← Back to Adaka

How escrow protects your payment on Adaka

When you pay for a service on Adaka, your money doesn't go to the lawyer immediately. It goes into an escrow account — a secure holding area — and only transfers to the lawyer when you confirm the work for that milestone is actually done. Here's exactly how it works.

What is escrow?

Escrow is a neutral holding account managed by a third party. The payer deposits funds, the funds are held until agreed conditions are met, and then they're released to the payee. It's a standard mechanism used in property transactions, software contracts, and professional services worldwide.

On Adaka, we use milestone-based escrow: your legal matter is broken into stages, and you fund and release each stage individually.

How escrow works on Adaka, step by step

1. A milestone is created — when you and your lawyer agree on a stage of work (e.g. "file with CAC"), that stage becomes a milestone with a specific amount.
2. You fund the milestone — you pay the milestone amount, which goes into escrow. Your lawyer can see that it's been funded, but the money is not in their account.
3. The lawyer completes the work — your lawyer submits proof of completion (e.g. confirmation of CAC filing, a document, a certificate).
4. You confirm and release — you review what was submitted and confirm the milestone is complete. At that point, the escrow releases the funds to your lawyer.
5. Or you raise a dispute — if you don't think the work was done correctly, you can raise a dispute. The funds stay frozen until an Adaka admin reviews the case.

What happens when you raise a dispute?

If you raise a dispute on a funded milestone:

• The milestone funds remain frozen in escrow — your lawyer cannot access them
• Both you and your lawyer can submit evidence and explanations to Adaka's admin team
• An admin reviews the case and makes a determination
• If the work was genuinely not done or done incorrectly, the funds are refunded to you
• If the work was done correctly, the funds are released to the lawyer

What about refunds on unfunded milestones?

If you cancel a case before funding a milestone, you simply owe nothing for that milestone — there's no payment to refund because none was made.

If you've funded a milestone but work hasn't started or hasn't been confirmed complete, and you cancel the case, that escrow balance is returned to you.

The only milestones that are non-refundable are those you've already confirmed complete and released to your lawyer — at that point, the work was done and the payment was earned.