Posted leads: a written introduction
TortHarbor offers raw leads, qualified leads and signed retainers. Choose the stage first, then agree on exclusive or shared lead distribution. Retainer delivery follows its own firm-approved scope. Raw leads give your intake team the agreed inquiry details; qualified leads include screening against your requirements; retainer programs include the agreed signed documents. The format determines what your team does next, and a retainer remains distinct from final case acceptance.
The operational question is whether your team can work the delivered volume. Define the first-contact process, follow-up ownership and how unreachable inquiries are recorded. A low unit price loses its usefulness if the team cannot connect with the people behind those records.
An initial inquiry with the agreed contact details and form responses, before the additional screening included in a qualified-lead program.
- Why it helps your firm
- Put your own intake expertise to work. If your team is effective at outreach and screening, raw inquiries let you develop prospects through your process without purchasing an additional qualification stage.
- What you receive
- The information captured at inquiry, such as name, contact details, campaign interest and available responses. Required fields are set in the campaign brief.
- Your team’s next step
- Your team owns outreach, screening and follow-up. This format fits a firm that wants to run its own qualification process and has the capacity to work new inquiries.
- Define before launch
- Required fields, delivery timing, source and permission evidence, duplicate handling, and whether delivery is exclusive or shared. Raw does not mean qualified.
Lead delivery reserved for your firm within the supplier, resale and time limits written into the campaign agreement.
- Why it helps your firm
- Limit competing delivery by the supplier within the agreed scope. Your team has more room to develop the relationship without that supplier sending the same inquiry to multiple buyers at the same time.
- What you receive
- The purchased lead format with the agreed exclusivity. Exclusivity describes distribution; raw, qualified and retainer describe the stage of the deliverable.
- Your team’s next step
- Work the inquiry according to its stage. Exclusivity does not establish case quality or mean the person has never contacted another firm independently.
- Define before launch
- Who the exclusivity promise covers, how long it lasts, resale restrictions and duplicate rules. Specify the screening or retainer scope separately.
An inquiry that may also be delivered to other buyers under the distribution terms agreed for the campaign.
- Why it helps your firm
- Consider a different balance of purchase price and available volume. A team with fast, consistent follow-up can assess whether the shared program’s actual signing economics justify competition for the inquiry.
- What you receive
- The agreed inquiry or screening information without a promise of delivery only to your firm. Set the permitted number of buyers and delivery timing before launch.
- Your team’s next step
- Plan prompt, coordinated outreach and check for prior contact or representation during intake. Compare actual contact and signing results alongside the purchase price.
- Define before launch
- Buyer limits, simultaneous or sequential delivery, screening depth, resale rules, duplicate handling and the contact permissions that apply to your firm.
Inquiries screened against the questions, required answers and disqualifiers supplied by your firm.
- Why it helps your firm
- Move first-pass screening ahead of your staff’s follow-up. Required answers and disqualifiers help filter known mismatches, while the responses give intake a starting point for remaining checks and a more purposeful conversation.
- What you receive
- Contact details plus the agreed screening responses and qualification context. Your brief may cover exposure, timing, reported diagnosis, geography and representation status.
- Your team’s next step
- Your team reviews the answers, contacts the prospect and completes any remaining intake, records review and representation steps. Self-reported answers are not medical-record verification.
- Define before launch
- The exact criteria, what evidence is included, which answers are self-reported, delivery fields, exclusive or shared distribution, and the review process.
A program whose agreed deliverable includes signed, firm-approved retainer documents and the specified intake information.
- Why it helps your firm
- Include the initial signing step in the purchased scope. Your team can concentrate on onboarding, obtaining outstanding evidence and reviewing the matter instead of owning every step from the first inquiry.
- What you receive
- The signed documents and supporting intake packet defined for the campaign. Document collection and records verification are separate scope decisions.
- Your team’s next step
- Your firm reviews the packet, completes onboarding and outstanding evidence checks, and determines final case acceptance. A signed retainer does not establish that all acceptance requirements are satisfied.
- Define before launch
- Approved forms, signature requirements, screening criteria, required packet contents, review windows and responsibility for missing information or later records.
Live calls: a conversation already in progress
Inbound calls reach your team after the agreed client-defined question path. As an additional option, a live transfer connects a prospect screened by our proprietary AI qualification engine with an available intake specialist. Your firm needs staffed capacity during delivery windows and the agreed screening context at handoff.
Plan for unanswered calls, capacity limits and disconnections before launch. The contract should explain which of those events are billable, creditable or eligible for a permitted follow-up.
Compare the complete workflow
Use the same claimant criteria when comparing formats, then make the operational differences explicit. This shows whether a lower purchase price actually helps your business or simply shifts more screening, outreach and follow-up onto your staff.
- Staffing: scheduled outreach capacity for leads; real-time receiving capacity for transfers.
- Context: agreed written fields for leads; screening context and a connection record for calls.
- Billing: an accepted delivery event for leads; an agreed connection and qualification event for calls.
- Measurement: contact, retainer and acceptance outcomes for each delivery cohort.
- Cost: acquisition spend per signed retainer and accepted case, plus any intake cost you want to compare.
Run the numbers using the same definitions
Consider an illustrative lead program at $200 per delivery, a 20% lead-to-retainer rate and a 70% retainer-to-acceptance rate. Acquisition cost per accepted case is about $1,429. A hypothetical $350 call at 35% signing and 70% acceptance produces the same figure. These are examples, not TortHarbor rates or performance benchmarks.
The higher-priced delivery is not automatically less efficient. The example also excludes downstream records, legal work, financing and differences in intake labor. Use measured data and consistent cost definitions before choosing a format.
Test a format before expanding it
A scoped pilot helps you learn how a format works with your staff before committing to more volume. Start with one tort, a written criteria version, a defined delivery model and a cap the firm can handle. Keep the review window and rejection categories explicit. If you test both formats, report them separately.
At the end of a reconciled cohort, decide what to change: source mix, screening, delivery timing or the intake workflow. Expand from observed outcomes, rather than assuming one format will always outperform the other.
Plan the next step with your intake team.
Turn your claimant profile into specific questions, acceptable answers and hard disqualifiers. A shared brief gives sources a consistent standard and helps keep your team from spending time on known mismatches.
- Identify exposure or product, relevant dates, reported injury, geography and representation questions.
- Separate information needed before delivery from evidence your team will collect later.
- Choose the format, distribution terms, budget, daily cap and staffed delivery hours.
- Name the people who approve criteria, receive deliveries and reconcile outcomes.
These describe different stages. Keeping them separate helps your team understand what it is buying and what remains to be done.
- Screened: responses have been assessed against the campaign’s questions and rules.
- Verified: specified facts have been checked against identified evidence; define which checks are included.
- Retained: the agreed retainer documents have been signed.
- Accepted: your firm has completed the review it requires to accept the case. Neither screening nor a signature guarantees that result.
Outcome feedback turns intake experience into acquisition decisions. Track the same group of deliveries over time so we can identify where prospects stop progressing and discuss changes to sources, screening or handoff.
- Keep delivered, contacted, screened, retained and accepted counts separate.
- Record why an inquiry did not progress, such as unreachable, screening mismatch or insufficient supporting evidence.
- Allow for your intake and records-review cycle before comparing results.
- Use reconciled outcomes to discuss source mix, questions, delivery timing and capacity for the next phase.
Questions before you start
Which format is cheaper?
Compare acquisition cost per retainer and per accepted case using your own conversion data. Unit price alone is insufficient, and staffing costs may differ between the formats.
Can a firm begin with a small pilot?
A capped scope can be discussed before launch. Availability, minimum commitments and commercial terms depend on the specific campaign and must be agreed in writing.