The short answer
Before you sign with a lead or case vendor, find eight things in its paperwork: what you are buying, whether you owe a fixed amount or pay as delivered, how the contract renews, how much notice you must give, what leaving early costs, how refunds and credits work, who decides a lead is good, and where disputes are heard. This checklist names no vendor. It is information, not legal advice.
A contract tells you what a vendor will actually do, which is often different from what the sales call promised. Eight places in a contract decide most of what you can do later. This checklist helps you find each one, in plain words, and tells you what to ask when you cannot. It names no vendor, because the questions apply to all of them.
How do you use this checklist?
Print this page, mark each clause found, missing or unclear, and write the page of the contract next to it. Do it before the first payment, with the final version in hand, not the sales summary. A contract can be one document or several: a main agreement, an order form, terms of service on a website, and a privacy page. Read them all.
What are the eight clauses?
| Clause | What to find | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | Whether you buy leads (contacts) or cases (clients who signed), and how each is defined in writing | What exactly counts as a lead or a case, and who decides? |
| What you owe | A fixed amount per month, a minimum, or payment only as delivered | Do I owe anything if you deliver nothing in a month? |
| Renewal | Whether the contract ends on its own or renews automatically, and for how long each time | What happens on the last day, and where is it written? |
| Notice | How many days before the end you must tell the vendor, in what form, and to whom | How do I give notice, and how will you confirm it? |
| Early exit | Any fee, minimum payment or lost deposit if you leave before the term ends | What do I owe if I stop in the middle? |
| Refunds and credits | How long you have to flag a bad lead, what counts as bad, and whether you get money back or a credit | How do I report a bad lead, and how fast do you answer? |
| Who decides a lead qualifies | Whether the vendor, you, or a third party decides if a lead meets the criteria | Whose records settle a disagreement? |
| Disputes | Which state’s law governs, where a dispute is heard, and whether it goes to private arbitration | If we disagree, where do we go, and who pays? |
What should you look for in each clause?
What you are buying
The contract should say whether you are buying a lead, a call, a form or a signed case, and define each. Look for words such as “qualified”, “exclusive” and “retained”, and check that each has a written meaning. If a vendor sells “exclusive” leads, find the sentence that says nobody else is sent the same person. See exclusive versus shared leads.
What you owe
Some deals charge a set amount a month whether or not anything arrives. Others charge only per delivery. Others mix the two: a monthly minimum plus a price per lead. Find the number that appears on your card or invoice even in a month with zero delivery.
Renewal
Look for the words “automatically renews”, “evergreen” or “unless cancelled”. Find how long each renewal runs. A short initial term followed by a long automatic renewal is a pattern to watch for.
Notice
Find how many days before the end you must give notice, and the allowed methods: email, certified mail, a form in a portal. A notice that must go to a postal address, or that must arrive before a date you can easily miss, is a warning. Ask the vendor to confirm in writing when it receives yours.
Early exit
Find any fee for stopping early, and how it is calculated: the rest of the term, a set amount or a percentage. Also look for deposits or prepaid balances you would lose. Ask what you get back if the vendor stops delivering.
Refunds and credits
Find the window for flagging a bad lead, the list of reasons the vendor accepts, and the form of repayment. Check whether the window is short and whether repayment is only credit toward more leads. A credit you cannot use is not a refund. Our guide to leaving a lead vendor covers what to do with unused credits.
Who decides a lead qualifies
If the vendor alone decides whether a lead qualifies, you have no way to dispute a bad one. Look for a standard you can check against your own records, such as your written case criteria. Keep your own log of every lead and what happened to it, so you can count signed cases yourself.
Disputes
Find which state’s law governs, where a dispute is heard, and whether it goes to private arbitration. A contract that sends you to a court or arbitrator far from your office, or makes you pay the vendor’s costs, changes what a small dispute is worth.
What other things should you check?
The eight clauses are the money and the exit. These are the rest of the file:
- Pricing tied to the hire. If the price changes when a person signs with you, ask your bar about it before you sign. Our explainer covers whether paying per client retained is allowed in your state.
- Recommendations. Find what the vendor’s ads and call scripts say about you. Bars treat paying for a recommendation differently from paying for a lead.
- Registration. If the vendor refers particular clients to particular lawyers, ask whether your state requires it to be registered or certified, and ask for proof.
- What you keep. Ask who owns the ads, the pages, the phone numbers, the call recordings and the list of people who called but did not sign. See who owns your law firm marketing.
- Data and privacy. Ask where the vendor stores what callers told it, who can see it, and what it does when you leave.
If a clause shares a fee with another lawyer or a vendor, check the referral fee rules by state first.
What this means for your firm
- Do not sign on the sales summary. Read the final documents against the eight clauses.
- Get answers in writing, and keep them with the contract.
- Count your own results. Judge any vendor on cost per signed case from your records. See pay per signed case versus owning your marketing.
Read next: questions to ask a lead vendor and our agency contract checklist.
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This checklist is information, not legal advice, and Probative is a marketing firm, not a law firm or a lawyer referral service. Last reviewed by our ads lead.
Questions about this guide
Do I need a lawyer to read a vendor contract?
You are a lawyer, or you employ one, but contract review for your own firm is different from your usual work. Have someone who did not negotiate the deal read it with this list in hand. We are a marketing firm and this is not legal advice.
Which clause causes the most trouble later?
Often the two that decide how you can leave: automatic renewal and the notice you must give. A deal that is easy to enter and costly to exit moves the risk onto you.
Should I ask the vendor to change the contract?
Yes. Ask for the changes in writing, and treat a refusal to change anything, or a refusal to put answers in writing, as information.
Does this checklist apply to agencies too?
Mostly. The renewal, exit, refund and dispute clauses matter in any marketing contract. The clauses about leads and signed clients apply only to vendors that sell them. See our agency contract checklist for the rest.
Sources
- Probative: law firm marketing agency contract checklistAccessed October 26, 2026
- Probative: questions to ask a lead or case vendorAccessed October 26, 2026