Rent your cases or own your marketing: pay per signed case vs a flat fee

How do the five ways to buy new clients work?

There are five common ways a law firm pays for new clients. A case vendor charges for each client who signs. A lead seller charges for each call or form. A directory charges for a listing. A flat-fee agency charges the same each month to run ads and SEO in your own accounts. Or you do it yourself.

“Case acquisition” is the name many case vendors use. They run their own ads, often on TV and social media, take the calls, screen the person and pass you a signed fee agreement. The ads, the phone numbers, the landing pages and the list of everyone who called stay with the vendor. Lead sellers may also sell the same person to several firms: see exclusive vs shared leads. For listings, see are paid lawyer directories worth it?

Who owns what when you stop paying?

With a vendor, you own only the clients already signed. Everything that found them belongs to the vendor: the ads, the pages, the phone numbers, the call recordings and the list of people who called but didn’t sign. With your own accounts, all of it stays with you and so does the history of what worked.

Check each item on this list, whoever you work with:

• Your Google Business Profile. Google allows “only one primary owner” per profile, and owners, unlike managers, can add or remove users (Google). The primary owner should be you, not a vendor or agency.
• Your website and domain. The domain should be registered in the firm’s name, on the firm’s card.
• Your ad accounts. Google, Microsoft and Meta accounts in the firm’s name, paid by the firm, with you holding admin access. Their history (what worked, what didn’t) stays with the account.
• Your calls and leads. Call recordings, forms and the list of people who didn’t sign yet. That list is often worth the most.
• Your reviews. Reviews on your own profile stay with you. Reviews on a vendor’s site or directory don’t.

What “you own your marketing” should mean in a contract fits in one line: every account is in your name, on your payment method, you can remove the agency’s access any day, and the work you paid for is yours. That’s how Probative’s terms read. Our ownership checklist goes account by account, with the contract clauses.

How does the cost per case change as you grow?

A per-case price stays the same for every case, so your bill grows in step with your caseload. Signing twice as many cases costs twice as much. A flat fee stays the same inside each ad-spend band, so it is spread over more cases as you grow. Your own ad spend still rises when you want more cases.

That is the honest trade:

• Pay per case costs nothing before a case signs. The risk sits with the vendor, and the vendor prices that risk into every case.
• Your own ads cost money from the first month, before you know what they will sign. Nobody can promise how many cases they will bring.
• Over time, your own accounts build history, reviews and pages that keep working. A vendor’s work never becomes yours.

We won’t guess what your numbers will be. The worksheet below lets you compare the two with your own figures.

How do you work out your own cost per signed case?

Use the same sum for every source: what you paid that source in a month, divided by the cases it signed. For a vendor, that is the vendor’s bill. For your own marketing, add the ad spend, the agency fee and the tools. Count signed cases from your own case list, never from the vendor’s report.

Two rules keep the sum honest. Wait for late signings before judging a month, because some cases sign weeks after the first call. And don’t judge a source on a handful of cases; pool a few months first. Our cost per signed case guide has the full method, and a printable copy of this worksheet is on our free templates page.

What do the bar rules say about paying per lead or per case?

The bar rules ban paying anyone for recommending you, but allow paying for ads. Bars generally treat a fixed price per lead as an ad cost. A price for each case you sign is where they split: some see pay for a referral, a few allow it with conditions. Check your own state first.

Georgia’s version of the rule, in force from March 1, 2026, is typical: a lawyer “shall not compensate, give or promise anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer’s services,” with exceptions such as “the reasonable costs of advertisements” (Supreme Court of Georgia). Its comment 5 adds that a lawyer may pay for leads “as long as the lead generator does not recommend the lawyer,” and only if the payment doesn’t amount to sharing legal fees (same source).

What the bars we’ve read at the source say about outcome-based pay:

• New York allows paying a lead platform on several conditions, including that the platform doesn’t recommend the lawyer and that “the payment by the lawyer does not vary depending on whether a retention results or on the amount of any resulting fee” (NYSBA Opinion 1294). Paying a bidding site a percentage of a legal fee broke the fee-sharing rule (Opinion 1271). And paying to be listed on a site that called its lawyers “carefully vetted” was “an improper payment for a recommendation” (Opinion 1267).
• Florida says a lead provider’s fee “based on the success or perceived value of the case” would be an improper division of fees (Florida Bar handbook).
• Texas says a lawyer “may not agree to pay a nonlawyer-owned vendor based on a percentage of the revenues” of the firm (Opinion 706).
• Illinois allows “a reasonable connecting fee for every connection that results in a potential client hiring the lawyer,” but only from a connecting service that tells the client about the arrangement, certifies its compliance in writing and doesn’t recommend you. It bans fees set as a share of your legal fees (Illinois Rule 7.2).
• Missouri treats a service that sends particular clients to particular lawyers as a referral service, “regardless of the name” it uses, and a lawyer may use one only if it is a “qualified service” registered with the state (Informal Opinion 2025-05, Missouri ethics counsel).

So the careful questions are: Does the vendor recommend me to the person? Does my price change if they hire me? Does my state make this vendor register? Our state rules library shows the referral and lead-generator rule for every state, and marks which ones we have read at the source and which still follow the ABA model rule until we check.

Can an ad say “pay nothing until we win”?

Be careful with it. Google lists “Pay nothing until we win.” among its examples of clickbait in YouTube ads (Google). Texas, for one, makes contingent-fee ads say whether the client pays the costs. And Google bars an affiliate marketer from advertising legal services without saying it doesn’t provide them.

The details, from the platforms’ and bars’ own pages:

• Guarantees. An Illinois bar opinion found that a referral service’s “money-back guarantee” if the client didn’t win “is effectively a prohibited paid recommendation of the lawyer” (ISBA Opinion 25-02).
• Costs. In Texas, an ad that offers a contingent fee “must state whether the client will be obligated to pay for other expenses, such as the costs of litigation” (Texas Rule 7.02(c)).
• Who is advertising. Google’s misrepresentation policy gives this example of what’s not allowed: “An affiliate marketer advertising legal services without disclosing that they do not provide legal services” (Google).
• Reselling leads. Local Services advertisers “cannot sell or pass leads to other businesses” (Google). Meta’s terms say “You may not sell Lead Generation Data under any circumstances” (Meta).

When ads run in your own accounts, you and your attorney approve every line before it runs, in your state’s words. We handle your state’s ad rules for you.

What should you ask a vendor before you sign?

Ask five things, and get the answers in writing. A good vendor answers each one easily, because the answers are in its own records and contracts. If a vendor dodges any of them, or will only answer on a call, treat that as your answer. Keep the written replies with the contract you sign.

1. Where does each case come from? The ad, the page, the phone number and the date of first contact.
2. Is it only mine? How do you prove nobody else was offered the same person?
3. Do you recommend me to the person? What exactly do your ads and your call script say?
4. Does my price change if they hire me, or with the size of the case?
5. What do I keep if I stop? Recordings, the list of callers who didn’t sign, and any reviews.

The full list of ten questions has a good answer and a warning sign for each. If you already use a vendor, here is how to leave without a gap in new clients.

Where should a firm that buys cases start?

Start by seeing what you already own. You may already have a website, a Google profile and some reviews that could bring in clients of your own. Answer seven quick questions about what you have, and you’ll see your stage and one package to start with. If you’re not sure, start with Google + SEO.

You pay Google, Microsoft and Meta directly for the ads; we never take a cut. Probative charges a flat monthly fee from a published price card: never per lead, never per case and never a share of your fees. Every plan is month to month, with no minimum term: you can end it any month with 30 days’ notice (terms).

What this means for your firm

• Ask what you keep. Before you sign any deal, list what stays with you the day you stop paying.
• Count it yourself. Work out the cost per signed case for each source with the worksheet, from your own case list.
• Check the rule first. If a deal charges per signed case, ask your state bar’s ethics hotline before you sign.

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