What actually happens, in order

Confidential Intake

We listen to what happened and identify the key facts.

The first conversation is about establishing a sequence: what was represented to you, what you sent, to whom, when, and what has happened since. It is not a sales call and it is not an interrogation. Most of it is chronology.

You will not be asked to justify your decisions, and you will not be asked for money. What you will be asked for is documents, because everything after this stage depends on them.

What you tell the firm is treated confidentially in accordance with applicable law and professional obligations. Please note that an initial inquiry does not by itself create an attorney‑client relationship, and information sent before one is established may not be privileged.

Evidence Preservation

We help identify and preserve what still exists, before it stops existing.

This is the stage that is most often left too late, and it is the one where the outcome of a matter is most often decided. Platforms are taken offline. Messaging accounts are deleted. Chat histories are lost when a phone is replaced. Exchanges close accounts. Domains lapse.

We identify what is likely to matter and how to preserve it in a form that will still be usable later: exported rather than screenshotted where possible, complete rather than excerpted, with metadata and timestamps intact.

Where a website or platform is still live, contemporaneous capture can matter a great deal — a page that disappears next week is evidence today.

Preliminary Legal Assessment

We evaluate the circumstances and the potential legal issues, including the ones that cut against a claim.

The central questions are who is responsible, on what legal basis, in which jurisdiction, and within what deadline. Alongside them sit the questions that decide whether pursuing it makes sense: whether the responsible party can be identified, whether it can be reached, and whether anything would be recoverable if a claim succeeded.

Where the assessment is that there is no realistic route, you will be told that. It is a legitimate and frequent outcome, and it is a great deal more useful than an encouraging answer that costs you money to disprove.

Financial & Corporate Investigation

Where appropriate, we investigate the entities, counterparties, representations, transactions and records involved.

This is the work that turns an account of what happened into a set of established facts: corporate records, domain registration and hosting history, archived versions of the website as it appeared when you used it, regulator registers and warning notices, payment routing, and, in cryptocurrency matters, on-chain analysis of where value actually moved.

It frequently produces the fact that changes the matter — that the entity named on the site was never the entity receiving the money, that the license displayed belonged to a different company, or that the funds reached an identifiable regulated institution.

Not every matter justifies this stage. Where the likely cost of investigation exceeds any realistic benefit, we will say so.

Legal Strategy

We determine what avenues may be available on the facts and the applicable law, and what each would involve.

Options may include civil litigation, arbitration where an agreement requires it, claims against intermediaries that handled the funds, participation in an existing collective proceeding or receivership, regulatory complaints, and reports to law enforcement. These are not alternatives to be picked from a list; several often run alongside each other and some foreclose others.

Strategy also means being explicit about time, cost and probability. You are entitled to know the realistic range of outcomes, including the poor ones, before deciding whether to proceed.

Representation

Where the firm accepts the matter, we represent the client through the appropriate legal process.

Engagement is documented in writing. The scope of the work, the fee basis and what happens if the matter does not succeed are all set out before anything begins.

Throughout, you should expect to know what stage the matter is at and what is happening next. Silence is one of the things people describe most often about the experience that brought them here, and it is not how a matter should be run.

The fee basis is agreed with you directly rather than published, because it depends on the matter. Whatever is agreed appears in the engagement document before any work starts.