Law firms - the long version
How much are you paying for inquiries you were never going to take?
Most wasted spend is not fraud. It is an undefined standard, billed against.
For attorneys and firm administrators. Injured people should not use this page.
Reading time is about eight minutes. Nothing here quotes a price or promises a result.
The situation
When nobody has written down what qualifies, everything that vaguely resembles a case is billable, and the argument happens after the invoice rather than before the delivery.
The pattern is consistent: inquiries outside the geography, outside the injury types, outside the date ranges, already represented, or already sold to three other firms. Each one costs exactly what a qualifying inquiry costs.
A written standard does not make a vendor honest. It makes disputes decidable, which is the part that actually saves money.
Where the money goes
- Inquiries outside your geography, your injury types or your date ranges still cost the same as the ones inside them.
- Contacts sold to several firms at once arrive already spoken to and already sceptical.
- Recycled contacts from months ago convert once and then never again.
- Without a written standard, every dispute is one opinion against another, and the vendor's opinion wins by default.
How waste is removed before it starts
Each step is written and approved by you before any inquiry is delivered.
01 - Write the exclusions
The cases your firm will not take, stated plainly: geography, injury recency, employment type, insurance coverage, representation status, and your own list.
02 - Define billable
What must be true for an inquiry to count. Anything that fails the standard is not billed.
03 - Set the review window
How long you have to dispute a record, and what evidence settles it.
04 - Cap the exposure
Volume cap, weekly pacing and budget cap, so a bad fortnight has a ceiling.
05 - Read the record back
Every inquiry against the standard at the end of the pilot, including the disputes and their outcomes.
Bring the standard you use now, even if it only exists in someone's head. The call turns it into a document.
What you keep
What you keep from this exercise
- 01
A written exclusion list
Reusable with any vendor, not just with us.
- 02
A definition of billable
The single sentence that ends most disputes before they start.
- 03
A dispute process
Written, time-boxed, and settled against criteria rather than tone of voice.
- 04
Cost per qualifying inquiry
Your real figure, rather than cost per contact of unknown quality.
Straight answers
The questions firms ask about this
- Are these inquiries shared with other firms?
- No. Inquiries generated for your pilot go to your firm only.
- What if a record does not meet the standard?
- You dispute it inside the review window. It is assessed against the written criteria and the outcome is recorded either way.
- What does this cost?
- It depends on the criteria, the geography and the volume, so no figure is quoted before those are written down. You see the cost and the cap before approving anything.
- Can we tighten the criteria later?
- Yes. Criteria changes are recorded and applied forward from the date you approve them.
Your criteria
Send us the standard you use now
Describe what you take and what you refuse. We return a draft criteria document and the questions it raises.
What happens next
- 01We reply within one business day and propose a time.
- 02We draft your criteria document and send it back for corrections. Nothing is delivered until you approve it.
- 03If we can meet the standard, we quote per billable inquiry. If we cannot, we say so.
We do not sell or share what you submit here, and we do not use it for anything other than responding to your enquiry.
Or take it to a call
Thirty minutes on criteria and economics
Bring the figures this article asked for. You leave with a draft standard either way.
Criteria and Pricing Call · 30 minutes
Discuss criteria, delivery needs, and pricing for MVA and workers’ compensation inquiries, live phone transfers, signed cases, signed commercial cases, and catastrophic commercial cases. No questionnaire is required before booking.
Book a CallBook within the next four days. The calendar opens in a new tab. Complete your booking to receive your confirmation and calendar invite.
Next step
Write the standard before you spend anything else
Forty-five minutes on exclusions, the definition of billable, and the dispute window.