Goal
Ask the collection partner already working your case to consider taking it to court or to enforcement. You do this from the case itself, and it takes one short form.
This is a request, not an instruction. It starts a conversation with your current partner. It does not commit you to anything and it does not cost you anything.
Steps
Open the case you want to escalate.
Go to the Files & Documents tab. The request lives here, not in the case's Actions menu.
Find the Legal Foundation card at the top of the tab and choose Request Legal Action.
Read the short explainer, then review the message. It is pre-filled and addressed to your assigned partner, and you can edit it freely before sending. Adding your own context here is worth the minute it takes: the more your partner knows about why you want to escalate now, the more useful their answer will be.
Confirm to send.
What happens when you send it
Your message is posted into the case's existing chat thread, and your partner is notified through their normal case notifications and task list. That is the whole effect of the click.
In particular, sending the request does not:
create a quote or authorise any legal work;
commit you to a legal fee, or any fee;
change the case's phase or its status;
share your case with other law firms or start a bidding process.
What happens next
Your partner assesses whether legal action makes sense for this claim in this jurisdiction. If it does, they send you a legal quote setting out the phase they propose moving to, what they will do, and what it will cost. You then approve or decline that quote, and nothing is agreed or billed until you approve it.
See Your collection partner sent you a legal quote: what to do for what that quote looks like and what each option does.
The split is deliberate. You know when you want to escalate; your partner knows what escalation actually means where your debtor is, what it will achieve and what it costs. So you start the conversation, and they put a price and a scope on it.
If your partner does not think legal action is the right step, they will tell you in the case chat. You can keep discussing it there.
When the option is available
Request Legal Action appears on a case when all of the following are true:
a collection partner is assigned to the case;
the case is Active or Paused;
the case is still in the pre-legal phase, which includes older cases with no phase recorded;
the case runs on Debitura's standard collection terms;
no quote from your assigned partner is already waiting for your decision on that case.
If you cannot see it
A quote from your partner is already waiting for you. The prompt is hidden while a quote from your assigned partner awaits your decision, because the next step is already yours. Answer that quote first.
The case is already in the legal or enforcement phase. There is nothing left to request; talk to your partner in the case chat about the next step.
Your case runs on individually negotiated terms rather than the standard agreement. This entry point covers standard pre-legal cases only. Raise it with your partner in the case chat instead.
No partner is assigned yet. A case without an assigned partner follows a different route, where several firms can quote and you choose between them. See How to review quotes and choose a legal collection partner.
If you already have a court judgment
If you already hold an enforceable title, such as a court judgment or payment order, the legal phase can often be skipped and your partner can go straight to enforcement, which is faster and considerably cheaper. The same Legal Foundation card offers an I already have a title option: upload the document there and it is attached to the case, with a short message posted to your partner explaining what it is.
Uploading a title does not by itself change the case's phase. That still happens through a quote you approve. See How to submit a case when you already have a court judgment.