Buying signed cases can be a smart way to grow a personal injury practice. It can also be an expensive lesson if you pick the wrong provider. The pitch is always polished. The website looks professional, the sales call is confident, and the first wire goes out before you have answers to the questions that actually protect your firm.
This checklist is the one we would want a firm to run on us. When you are evaluating signed MVA retainers from any provider, including ours, these are the points worth pinning down in writing before money moves. None of it is complicated. Most of it is just refusing to accept a verbal answer where a written one should exist.
Start with whose name is on the agreement
The first question is simple. When the client signs, whose retainer agreement are they signing?
It should be yours. The client should be signing your firm’s own agreement, on your terms, with your fee structure and your language. If a provider puts clients on its own paperwork, or on a generic agreement the provider controls, you inherit whatever is in that document and whatever problems come with it. You may also end up re-papering clients after delivery, which is extra work and an awkward first conversation with someone who thought they had already hired a lawyer.
Ask to walk through the exact signing flow before you pay anything. Who contacts the client, what is said, which document is presented, and how the signed copy reaches your office? A provider that does this properly will answer without hesitation, because the process is the product.
Get the replacement terms in writing
Every provider delivers a bad case eventually. What separates a real operation from a gamble is what happens next.
Get the replacement policy in writing before the first order. Three things need to be spelled out. First, the window: how many days do you have to report a problem? Second, the triggers: what counts as a case that gets replaced? A case that fails the agreed qualification criteria, a client who already had an attorney, and a client who turns out to be unreachable are reasonable triggers. Third, the remedy: is it a replacement case, a credit, or a refund, and how fast does each happen?
Verbal assurances are worth nothing in week six when you are disputing a case that never met your criteria. If the terms are not written down before money moves, assume they do not exist.
Exclusivity means one firm, in writing
A signed case sold to two firms is not exclusive, whatever the pitch says. It is also a miserable situation for the client, who signed one agreement and then gets calls from two offices.
Ask the direct question: is each signed case delivered to one firm only, never shared and never resold? Then ask where that is stated. It should appear in the provider’s written terms or your order paperwork, not just in a sales conversation. Exclusivity is the core of what you are paying for at this price level. Treat it that way.
Ask for the consent record behind a case
Every delivered case started as marketing. Somewhere, that client saw a disclosure, gave their information, and agreed to be contacted. You should be able to ask for the record of that consent for any case you receive: what the client saw, when consent was captured, and how it ties to that client.
This matters for two reasons. It protects your firm if questions are ever raised about how a client was obtained. It also tells you a lot about the provider. A company generating its own cases through its own process can produce this. A reseller recycling contacts bought from someone else usually cannot. If the answer is vague, that is your answer.
Put the key questions in writing
Do not rely on a call summary written by the salesperson. Send the questions by email and ask for direct answers you can save with the order. At minimum, ask:
- Which retainer agreement is signed, and can we review the complete signing flow before ordering?
- What qualification criteria will every case have to meet?
- What case file and consent documentation will arrive with each delivery?
- Is every case exclusive to our firm, with no sharing, resale, or reassignment?
- What replacement window, triggers, and remedy apply if a case does not qualify?
- Is the charge a flat fee per case, with no percentage of our fee or settlement?
- What states can you cover, what is the starting price, and are we required to sign a contract?
A careful provider may need to confirm an operational detail internally. That is fine. Vague wording, unanswered questions, and answers that change between the call and the paperwork are not.
Check how the fee is structured
The price matters, but the structure matters more. A signed case should cost a flat fee per case, set in advance. It should never be a percentage of your legal fee and never a share of the settlement.
That is not just a pricing preference. Paying a non-lawyer a cut of the fee is where fee splitting problems live, and a provider willing to price that way is handing your firm the risk. A flat fee for marketing and intake work is a clean, defensible structure. A fee that rises and falls with case value is not.
While you are on price, ask whether it is published anywhere. A provider that will not state a starting price on its website or in writing is telling you the number depends on what you will tolerate. For reference, our signed retainers start at $1,950 per case, flat, and we put that on the page. Hold every provider, us included, to that level of plainness.
Read the order terms like a case file
Before approving payment, compare the written terms against the answers you received. The order should state the agreed case criteria, the fee per case, the states covered, and whether the firm is making a one time purchase or entering an ongoing obligation. It should also say what counts as delivery, what information comes with the case, and when the replacement clock starts.
Pay special attention to language that quietly weakens a promise. Words such as partner, affiliate, network, or overflow can matter if they create an exception to exclusivity. Automatic renewal, minimum purchase language, and broad disclaimers can also change the deal. If a term conflicts with what you were told, ask for the correction in writing before payment. Do not treat the sales email as stronger than the document you accepted.
Remember what stays on your side of the desk
Outsourced intake does not outsource your professional judgment. Two duties stay with your firm no matter who delivers the case.
Run your own conflict check on every case before you accept it. And make your own call on the merits. A provider’s screening, checking things like accident timing, fault, injuries, treatment, and insurance, is a filter, not a legal opinion. Firms get into trouble when they treat a delivered file as a decision someone else already made. It is your license on the case. Act like it.
Score the provider before you judge the cases
Use the same scorecard for every provider so the decision does not turn on the best sales presentation. Give 0 when the answer is missing, 1 when it is verbal or incomplete, and 2 when it is written and specific. Score these areas: your agreement is used, qualification criteria, exclusivity, replacement terms, consent records, flat fee structure, delivery process, first order flexibility, geographic coverage, and what remains your firm’s responsibility.
A provider does not need a perfect score to earn a cautious test, but zeros in exclusivity, replacement, consent, or fee structure should stop the order. Low scores in several other areas usually predict the same problem: your team will spend its time resolving avoidable questions after the cases arrive. Keep the completed scorecard with your vendor file so a later dispute can be checked against what was promised.
Red flags that should end the conversation
Walk away, or at least slow down, when you see any of these:
- No price published anywhere, and no straight number on the sales call either
- Guaranteed numbers of signed cases, or any suggestion of guaranteed settlement values
- Exclusivity that the provider will not put in writing
- Replacement terms you only hear about after a bad case shows up
- A fee tied to case value, your fee, or the settlement
- Pressure to sign a long contract before you have seen a single real case file
- No clear explanation of how a case is qualified and signed, step by step
One item on that list deserves emphasis. A long contract demanded upfront, before you have worked a single case from the provider, protects the provider and nobody else. Firms should be able to start with a small order, judge the cases, and decide from evidence.
Structure the first order so it can be judged
Make the first order small enough that a bad result is a lesson, not a crisis, and specific enough that both sides know whether it worked. State the number of cases, states, qualification criteria, delivery window, and total amount authorized. Agree in advance how your firm will report a replacement request and how quickly the provider must respond.
When cases arrive, track them on one simple sheet: delivery date, criteria met, client reached, conflict check completed, agreement verified, and replacement requested if needed. Review the order as soon as the agreed delivery period ends. Expand only if the files match the written criteria, the consent records are available, and the provider handled exceptions cleanly. If they did not, you have evidence for a precise conversation and a clean stopping point.
The short version
Own agreement. Replacement terms and exclusivity in writing. A consent record you can request. A flat fee per case, never a percentage. Your own conflict check and judgment on every file.
A provider that clears those five points is worth a small first order. One that dodges any of them has told you what doing business with them will feel like. If it helps to have a benchmark while you compare, read how our own retainer terms are set out and hold us to the same list.
