Intake & revenue systems
The Plaintiff Law Firm Lead-Leakage Audit
Getting inquiries but not enough signed cases? Audit the handoffs before you spend more to generate demand.
The hidden intake cost
“I thought someone called them back” is not an intake process.
This is an operating framework, not a client benchmark. It makes ownership and the next action visible at each handoff.
- 1Entry
- 2Response
- 3Owner
- 4Route
- 5Consultation
- 6Disposition
Find the real break
Lead leakage is the cumulative cost of weak handoffs.
Nobody arrives at work planning to lose a good case. It happens in the small gaps: the call after the intake coordinator leaves, the form that lands in an unowned inbox, the prospect asked to call tomorrow, or the agreement with no assigned follow-up.
By the time leadership notices, the lead may be called unresponsive or low quality. Sometimes that is true. Sometimes the firm went quiet first.
Audit the actual workflow
Six checkpoints from inquiry to signed agreement.
- 01
Entry points
List every route in: phone, form, chat, text, referral, paid campaign, directory, and after-hours service. Each should reach a reviewable intake record.
- 02
First response
Review recent inquiries by timestamp: when did they arrive, when was the first contact attempt, and was the outcome recorded?
- 03
Ownership
Every open inquiry needs one accountable owner and one next action. A shared inbox is a tool, not an owner.
- 04
Qualification and routing
Confirm approved criteria for practice area, geography, conflicts, case fit, urgency, and escalation.
- 05
Consultation and retention
Track consultations, agreement delivery, and a defined follow-up sequence for unsigned agreements.
- 06
Disposition quality
Separate unable to reach, outside criteria, declined, retained elsewhere, no-show, and no decision. A generic ‘not retained’ is not actionable.
Original framework
The L.E.A.K. audit.
Use these four questions in the weekly intake review. If the answer is no, you have found the next system to fix.
- 01
Locate
Can the firm locate every inquiry and its original source?
- 02
Engage
Was there a timely, recorded first response and follow-up sequence?
- 03
Assign
Does one person own the next action at every stage?
- 04
Know
Does the final disposition explain what happened and why?
Fix these first.
- Missed calls and unworked web inquiries.
- Open agreements with no defined follow-up task.
- Any record without a named owner, next action, or useful loss reason.
Technology can automate acknowledgement, routing, tasks, and alerts. It cannot rescue a process nobody has agreed to own.
Sources & notes
Use the framework responsibly.
- Harvard Business Review, “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads” provides cross-industry context on lead response. This page does not apply its figures to plaintiff-law performance.
- The L.E.A.K. framework is original Infinite Solutions Consulting operating guidance, not legal advice or a client performance benchmark.