Goal
Propose moving a case you are already working from pre-legal collection into the legal or enforcement phase, by sending the client a priced legal quote from inside the platform. The case is never closed, no new case is created, and it is never handed to another partner: the same case, the same client, the same chat thread and the full case history all carry forward.
This is a different flow from bidding on a network lead and from quoting a new case at assignment. If you are looking for one of those, see how to submit a quote when invited to bid on a case or how to submit a custom quote.
When the option is available
Two conditions decide whether the action appears on the case at all:
The case is live and partner-owned: it is Active or Paused with a partner assigned. Paused is deliberately included, because a paused case often means the debtor disputes the claim, and that is frequently exactly when legal action is the right next step. Cases sitting in "needs additional details" are excluded, because quoting legal action before the basic case details are complete is premature.
You are the case's current partner. This is decided from the case's active engagement, not from whichever partner is recorded on the invoice, since those two can differ during a transition.
Three further conditions decide whether the legal option itself is offered:
The case's current phase is still Pre-legal. Once it has advanced to Legal or Enforcement there is nothing left to propose through this flow.
The case was born on standard terms. This is judged from the case's very first terms record, not its current terms, so a case that later moved onto custom terms through an accepted quote still qualifies. A case whose very first terms were an individually negotiated custom arrangement never qualifies.
There is no legal quote already awaiting the client's decision on that case. Only one can be pending at a time.
If the case fails one of these three, you still see the action, just without the legal option. On a case where a quote is already pending, an inline note explains that another cannot be sent until the first is resolved.
Being inside or past the case's exclusive collection period does not block a legal quote. It can be sent either way.
If the client asked you for legal action
Clients have their own Request Legal Action button on an eligible case. It does not create a quote, a legal instruction or a phase change - it posts an editable request into the case chat, which reaches you through the ordinary chat notification and task flow. Deciding whether legal action is appropriate, and pricing it, is still yours: if you agree, structure it as a legal quote using one of the entry points below. No work is authorised and no fee is agreed by that chat request alone.
Where to start
There are two entry points, and both end in the same three-step wizard.
From the case page
1) Open the case and use the Actions menu.
2) Choose "Send a custom quote".
3) You land on a chooser screen asking whether this is an additional service on top of the existing contract, or a legal/enforcement quote. Select "Legal or enforcement quote".
The chooser is its own full-width screen, so the three-step progress indicator and the footer button only appear once you have chosen. If you pick the wrong branch, step one of the wizard has a "Choose another quote type" link back to the chooser. That link only appears when you arrived through the chooser - entering from your monthly case update skips the chooser, so there is nothing to go back to.
From your monthly case update
At the "What happens next" step of the monthly case update, choose "Recommend legal action". On a case that qualifies, this opens the quote wizard directly and skips the chooser, because the update's own cards already serve that purpose. Submitting the wizard from here posts the quote separately: it does not reload or resubmit the rest of your update.
On a case that does not qualify, the same option falls back to a plain free-text recommendation with no quote attached. If the case is already in Legal or Enforcement, the option is not shown at all, and the neighbouring option is relabelled "Continue current collection efforts". If a legal quote is already pending when the update loads, the whole set of "what happens next" choices is replaced by a "legal quote pending client approval" banner and that step is treated as answered, so you are not asked to repeat a decision already in flight.
The three steps
The wizard is forward-only. There is no Back button, though you can return to a step you have already completed by clicking it. A summary panel updates alongside you as you make each choice.
The decision. Pick the target phase, Legal or Enforcement (pre-filled to Legal), then choose whether the quote is a Recommendation or Required. Neither is pre-selected, so you have to make an active choice. Once you have, a free-text field appears for the solution you are proposing to the client.
The numbers. Select a pricing model - Hourly rate, Flat fee, Success fee or Hybrid (pre-filled to Success fee) - and fill in the matching fee fields. There is an optional field for other fees arising during the process, and an optional fee comment. Anything you enter as other process fees is added on top of the price your pricing model produces, whichever model you chose - the total the client sees is never just the base fee alone. You can also attach a single supporting PDF here, for example your own terms; the client sees it as a downloadable "Files shared" link when reviewing the quote.
Confirm and send. A plain-language recap of what happens next: the client is notified and asked to decide, you are notified of their decision either way, and you keep working the case in the meantime.
The chooser and the confirmation step both carry an invitation to tell us at [email protected] if anything in the flow does not match practice in your jurisdiction. This area is new and the jurisdictional details may need correcting.
Recommendation or Required
The two natures differ only in what happens if the client declines.
Nature | If the client declines |
Recommendation | Nothing further happens. The case simply carries on as it was, and you learn of the decline through a message in the case chat. |
Required | The case is automatically paused, a note explaining why is recorded and shown to the client, a second message is posted into the case chat, and you get a task to either close the case or continue with your current approach. |
Choose Required only when you genuinely cannot continue the case as it stands, because a decline pauses the client's case.
What the client sees
A pending legal quote appears as a row in the client's normal Action Items panel on the case, labelled as a legal quote with a "Review Quote" action and a "From {your firm}" note. The case's phase summary also shows an amber "Awaiting your decision" badge. The chat and activity area are never hidden or displaced by the quote.
The client has exactly two choices: approve or decline. There is no withdraw option and no way to counter-offer inside the quote itself. While the quote is pending, the client's "when will my partner update me next" section drops its date and shows a neutral note that updates are on hold until the quote is decided.
After the client decides
There is no partner-facing email anywhere in this flow. You learn every outcome through in-app tasks and case-chat messages.
If the client approves
The case's phase advances to the phase you proposed, and new terms referencing your quote replace the previous ones.
You keep the case. The partner assignment, the chat thread and everything else stay exactly as they were.
If the case was Paused, it silently resumes to Active.
You receive an "approved" task. The client receives a confirmation email.
The case's pricing sidebar then reflects the approved quote: a Success-fee quote shows the percentage, while Flat, Hourly and Hybrid quotes show a "Legal quote" label with a link back to the quote. Note that only Success-fee quotes feed into invoice pricing calculations; Flat, Hourly and Hybrid quotes are recorded for reference and do not drive billing directly.
If the client declines
The quote closes as declined and the invoice and engagement are left untouched. A message is posted into the case's normal chat feed naming the phase that was declined, the reason category if one was given, and the client's comment. That chat message, not an email, is what tells you. For a Required quote, the additional consequences listed in the table above apply as well.
Reminders and expiry
If the client does not respond, a first reminder goes out about ten days after you send the quote, and a second and final reminder about a week after that. If there is still no decision, the quote expires roughly three months after the second reminder, and you get a task telling you so. Expiry only closes the quote: the case and your engagement are untouched.
Two situations end a pending quote early. If the case is closed while the quote is still awaiting a decision, the quote expires quietly and no task is created, because there is nothing left to act on. If the case is reassigned to a different partner, the quote is retired and closed rather than transferred, again with no task.
Your monthly case updates while a quote is pending
While a legal quote is awaiting the client's decision, no new automatic case-update request is created for that case. Normal cadence resumes once the quote is approved, declined or expires, at the next scheduler run, and only if the case is otherwise due with no request already open.
A request that was already open before you sent the quote is not cancelled and can still be submitted. In that state the "what happens next" choices are replaced by a pending-quote banner and treated as answered, and the duplicate free-text "recommends legal action" note is suppressed, because the structured quote is already the record.
This suppression applies only to that one case. It does not pause the case, and it does not affect your other cases or any of your other actions on this one.
If it is not legal action you want to propose
The other branch of the chooser, "Additional service", is not a quote. Selecting it closes the modal, switches to the case's chat tab and pre-fills an editable starter message proposing the service. Pricing and the client's acceptance are worked out in that conversation, and once the work is agreed or performed it is recorded separately using Add revenue. There is no structured additional-service quote today.