He shared the number before I even asked: 140 cases signed this year, and there’s still time left in the year.
He runs a solo plaintiff personal injury practice, bringing in about $750,000 a year in fees. That’s his portion, after client recoveries and settlement disbursements are handled. He returns every inquiry within ten minutes and has built his firm’s reputation on that promise. He’s proud of this standard, and it’s well deserved. On my best days, I also return calls within ten minutes and keep track of those days.
The firm in this example is a composite based on engagement work, and all numbers are rounded.
Scope of the Agreement
The case count and response speed are both real. According to Clio’s 2024 secret shopper study of 500 firms, only 40% answered the phone, and that number rose to 52% with callbacks. Returning every inquiry within ten minutes puts this firm far ahead of the average.
The problem comes when people see the 140 as a direct measure of revenue. Each signing led to a written agreement, which is important. ABA Model Rule 1.5(c) says a contingent fee agreement must be in writing and must explain how the fee will be calculated, so he knows the formula for every case at signing. The actual fee is decided as the case moves forward, owner hours add up, and the final payment might come one to three years later.
So, the case count shows how many commitments intake made. Using it as a measure of financial return combines two different timelines into a single number.
Identical Timing, Varied Financial Outcomes
Let’s look at two cases he signed in the same week with the same type of agreement. The numbers here are just examples to show how it works.
The first case is a rear-end collision with clear liability, settled in nine months. The retained fee is $12,000, unreimbursed direct costs are $500, and he spends 30 owner hours on it.
The second case involves disputed liability and a surgical injury. It lasts 26 months, with depositions and two mediation attempts. The retained fee is $60,000, unreimbursed direct costs are $6,000, and it takes 260 owner hours.
The measure that applies to both:
Contribution per owner hour = (retained fee minus unreimbursed direct costs) ÷ owner hours on the matter
The first case brings in about $383 per owner hour. The second case earns five times the fee but comes out to about $208 per hour. So, the bigger fee paid him just over half as much for each hour of work.
When you do this for your own cases, make sure to keep the money categories clear. The settlement goes to the client, reimbursed costs are the firm getting back its advance, and the retained fee is what you use in the ratio.
Sources of Revenue
All 140 commitments were made before he could see the economics of the work, which is just how this practice works. Hyman, Black and Silver noted that screening in plaintiff personal injury practice starts with the first contact and continues as the case goes on. The first call opens the file, and the case reveals itself over the following months.
Fee income also comes in chunks. The same study found that a small number of cases can make up a large part of a practice’s fee income. Each year’s signings bring a mix of results, and just a few cases can make up a big part of the year’s income.
Timing is important, too. The $750,000 he collected this year was for work signed in past years, and this year’s 140 cases will pay out over the next two or three years. These two numbers come from different sets of cases. If you divide one by the other, you get a number that only makes sense on paper.
If you bill by the hour or use fixed fees, you’re making the same kind of commitment, just with the timing less obvious. Every owner puts in hours before knowing what the return will be, and contingency work puts that relationship right into the agreement.
Unanswered Questions in Dashboard Metrics
His dashboard tracks signed, open, closed, and collected cases, and those numbers are accurate. Practice management software can track time on contingency cases. My question for him, and for you, is whether your records link the retained fee for each closed case to the owner hours spent, all in one place, so you can calculate the ratio for every case as it closes.
The key point here is the uncertainty he faces from the day a case is signed until it’s finished. Each firm decides how to handle that uncertainty based on its own numbers.
Revisiting the 140 Cases
Signing 140 cases is a real achievement, and his intake team earned it. The front office does a great job attracting a certain type of case, and that’s what should be measured, one closed case at a time, in owner hours.
If you want a quick idea of where your firm stands, the Growth Intelligence Scorecard uses rough numbers you can recall from memory. It shows the gap between the cases you see now and the revenue that comes in later. The results are just a starting point and will be updated later, but they give a snapshot of your firm’s current revenue structure.
If you already track fees against owner hours in your contingency work, reply and let me know what you’ve found.
This letter is not legal advice or accounting advice.
The analysis in this letter is produced under Revenue Intelligence & Decision Architecture (RIDA), the proprietary economic discipline B.L. Sheets & Co. runs on and runs for the firms it serves. The doctrine, the case record, and the engagement formats are at blsheets.co.
Sources. Hyman, Black and Silver, The Economics of Plaintiff Side Personal Injury Practice, University of Illinois Law Review (2015); American Bar Association, Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5, Fees; Clio, client intake guide reporting the results of the 2024 secret shopper study; Clio, legal time and expense tracking. The firm is a composite drawn from engagement work. Figures are rounded and identifying details are withheld under the standing rule. The two case figures are illustrative.