What Makes a Personal Injury Lead 'High Quality'? A Buyer's Checklist

1. Is the lead generated fresh, or from a database?

Ask: Was this lead generated today, on your owned landing page, from a paid ad the consumer clicked?

If the answer isn't a clear yes, walk away. Aged data (records sitting in a CRM for weeks or months) converts at 0.5–1.5% for PI cases. Real-time paid-ad leads convert at 8–14%. The math is not close.

2. How fast is it delivered to your CRM?

Ask: What's the median time from consumer form submission to my CRM receiving the lead?

Anything over 5 minutes crushes sign rates. The gold standard is real-time API webhook delivery in under 60 seconds. Batched daily CSV drops are useless in this vertical — the consumer has already spoken to three other firms by the time you see the lead.

3. What validation runs before delivery?

Ask: What checks does each lead go through before I'm billed?

Minimum acceptable: phone verification (live carrier lookup), email verification (MX record + risk score), duplicate suppression, bot detection, IP/geo match. Bonus: intent scoring and profanity/junk filtering.

4. What's the exclusivity model?

Ask: How many firms is this lead sold to?

Get the number in writing. "Semi-exclusive" and "limited exclusivity" mean nothing without a hard buyer cap. Real numbers matter: shared = up to 3 buyers, semi-exclusive = 2, exclusive = 1.

5. How was consent captured?

Ask: Show me a screenshot of the consent language and where it appears on the landing page.

Every lead must have TCPA-compliant express written consent, captured before submission, with a time-stamped record including IP, user agent, and exact language shown. Without this, you're inheriting the vendor's legal risk.

6. What data fields ship with the lead?

Ask: What fields will my intake team see for each lead?

At minimum: name, verified phone, verified email, location (city + state + ZIP), incident date, injury severity, treatment status, at-fault party, attorney-retained status, and the source campaign attribution.

7. What's the return policy?

Ask: What are the return reasons and the return window?

Acceptable returns should include wrong number, fake info, duplicate across the vendor's system, and out-of-spec (wrong vertical, wrong geo, wrong incident date). Return window should be at least 72 hours. Watch for vendors who cap returns at 5% of your monthly spend — that's a red flag.

8. Can you talk to current buyers?

Ask: Can I speak to two of your existing law firm buyers?

Reputable vendors will connect you. Skeptical vendors won't. If a vendor won't put you on the phone with an actual buyer, assume there's a reason.

9. What's the contract structure?

Ask: Am I locked into a monthly minimum or a term?

The best vendors are month-to-month with no term. If you're forced into a 12-month contract with a monthly minimum, you'll keep paying even when the leads underperform. Walk away.

Frequently Asked Questions