More than 150 years ago, in the case of Raj Durbungah v. Maharaja Coomar Ramaput Singh (1872), a British-era court made a famous observation:
“The difficulties of a litigant in India begin when he has obtained a decree.”
In simple words, winning a court case is only half the battle; actually getting what you were awarded is the harder part.
More than a century later, in 2013, the Supreme Court of India said almost the same thing in Satyawati v. Rajinder Singh & Anr.:
“There should not be unreasonable delay in execution of a decree because the decree-holder is unable to enjoy the fruits of his success by getting the decree executed; the entire effort of a successful litigant would be in vain.”
In other words, if someone wins a case but cannot collect what they were owed, winning means nothing. This has been one of the biggest problems in India’s justice system for over a century, and it still is.
India’s courts have modernised in many ways: online filing, video hearings, AI based legal research, and digital case tracking. But one thing hasn’t improved much, and that is actually collecting the money or relief a court has already ordered. For most winners, the real fight isn’t winning the case; it’s getting paid afterwards.
So why is it so hard to collect what a court has already awarded?
People who’ve won court cases, and the lawyers who represent them, usually point to the same set of problems:
- The person or company who owes the money, or their property, is located far away, in a different city or state, making it hard to chase them down.
- The amount owed is often small compared to the cost and effort of legal proceedings needed to recover it, so it stops making financial sense to pursue.
- The winner often doesn’t have a trusted lawyer or contact in the city where the recovery needs to happen.
- The person who owes the money simply cannot be found, or deliberately avoids being found.
- It’s often hard to even find out what property, cash, or assets the other side actually has, making recovery difficult.
- Local red tape, paperwork, or on-ground practical issues in that city or state can slow things down even further.
The Story Behind LegalFund
LegalFund was co-founded by Alok Dubey and Rashmi Pandey, who saw this exact problem play out again and again, from two very different vantage points.
Alok spent years working closely with litigants and lawyers, and kept seeing the same disappointing pattern: clients would fight a long, hard legal battle, finally win, and then celebrate too soon. Months, sometimes years, later, they would still be empty-handed, stuck chasing a judgment debtor in another city with no local lawyer, no local knowledge, and no one to coordinate the recovery on their behalf. The win on paper was rarely turning into money or relief in hand.
Rashmi came at the same problem from the ground reality of business and finance. Working closely with MSMEs and businesses trying to recover their dues, she saw founders and small business owners give up on legitimate, hard-won claims simply because chasing an execution in a distant court felt too expensive, too slow, and too uncertain. The money owed to them was real, and the court order backing it was real, yet in practice it stayed permanently out of reach.
When Alok and Rashmi compared notes, they realised the problem wasn’t a legal one at all. The law was already on the winner’s side. What was missing was a reliable, connected, on-ground network that could actually chase the recovery through to the end, no matter where in India it needed to happen. That single insight became the founding idea behind LegalFund: build a technology-backed platform that brings together lawyers, funding, and execution expertise under one roof, so that winning a case finally means what it should always have meant, actually getting what you were owed.
LegalFund: Solving a Century-Old Problem
Winning a court case or an arbitration, a private, out-of-court way of settling disputes, is only the first step. For many people, the real struggle starts after that: spending years just trying to actually collect what they were awarded. A justice system isn’t just about delivering the right verdict; it’s about making sure people actually receive what they were promised.
Legal technology has improved a lot of things: filing cases online, managing paperwork, doing legal research, using AI tools. But the actual job of collecting money after winning a case has barely changed, and is still one of the most neglected parts of the system.
LegalFund realised that the real problem here isn’t a lack of laws, it’s distance, coordination, and simply not knowing who to call in another city. So LegalFund built a tech platform that connects people who’ve won a case with lawyers and other experts across the country who can help them actually collect what they’reowed.
LegalFund works with a network of over 3,000 lawyers across India, covering state courts, High Courts, district courts, and commercial courts. This means no matter where the other party or their assets are located, LegalFund can help track them down and follow through with local legal action, arranging a lawyer on the ground, tracing assets, and handling the local paperwork and process.
Instead of you having to find a different lawyer in every city and juggle multiple contacts, LegalFund gives you one single point of contact that manages the entire process, saving time, effort, and unnecessary costs.
Beyond helping people collect what courts have already awarded them, LegalFund also funds legal cases upfront for businesses and individuals, covering business disputes, small business recovery cases, arbitration cases, company bankruptcy cases, bank loan recovery cases, and cases involving patents, trademarks, or copyrights.
LegalFund Also Funds Your Legal Case, Not Just the Recovery
On top of helping people collect what they’ve already won, LegalFund also pays the legal costs upfront for people and businesses fighting a range of cases, including:
- Business and commercial disputes
- Small business (MSME) payment recovery cases
- Arbitration cases (private, out-of-court dispute resolution) and collecting on arbitration awards
- Company bankruptcy and insolvency cases (IBC)
- Bank loan recovery cases (DRT)
- Bank security and asset seizure cases (SARFAESI)
- Patent, trademark, and copyright cases (IPR)
- Collecting on court decrees and arbitration awards
This means people with a genuine, deserving case don’t have to give up on justice just because they can’t afford the legal costs upfront. LegalFund helps them fight for, and actually collect, what they’re rightfully owed, without the usual financial roadblocks.
