For plaintiff firms buying signed motor vehicle cases.
A LAW FIRM SHOULD OWN THE MACHINE THAT PRODUCES ITS CLIENTS.
Every signed case you buy funds someone else’s acquisition system. I build yours instead, inside your firm’s own Meta account, on a flat monthly fee, one firm per state.
Average cost per signed case
- Through an aggregator
- $2,835
- Built in your own account
- ~$1,400
- You keep
- $1,435 per case · 51%
Fifty one jurisdictions. One firm in each.
A bought case there runs $0. Built in your own account, about half that.
Where this came from
SEVEN YEARS IN LEAD AGGREGATION.
I know what a motor vehicle case costs to produce because I’ve produced them.
I also know what I charged.
I stopped being able to argue the firm was getting the better half of that trade.
So I started building the other side of it. Fifty one accounts feeding one data set will teach me things a lead desk never learns. What lowers cost in Ohio should lower it in Georgia. I can’t build that selling cases one at a time. I can only build it inside firms.
Same machine, in the firm’s name. They keep it.
The arithmetic
THE MARGIN IS NOT A MARKUP. IT IS THE ENTIRE BUSINESS.
| Segment | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Media | $1,150 | 40.6% |
| Fulfillment | $95 | 3.4% |
| Margin | $1,590 | 56.0% |
$2,835 buys one signed motor vehicle case through an aggregator. That was my price. Some charge more.
$1,150 of it is media. $95 covers the work. The other $1,590 is margin.
That $1,590 comes out of a fee you earned.
You pay it whether the phone gets answered or not. The lead that rings out. The voicemail that is full. The claimant who never calls back. All billed at the price of the one who signs.
They also decide what you see. Commercial goes somewhere else. Rideshare goes somewhere else. You get what is left, at the same price.
And the price moves one direction. Every year another aggregator enters your state and bids against the ones already there. Their competition. Your invoice.
An aggregator that stopped charging the margin would stop existing. Which is why it has never come down.
Renting and owning
MONTH TWELVE SHOULD COST LESS THAN MONTH ONE.
| Month | Rented | Owned |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | $2,835 | $1,961 |
| Month 2 | $2,835 | $1,879 |
| Month 3 | $2,835 | $1,787 |
| Month 4 | $2,835 | $1,611 |
| Month 5 | $2,835 | $1,588 |
| Month 6 | $2,835 | $1,583 |
| Month 7 | $2,835 | $1,573 |
| Month 8 | $2,835 | $1,559 |
| Month 9 | $2,835 | $1,546 |
| Month 10 | $2,835 | $1,534 |
| Month 11 | $2,835 | $1,524 |
| Month 12 | $2,835 | $1,515 |
| Month 13 | $2,835 | $1,507 |
| Month 14 | $2,835 | $1,500 |
| Month 15 | $2,835 | $1,494 |
| Month 16 | $2,835 | $1,488 |
| Month 17 | $2,835 | $1,483 |
| Month 18 | $2,835 | $1,478 |
| Month 19 | $2,835 | $1,473 |
| Month 20 | $2,835 | $1,469 |
| Month 21 | $2,835 | $1,465 |
| Month 22 | $2,835 | $1,461 |
| Month 23 | $2,835 | $1,457 |
| Month 24 | $2,835 | $1,453 |
A pixel that has recorded ten thousand conversions finds cases cheaper than one that has recorded none. The memory is the asset.
Rent, and the memory belongs to someone else. Leave, and you start at zero.
I open the account in the firm's name. The pixel, the history, the creative and the audiences stay theirs.
What the difference buys
SAME MONEY. TWICE THE CASES.
| Method | Signed cases | Monthly outlay |
|---|---|---|
| Through an aggregator | 13 | $37,497 |
| Built in your own account | 26 | $37,497 |
$37,497 a month buys thirteen signed cases through an aggregator.
The same $37,497 builds twenty six.
Thirteen more cases a month, on money already being spent. Over six months, seventy eight cases. At the $13,492 average fee the model uses, roughly $1,050,000.
Between 1.7 and 2.4 times, depending on state and scale. The model below says which.
The model
DO NOT TAKE MY NUMBERS. RUN YOURS.
Fifty one jurisdictions. Six lead ages, from live transfer to years old. My own production costs, not estimates.
My fee is inside every number it returns.
What firms pay a third party aggregator
‒
‒
Media only. My fee is shown separately.
Your cost with us
$0
Per signed case from month four. Media and my fee together.
Your figure beats my default.
Cases signed per qualified lead.
MONTH ONE IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE MONTH THERE WILL EVER BE.
A new account has no conversion history. It pays for the education in the first ninety days.
I model that at a thirty five percent premium and show it, because it appears on the firm’s invoices whether I show it or not.
Which is why the agreement runs six months.
$0
Kept in your firm over six months
Where these numbers come from
Media cost. Blended cost per lead in your state, from my own production across fifty one jurisdictions.
Sign rate. An assumption, not a measurement. A firm’s intake moves it more than I do.
The thirty five percent premium. Modelled, not measured. Conservative on purpose.
What this is not. A projection. It is arithmetic on the figures entered.
The roster
THERE ARE FIFTY ONE OF THESE. THERE WILL NEVER BE FIFTY TWO.
| Jurisdiction | Status |
|---|
Open Held
Two firms in one state bid into the same auction. Both pay more. I would be charging two clients to make each other expensive.
So the roster does not grow. It only fills.
The first four partners get terms that will not be offered again.
What I am held to
A STANDARD NOBODY CAN CHECK IS NOT A STANDARD.
A lead is qualified when all six are true.
- 1Not a duplicate inside ninety days
- 2Real name, working number
- 3Injured in the collision
- 4Inside the limitations period
- 5Not already represented
- 6In the partner’s state
Fail one and it is replaced free and removed from the guarantee count. Disputes cite a number, not a feeling.
The guarantee
Cost per qualified lead, measured quarterly. The number is set against your media budget and written into the agreement. Miss it and I manage the account at no fee until the shortfall is delivered.
What I do not guarantee: signed cases
How fast the phone is answered and how the matter is evaluated both sit inside the firm. Anyone guaranteeing signed cases is planning to take over your intake and call it a partnership.
Who I decline
- Firms whose intake is a voicemail box.
- Firms under ten thousand a month in media.
- Firms whose state is already held.
Ten thousand is the floor because a flat fee against thin volume is a bad trade for the firm. Well below it, an aggregator may be cheaper. I would rather say that here than on our call.
Turning down a firm costs me one client. Admitting the wrong one costs me a state.
Next
APPLY FOR YOUR STATE.
Twenty minutes, and we’ll go over the economics of your state and whether or not it makes sense to get an acquisition engine built, we’ll make sure you leave with value and a greater understanding of your market.
If the state is held you won’t be able to book. If it is claimed between your booking and our call, I will tell you before we meet.
One more thing
THE MOTOR VEHICLE ACQUISITION INDEX
What a signed case costs to acquire. Every jurisdiction. Built from production, not estimates.
Published once a year. Methodology in the open. No paywall.
The aggregators I left can use it too. That is the point.
First edition publishes September 2026. Leave an email and I will send it.