Pay per signed case vs a pay per lead vendor: cost math

The useful comparison is total acquisition spend divided by signed cases, not the quoted price of an initial record. A pay per lead vendor makes the firm absorb the losses between delivery and signature, while Signed Retainer Delivery makes the delivered retainer the billable unit.

What number should a personal injury firm compare?

Compare cost per signed case on both sides. A record price and a Signed Retainer price describe different stages of the acquisition process, so placing the two quotes next to each other does not answer the economic question.

The record buyer still has to contact the claimant, determine whether the facts satisfy the firm’s requirements, conduct the signing conversation, and obtain an executed representation agreement. The staff time and systems required for those steps matter, but the first pass can be calculated from four inputs:

The clean formula is:

`Signed cases = purchased records × contact rate × qualification rate × signing rate`

Then:

`Cost per signed case = total record spend ÷ signed cases`

Use the firm’s own dispositions for each rate. A generic conversion number can hide the exact stage where the economics change.

How does the arithmetic work with illustrative numbers?

The following numbers are illustrative. They are not Velocity Axis pricing, a market benchmark, or a performance forecast.

Assume a firm buys 100 claimant records at an illustrative price of $200 each. The starting spend is $20,000. Now apply an illustrative 60 percent contact rate, 50 percent qualification rate, and 40 percent signing rate among qualified claimants.

The firm paid $20,000 and signed 12 cases. The resulting acquisition cost is $1,666.67 per signed case before staff expense, software, call handling, or the cost of records that require continued follow-up.

The quoted $200 unit price was accurate. It was simply attached to an earlier event. The firm’s economic unit is the signed case, so the downstream rates decide what the initial price becomes.

Which rate changes the answer most?

Every stage compounds the one before it. If the contact rate falls, fewer claimants reach qualification. If qualification is loose at the source, intake spends time discovering mismatches. If the signing rate falls, the firm pays for qualified conversations that do not become executed agreements.

Keep the same illustrative purchase of 100 records at $200 each and change one input at a time:

Expected values can include fractions because they describe an average across repeated batches. An actual batch produces whole signed cases, so small volumes will move around the model.

This sensitivity table is more useful than a single claimed conversion rate. It shows which assumptions the firm must verify in its own operation.

What costs sit outside the purchase price?

The basic equation covers acquisition spend. A full internal comparison can add the costs the firm incurs after a record arrives: intake labor, calling systems, after-hours coverage, continued follow-up, and management review.

Those costs should be added consistently. If intake payroll is already fixed and has unused capacity, assigning the full payroll to a new campaign would overstate the marginal cost. If the team must add shifts, hire staff, or buy new systems to work the volume, excluding those expenses would understate it.

A practical internal model uses two views. The cash view counts new spending caused by the campaign. The operating view also assigns a reasonable share of existing intake capacity. Neither requires a claim about what another firm should achieve.

What changes when the billable unit is the signed retainer?

Under Signed Retainer Delivery, the claimant submits through the firm’s campaign funnel, completes a six-digit OTP check, and is qualified by phone against the criteria in the executed order. The claimant then signs the firm’s representation agreement through DocuSign on its letterhead. The executed agreement and claimant record arrive before the live handoff during stated intake hours.

The delivered Signed Retainer is the billable unit. Contact, live qualification, and signature occur before billing. That removes the three modeled conversion steps between the purchased unit and the signed unit from the firm’s acquisition-cost equation.

The comparison becomes direct:

This does not remove the firm’s work after signature. The firm still evaluates, directs, and represents each claimant. It also does not turn the acquisition fee into a share of a legal fee or recovery. The fee attaches to the delivered unit defined by the order and does not depend on case outcome.

What does the signed unit guarantee?

The performance terms guarantee conformity with the order’s written criteria for each delivered Signed Retainer. They do not guarantee case value or a particular case mix.

That boundary matters to the cost comparison. The billable event confirms that a claimant cleared the agreed screens and signed the firm’s agreement. It does not predict settlement timing, litigation complexity, or recovery.

The criteria may cover case type, accident recency, injury eligibility, treatment timing, insurance and available recovery coverage, fault, representation status, prior settlement, and geography. They are recorded before launch under Criteria Written into Each Order. A narrow order uses the same structure as a broad one.

How should a firm test the two quotes?

Put both proposals into the same table. For the record model, use the firm’s measured contact, qualification, and signing rates. For Signed Retainer Delivery, use the quoted price per delivered Signed Retainer and the exact order criteria. Keep case-opening and legal-work costs outside both acquisition figures unless they differ between the models.

Then test the contract around the billed event. Identify what counts, what can be replaced, the request deadline, what evidence is required, and what later outcomes remain outside the guarantee. Under the published Replacement Policy, an approved replacement removes the original delivery from counted volume and the next conforming delivery replaces it at no added charge.

The result is a comparison of like units. The firm can decide whether it wants to own the path to signature or buy at the point where the representation agreement is already executed.

What Velocity Axis does

Velocity Axis delivers Signed Retainers under criteria recorded in an executed order. The claimant is qualified live, signs the firm’s representation agreement through DocuSign on its letterhead, and arrives with the executed agreement and claimant record. The product mechanics, criteria standard, performance boundary, and replacement process are published in the Signed Retainer Delivery documentation.