Refunds & Payment

When you fund an Instruction, your payment is processed via our regulated payment partner (Stripe) and held within the Secure Payment Facilitation System (SPFS). Funds are not immediately transferred to your chosen Network Attorney.

You can fund your Instruction in one of two ways:

• Pre-Funded Instruction — pay the full estimated amount upfront for a smoother workflow.
• Milestone-Based Payments — pay in stages as your matter progresses, with each milestone agreed in advance.

Funds are released only when one of the following conditions is met:

1. You confirm satisfactory progress through the platform; or
2. An agreed work milestone is verifiably completed; or
3. No issue is raised by you within the applicable review period of 14 days following milestone completion.

Refunds are not automatic. They are assessed case-by-case, but the platform applies a consistent decision matrix.

• Open the Instruction in your Client Dashboard.
• Click “Raise an Issue”.
• Provide a written description identifying specifically what went wrong (e.g. scope deviation, missed deadline, non-responsiveness).
• Upload supporting evidence (emails, documents).
• Payments on the affected Instruction are paused while we review.

Review timelines:

• Initial response: within 48 hours
• Evidence-gathering window: up to 48 hours after that
• Mediation window: 72 hours
• Final decision: within 7 working days of the issue being raised

• Work that was completed and you confirmed satisfactorily.
• Time the lawyer has already spent if the scope was followed and the work product matches the agreed Instruction Summary.
• Currency-conversion losses (all our pricing is in GBP — see Terms §7.3).
• Third-party government fees, court fees, stamp duty, or notarial fees paid by the lawyer on your behalf where receipts are provided.

If you initiate a chargeback through your card issuer without first raising an issue on the platform, we reserve the right to suspend your account pending investigation. We strongly recommend using the in-platform dispute process first — it’s faster and your funds remain protected throughout.

• Funds for your Instruction are held in SPFS until a release trigger is met (see §A.2).
• On release, your payout is initiated to your nominated bank account via our regulated payment partner.
• Payout settlement time: T+5 working days from the release event.
• Payouts are made in GBP into your overseas account, or INR into your Indian account after FX conversion.

Each release is broken down as follows:

• Gross fee quoted to client (GBP)
• less Platform commission: 10%
• less Retention fee: 5% (held for warranty period — see §C)
• less Applicable taxes (GST on platform commission as applicable)
• less Payment processing fees (where pass-through is contractually agreed)
• = Your net payout

• If a refund is awarded to a client due to your non-responsiveness, negligence, or circumvention attempt, the refunded amount is recovered from your pending payouts and/or retained fees.
• Repeated refund-triggering events lead to suspension and potential removal from the panel.

• All communication and payment for an introduced client must remain within the platform for the period stated in Terms §8 (24 months from introduction).
• An attempted circumvention (taking payment offline, soliciting direct contact details, etc.) is a material breach and triggers:
  1. Immediate suspension from new instructions;
  2. 100% refund to the affected client;
  3. Recovery of pre-estimated lost commission (see Terms §8.2);
  4. Potential complaint to the relevant State Bar Council and the Bar Council of India.

You can also raise a dispute (e.g. client refusing to acknowledge work that was completed). The same process applies in reverse — provide evidence (work product, communications), and the platform mediates.

A small percentage of each completed Instruction is retained by the platform for a fixed warranty period after milestone release. This is held as security against post-completion issues raised by the client (e.g. errors discovered after the review window closed but within a reasonable period).

• Automatically, at the end of the hold period, if no client issue has been raised.
• Released early on explicit client confirmation that the matter is fully closed.
• Withheld if a verified post-completion issue is raised within the hold period — funds remain on hold pending dispute outcome.

Lawyers can view the Retention Pool on their dashboard, with a per-Instruction breakdown:

• Instruction ID
• Retention amount held
• Release-by date
• Status: HELD / RELEASED / WITHHELD (under review)

Retention fees are not income until released. Once released, they form part of your platform earnings and are reflected on the invoice for that Instruction. Consult your own tax advisor for jurisdiction-specific treatment — the platform does not provide tax advice.