In this blog, we feature insights into the key metrics for measuring law firm case intake effectiveness.

At the start, law firm owners often take on every possible business task from intake to marketing to accounting. Typically, paralegals — or even practicing attorneys — handle intake. By wearing too many hats, this can result in slowing down core revenue generating activities for the firm: negotiating or litigating cases.

Instead, growing contingency fee law firms should consider creating a separate intake department and training specific staff to specialize in client intake. As noted in its eBook “How to Grow Your Plaintiff Law Firm and Make it More Profitable”, Vista Consulting states “The lifeblood of any personal injury law firm is the intake department.” Not only does an intake area provide the first impression to your law firm, it also serves as the gateway to capturing leads and converting them into cases.

According to Tim McKey, CEO of Vista Consulting, there are three key metrics to consider when assessing the effectiveness of a firm’s case intake department.

The three key metrics for assessing case intake include:

1. Total # of Leads: The number of leads and their sources over a specified time period (per month, per quarter, etc.)
2. Wanted Leads: Of these leads, how many actually qualify or meet your firm’s criteria for engagement? For example, they fall within your practice areas and are cases that you actually want to take on (
3. Converted Leads: Of the wanted leads, how many does your firm actually end up taking on and convert into signups?

With these three key metrics, you can calculate the most important ratio for determining the effectiveness of your lead sources and law firm case intake department: wanted leads /converted leads.

Click above to watch this video, featuring Tim McKey, CEO of Vista Consulting, who explains this concept in depth. With consultants from a wide variety of roles in plaintiffs law firms, Vista Consulting has over a century’s worth of combined experience in the legal field.

Learn About How Atlas Consumer Law Built a State-of-the-Art Case Intake Center

For Atlas Consumer Law, achieving exponential growth resulted from investing in enhancing its case intake and case management process and systems. The catalyst – leveraging its contingent case inventory.

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