Glossary
Legal marketing terms, in plain English.
The vocabulary of lead buying, intake and personal injury advertising — defined simply, with links to go deeper.
A
- Aged lead
- A lead delivered hours, days or weeks after the claimant submitted it. Contact and sign rates typically fall as leads age.
- At-fault state
- A state where the driver who caused an accident (and their insurer) pays for the other party's damages. Also called a tort state. Learn more →
C
- Call tracking
- Assigning unique phone numbers to ads or sources so calls can be attributed and recorded.
- Comparative fault
- A rule that reduces a claimant's recovery by their share of fault. 'Pure' allows recovery at any share; 'modified' bars recovery above a threshold (often 50% or 51%). Learn more →
- Contact rate
- The share of delivered leads your intake team actually speaks to.
- Contributory negligence
- A strict rule, used in a few states, that can bar recovery if the claimant was even slightly at fault. Learn more →
- Cost per lead (CPL)
- Total spend divided by the number of leads received. Useful, but misleading on its own. Learn more →
- Cost per signed case
- Total spend divided by the number of retained clients. The most reliable way to compare lead sources. Learn more →
D
- Do Not Call (DNC) list
- Federal and state registries of numbers that should not receive telemarketing calls without proper consent.
E
- Exclusive lead
- A lead sold to one firm only and never shared or resold. Learn more →
G
- Google Screened
- Google's verification badge for professional services, including law firms, that appears with Local Services Ads. Learn more →
I
- Intake
- The process of answering, qualifying and signing a prospective client.
L
- Lead form
- A claimant's contact and qualification details delivered to a firm, which then makes first contact. Learn more →
- Live transfer
- A screened claimant connected to a firm's intake line on a live phone call. Learn more →
- Local Services Ads (LSA)
- Google's pay-per-lead ad format shown above standard search ads for local service providers. Learn more →
M
- Mass tort
- Many individual claims against the same defendant over a common product or exposure, handled individually rather than as a class. Learn more →
- MVA
- Motor vehicle accident — car, truck, motorcycle, rideshare, pedestrian and bicycle collisions.
N
- No-fault insurance
- A system where each driver's own insurer pays certain injury costs (PIP) regardless of fault, with limits on lawsuits for minor injuries. Learn more →
O
- Offline conversion import
- Sending CRM outcomes (like signed cases) back to ad platforms so campaigns optimize toward real results. Learn more →
P
- PIP (personal injury protection)
- No-fault insurance coverage for medical bills and lost wages, regardless of who caused the accident.
- PPC
- Pay-per-click advertising, such as Google Ads, where you pay each time someone clicks an ad. Learn more →
- Premises liability
- Claims for injuries caused by unsafe conditions on someone else's property, such as slip and falls. Learn more →
R
- Replacement policy
- A vendor's commitment to replace or credit leads that don't meet agreed criteria.
- Retainer agreement
- The contract between a client and a law firm establishing representation, often on a contingency fee.
S
- Sign rate
- The share of leads that become signed cases. Also called conversion rate.
- Signed retainer
- A case delivered with the client's retainer agreement already executed. Learn more →
- Speed to lead
- The time between a lead arriving and the first contact attempt. Learn more →
- Statute of limitations
- The legal deadline to file a claim. For personal injury it varies by state and claim type. Learn more →
T
- TCPA
- The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a federal law regulating automated calls and texts and the consent required for them. Learn more →
- Third-party claim
- A claim against someone other than the employer in a workplace injury, such as another driver in a work-vehicle crash. Learn more →
W
- Wrongful death
- A claim brought by family members or an estate when someone dies due to another party's negligence. Learn more →
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