Accounting & Business Advisory Specialists in Bristol

A software company entered into a joint venture with a large property management consultancy to allow its application to be commercially exploited in return for a share of the revenue flow. The software company believed that the consultancy firm had generated revenue from the product and requested details but received none.

Solicitors were instructed but no progress was made. The next step was for the claimant to seek full disclosure via the courts and then issue proceedings, but it did not have the funds for this. With its solicitors’ approval, the case was moved to Escalate.

There was no real movement from the defendant during the Path A mediation process, just a paltry £40,000 settlement offer which was rejected because the defendant would still not provide the information needed. Proceedings were issued for full disclosure which caused the defendant to admit owing £300,000 – subsequently increased to £350,000 which has now been paid.

The client had purchased products from a large supplier for use on its customers’ floors. The product was defective, which resulted in the customers’ floors failing after a short period. The client was faced with claims from its customers in the region of £3 million.

The client did not have the financial resources to be able to pursue such a significant claim against a large multi-national company. The defendant knew this and delayed matters to force the claimant to incur further costs so it had no option but to drop the claim or settle it quickly.

After spending a year failing to make any headway the client was introduced to Escalate. Once engaged we quickly moved to issue and serve proceedings.

The matter went to mediation and c£1m was offered but this is not enough. The hearing is set for February 2019 although we suspect it will settle well in advance of that to avoid costs.

An organisation provided a service to people in the care of a local authority. It took out an insurance policy to cover litigation costs in circumstances where there was a significant threat to the viability of the company.

When the local authority threatened to withdraw all its operations a process of litigation, paid for by the insurance policy, was started.

Without notice and shortly before trial, the insurer changed its stance and withdrew funding, resulting in an adverse court decision that caused the client a significant loss. The client wished to challenge both the insurer and its solicitor who withdrew services when the insurer stopped paying.

Escalate has arranged a suitable platform upon which to pursue its claim, targetting the insurer and the solicitor in circumstances where the client would otherwise have had no opportunity of making a recovery. There are now 2 separate cases being litigated: a contractual dispute claiming £1.5m and professional negligence for £400k.

Escalate has been employed by an insolvency practitioner who is the liquidator of a company.

The company has no liquid assets, but it has several claims against the former directors who received significant sums from the company prior to liquidation, to the detriment of the creditors.

The lack of funds would typically prevent the liquidator from pursuing any actions to recover assets. However, Escalate has overcome this obstacle has achieved a recovery of more than £150,000 and a real return to creditors in the insolvency.