Handling the intake of potential claimants for law firms goes hand-in-hand with lead generation. However, it can be difficult to estimate when that spigot of traffic will turn into quality claimants who need to be screened, vetted, and onboarded. Rather than hoping to have the right systems in place when potentially dozens of calls come flooding in, have a plan set to go beforehand.
Make Sure Your Lead Generation Pipeline is Doing the Heavy Lifting
There is a fine line between maximizing leads and maximizing quality leads. With mass tort cases, there is often reticence to limit plaintiffs. Based on past cases, however, there are specific characteristics that can help ensure the highest odds of success. Some examples might include:
| Factor | Reason |
| Age | Many damages calculations include time-based loss of income and pain and suffering multipliers. |
| Exposure to Dangerous Products/Drugs | The longer the exposure to a specific causal factor, the harder that it is for opposing counsel to argue that other factors came into play. |
| Geographic Area | While existing unified cases such as class actions and multi-district litigation (MDLs) offer little leeway, venue and statutory limitations can help increase the maximum possible damages. |
| Time to Statute of Limitations | The further a case is from the statute of limitations, the more likely that evidence is fresh, witness testimony is more immune to impeachment, and technical grounds dismissal is unlikely. |
Thankfully, each of these elements can be selected with the proper contact form setup on a landing page. Ensuring you do so creates an effective sieve no matter what kind of traffic comes from various sources; you can revise them as needed.
Vetting In-House: The Essentials
After screening, vetting is where most law firms tend to take the process in-house. Here, a potential claimant’s statements are matched up with documentation and potential witness statements. It’s also the first area where outsourcing may make the most sense. In either case, the vetter’s goal is:
- Assessing the injury or exposure timeline, with documentation where feasible;
- Gathering proof of medical visits/diagnoses and proof of product/drug use;
- Any employment or treatment records indicating loss of ability to work/decreased quality of life
- Any communications between the claimant and the defendant regarding the product at issue.
More specifically, there will often be medical records checks from nurse consultants or other professionals that will do a thorough document review looking for detailed evidence of:
- Severity of Injuries;
- Treating professionals’ causation analysis;
- Treatment Plans; and
- Dates of diagnoses where possible
Now it’s important to note that there is good training and great training. Good training ensures that your current staff understands exactly how to keep track of the above data and input any records into your case management system (CMS).
Great training, on the other hand, scales as your potential caseload does. Ensure that it’s possible for your existing staff members to be able to train and supervise any temporary additions if you suddenly see an influx of new cases.
By doing so, you are not only able to create standard operating procedures (SOPs) that are helpful for the current case but can create data points to track, ensure no potential plaintiffs are lost in the mix and finally, and most importantly: create repeatable processes for other cases your firm may want to take on.
Keeping Track of the Data
There are numerous points of data that can be used to track how effective the mass tort intake process is as well as trends that can be leveraged moving forward. Some common key performance indicators (KPIs) might include:
| KPI | Significance to Law Firm |
| Conversion rate (leads to qualified cases) | – Measures the efficiency of the intake and vetting process
– Indicates the quality of lead sources – Helps in allocating resources for lead generation and intake |
| Average time from initial contact to case filing | – Reflects the efficiency of the intake and preparation process
– Impacts client satisfaction and case strength – Helps in managing workload and staffing needs |
| Cost per acquisition | – Determines the return on investment for marketing efforts
– Helps in budgeting and resource allocation – Identifies the most cost-effective lead sources |
| Client satisfaction scores | – Can influence referrals and firm reputation
– Helps identify areas for improvement in client communication and case management |
| Retention rate of qualified cases | – Reflects the firm’s ability to manage cases effectively
– Indicates client trust and satisfaction – Impacts the firm’s revenue and resource planning |
How Far to Go With Outsourcing?
One of the questions for many law firms who haven’t worked with marketing and vetting partners is how much of their process to leave in the hands of others. In part, it comes down to comfort. However, the most experienced mass tort intake companies specialize in areas far beyond lead generation. Specifically, they can handle:
- Screening – Intake specialists that are incentivized on successful cases, not just leads. They should be equipped with clear scripts and qualification criteria.
- Vetting – The top firms in this area can actively disqualify potential false positive leads with identity verification that is both ABA-compliant and also obtains crucial information like medical records and other necessary information.
- Effective Client Transfer – There are two elements of getting cases into a case management system: getting the client onboarded and getting their documentation into the system.
The simplest answer to “How far to go” becomes a rather simple one: where is your firm most thinly staffed? Unlike simple lead generation, mass tort intake requires all new hires to have specific skills, experience, and knowledge. However, agencies that provide these services know that and can provide the functions that you need without adding overhead to what your existing staff is already doing.
Combine Mass Tort Intake with Lead Generation with Injury Case Claims
Injury Case Claims has 15 years of experience providing full-service lead generation, screening, vetting, and case documentation transfer for its thrilled clients. No matter the automation level of your intake process, you can benefit from having less of it to handle in-house.
We get that the ultimate goal of mass torts is to serve the greatest number of clients, provide them the legal remedy they deserve, and receive your own fair compensation as a result. We take that same level of fairness to our own programs for our law firm clients.
We have the confidence in what we do to offer a seven-day no-hassle lead replacement guarantee for any potential claimant we transfer to you that ends up not meeting your requirements. Expanding your mass tort intake system is an investment, so be sure to choose the partner that can help you maximize your return. Contact us here for more information.
