What a Signed MVA Case Should Actually Cost You in 2026 (Cost-Per-Case Math)

Ask ten PI firms what a lead costs and you'll get ten confident answers. Ask what a signed case costs — all-in — and most of the room goes quiet. That silence is where lead vendors make their money, because a $150 lead and a $600 lead can't be compared until you know what each one actually turns into.

This is the math we run with every firm before they buy anything from us, and it's the math you should run against every vendor you currently pay — including your own ad account.

Cost per signed case = total spend on a source ÷ cases signed from that source. Total spend means everything: lead fees, ad spend pass-throughs, and the intake labor burned working that source's leads. Cases signed means retainers executed — not qualified leads, not appointments, signatures.

Work an example. You buy 100 exclusive MVA leads in Texas at $350 — $35,000. At a 15% sign rate that is 15 signed cases, or $2,333 each. Note what is not in that calculation: no separate contact-rate discount, because the leads you never reach are already inside the 15%. That is the trap in most vendor math. A rate quoted as "close rate of contacted leads" hides the drop-off before contact, so the number you are shown and the number you experience are different. Ask any vendor whether their rate is measured per lead or per contact — the answer usually changes the price by 30%.

Reachability is the biggest lever and the least discussed. Every lead you cannot reach is pure cost with zero chance of revenue — it inflates cost per signed case faster than any price hike. The fix is mechanical rather than motivational: OTP phone verification, where the claimant types a passcode sent to their own phone, removes wrong numbers and accidental clicks before you are ever billed. You are not paying to discover which numbers are real.

Exclusivity is second. A resold lead makes your close rate a footrace: four firms, one claimant, first dialer wins. Exclusive routing means your sign rate reflects your intake quality, not your speed-dial. Speed is third — an intake call within minutes, while the claimant still wants to talk, versus a spreadsheet row delivered hours later. Everything else (scripts, follow-up cadence, intake training) matters, but only after those three.

Our exclusive MVA inventory is priced by state, from $325 to $500 per lead. Our sign rate on this volume on average is 15% — between 1 in 6 and 1 in 7 leads becomes a signed case — which puts cost per signed case between roughly $2,167 and $3,333 depending on your market. Texas at $350 a lead works out to $2,333. Whether that number is good for your firm depends on your average fee: against a $12,000 fee it is a 5x return before case costs; against $25,000 it is a rounding error. The point is that the number is published rather than quoted on a call.

If a vendor won't put a cost-per-signed-case frame in writing, they're selling you clicks with extra steps. Run the audit on your last 90 days: every source in a column, invoices plus labor on top, signatures on the bottom. Then compare sources on that one line — and cut or renegotiate anything that can't defend its number.