Yatsukha:
The solicitor co-founder of an automated platform which uses AI to help customers through the small claims process is planning to expand its reach after a strong start and further funding.
Mikhail Yatsuha, chief executive of CaseCraft AI, said over 3,800 people had signed up to the platform since its launch at the start of this year, with claims worth almost £11m.
The immediate priority was to expand from purely money claims into personal injury and employment law claims worth less than £10,000.
He said CaseCraft had signed a letter of intent with a law firm specialising in personal injury to help bring that about.
Unlike Garfield, the AI-only law firm that last month won its first court case, CaseCraft is not a regulated law firm. It bills itself as “the easier, more affordable alternative to no win no fee solicitors”.
The platform currently handles small claims eligible for the Money Claims Online service. Mr Yatsuha said that 60-70% of claims were unpaid debts.
He said it had recently enabled business customers to issue bulk claims, which it had done in a “user-friendly” way, by creating a template that could be automatically populated.
Mr Yatsuha, a partner at London firm Sterling Law, said the platform used chatbots to help claimants and defendants with their claims, and if successful, charged them fees of 10% of the amount claimed.
The success fee is increasing to 15% later this month, but the £15 onboarding fee is being abolished.
A dedicated team of legal reviewers and solicitors review the AI outputs and can help users with general questions.
If the user wants a solicitor to handle the case, they are referred to Sterling Law.
Mr Yatsuha and Ruslan Kosarenko, senior partner of Sterling Law, joined forces with Dmitry Bagrov, a managing director of global software firm DataArt, whose UK office he established, and fund manager Alexander Mints to found CaseCraft AI three years ago.
They recruited Ed Crosse, a partner at City firm Simmons & Simmons and a former president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association, to act as an adviser.
The startup raised £550,000 in its second funding round last summer, to add to the £500,000 it had initially raised. Mr Yatsuha said it had since added a further £900,000.
He said the business was “almost ready” for another funding round to fuel its expansion plans.
After moving into personal injury and employment law next year, the plan was to increase the £10,000 limit on claims, first possibly by another £10,000 but with the ultimate goal of expanding it to £200,000.
Commercial disputes, contractual disputes and unpaid debts were likely to make up many of the higher-value cases.
Geographical expansion was also planned for the next two to three years, beginning with the jurisdictions most similar to England and Wales – Scotland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
“The US would be ideal because it has the highest number of claims,” Mr Yatsuha said.
He added: “Most people who are owed money simply give up, because the cost and effort of chasing it feels worse than writing it off.
“We built CaseCraft AI to change that calculation. Users signing up with a combined claim value approaching £11m tells us how many people have been quietly carrying a loss they never thought they could do anything about.”
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