own costs plus at least part of the defendant’s bills if you lose your case. Escalate removes the financial risk – you do not pay out unless we reach a successful settlement. If your case is unsuccessful, you will not be required to pay the defendant’s costs because of Escalate’s adverse cost protection.

Case studies

The following case studies demonstrate how Escalate is helping clients to unlock cash that is tied up in commercial disputes and bad debts.

Unpaid invoices and an unresponsive client
Insolvent company – unlawful payments
Unpaid final instalment from company sale
Defective product leaves customer exposed to multiple claims
Unpaid share of revenue flwo from software application

Unpaid invoices and an unresponsive client

The client: A recruitment agency

Value of dispute: £120,000 plus costs.

The commercial dispute: A recruitment agency helped a digital marketing client to recruit a senior manager. The client claimed that the recruitment placement had been made via its own sources and refused to pay for the recruitment agency’s services.

Solicitors were instructed to recover payment from the client, but this did not generate a response. Further letters from the recruitment agency’s lawyer were sent to the client to no avail.

The Escalate solution: By engaging the Escalate team, we added negotiation muscle to the situation. We issued a court claim, a judgment was secured, and within three months, the total debt has been recovered.

Insolvent company – unlawful payments

The client: The liquidators of an insolvent company

Value of dispute: £1 million

The commercial dispute: The former directors of an insolvent company were being pursued to repay the sums which they had received from the company at a time when it was insolvent.

The directors had also allowed the principal asset of the business (a sister company within the group) to be sold for a negligible amount – some £1 million less than its true value.

The Escalate solution: The former directors refused to engage with the liquidators other than to tell them they would have to issue a claim to recover any money. There were no funds in the company to pursue the directors, and no creditor was able to fund the litigation. The principal creditor had previously used the Escalate service and encouraged the liquidator to engage the Escalate team.

We issued the application and pursued the case to a mediation. Eventually, we made a recovery for the insolvent company, which produced a significant return to all its creditors.

Unpaid final instalment from company sale

The client: National PR agency

Value of dispute: £325,000

The commercial dispute: An entrepreneur sold her PR company, with the purchase price to be paid in stages. However, the final instalment of £250,000 was not received.

The entrepreneur approached the acquiring company for an explanation and was advised that there had been a breach of contract. The entrepreneur engaged a law firm to explore the claim, spending £20,000 in legal fees, but with no progress. Having made no meaningful headway, the entrepreneur felt their only option may be to write off the monies owed to them. They then sought advice from their accountant in relation to the relevant tax treatment and were informed of Escalate.

The Escalate solution: We took the case through the Escalate mediation process for three months before moving to litigation. Aware that there was no legal merit to justify withholding payment, the defendant tried to delay the process to frustrate the claimant and increase ongoing costs so they would drop their claim.

As the claimant held no financial risk through the Escalate process, these attempts to dissuade them from pursuing their case had no impact – in fact, they served only to increase the defendant’s own costs.

Escalate continued to push for a full settlement. Six weeks after the mediation, the defendant‘s legal costs became unsustainable, they conceded and we secured £325,000. The total cost to the defendant – including its legal fees – to try to delay the claim amounted to £450,000.

A defective flooring product leaves business customer exposed to multiple claims

The client: Family owned flooring company

Value of dispute: £3 million

The commercial dispute: A flooring company had purchased products from a large, well-known supplier of cement-based materials. The product was defective, which resulted in customers’ floors failing after a short period. The company was faced with significant claims and wanted to recover the value of those claims and its other losses from the supplier.

The flooring company did not have the financial resources to pursue such a significant claim against a large company, and the defendant knew this. It attempted to delay the process and force the claimant to incur further costs, so that it had no option but to drop the claim or settle it quickly. Having spent a year making no headway, the flooring company was introduced to Escalate.

The Escalate solution: Once engaged, we quickly moved to issue and serve proceedings. The supplier continued to delay but received a very simple message – the more you delay, the more it will cost you. The claimant, meanwhile, had no financial risk as Escalate had agreed the costs upfront.

Escalate won the case after going to court, with the claimant’s costs paid for by Escalate and a settlement figure agreed.

Client quote

“You really took this to them and did not waver. Escalate is a truly game changing product and has enabled us as a mere minnow to swim with sharks and hold them to account.

You have given us a chance to carve out a future that would have otherwise been very difficult and would have no doubt meant the end of our business. You have no idea what this means for my family and the families of my team. I am eternally grateful. Escalate allowed me to sleep at night again.”

Unpaid share of revenue flow from software application

The client: Mid-sized IT company

Value of dispute: £350,000

The commercial dispute: A software company entered into a joint venture with a large property management consultancy, allowing its application to be commercially exploited in return for a share of the revenue flow from it. However, the software company did not receive any revenue.

It believed that the property consultancy had generated revenue from the product and requested information to verify that this was the case. However, this information was not forthcoming.

The software company’s lawyers were instructed to gather information to determine the amount owed, but the property management consultancy refused to engage. At this stage, the company decided to engage Escalate.

The Escalate solution: During mediation, the property consultancy offered a settlement of £40,000.

The software company rejected this and, as the property consultancy was still unwilling to provide the information needed to assess the full revenue potential, Escalate issued at court for full disclosure. Unlike a traditional legal dispute, Escalate covered the cost of this action, so the client did not incur any upfront disbursements.

After we issued for full disclosure, the defendant admitted to owing £350,000 to the software company and settled the case.