Legal leads: people researching family, criminal, immigration and estate law
Before someone calls a lawyer about a divorce, an arrest, a visa or a will, they read about how it works and what it costs. These are the people researching that kind of legal help right now.
What are legal leads?
Legal leads are people who may hire a lawyer soon, bought by law firms, solo attorneys and legal marketing agencies. Intent-based legal leads are people in the US whose recent reading is about hiring a lawyer, criminal defense, DUI representation, immigration, family law, living trusts, problems at work or Social Security disability claims, identified from that research and delivered with contact details and home location. They differ from the usual sources: nobody filled in a 'talk to a lawyer' form, nobody is waiting on a transferred call, and nobody picked your firm from a directory. That makes them an audience for ads and for whatever written contact your state's rules allow, not a list to phone.
People researching lawyers and legal help
Most people hire a lawyer for a personal matter only a few times in their lives, so they read first: what a DUI charge means for their license, how custody gets decided, whether a living trust avoids probate, how long a green card takes, whether a firing was legal, how a disability claim works. That reading comes days or weeks before they contact anyone.
We count the people in the US researching those practice areas every day, with home state, ZIP code, age range and household details. Give each practice area its own lane, keep it to the states where your lawyers are admitted and the counties you serve, and reach people while they're still deciding whether they need a lawyer at all.
| Topic | Category | People researching (US) |
|---|---|---|
| Family Law | Family Law | 2,509,368 |
| Criminal Defense | Criminal Law | 2,505,456 |
| Employment Issues | Labor & Employment Law | 1,888,952 |
| Immigration Law | Visa & Immigration | 1,672,819 |
| DUI Legal Representation | Criminal Law | 1,523,975 |
| Social Security Disability Legal Representation | Disability Benefits Representation | 265,549 |
| Hiring a Lawyer | Legal Services | 72,863 |
| Living Trust Legal Services | Legal Services | 24,837 |
As of November 14, 2026. People in the US researching each topic on that day, counted exactly; the page checks for a new day every hour. People often research several topics, so the rows overlap: the total above counts each person once. A lane keeps a rolling 14-day window, so it also holds people from earlier days.
Ways to buy legal leads
The common ways to buy legal leads, side by side. Third-party prices come from each seller's own pages or a named industry source, checked November 2026 and linked below; where nobody publishes a figure, the row says how the price is set.
| Way to buy | Price | Exclusivity | Contact data included | Timing | Contract or subscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intent leadsPeople researching your topics, which you export yourself | 10¢ falling to 5¢ per lead; counts and samples free | Not exclusive, but no form fill is split among buyers | Name, personal email, mobiles with do-not-call flags, home city and ZIP, homeowner, income | Researched in the last 14 days; new people every data day | None: prepaid balance, top-ups from $250 |
| Web form leads by practice areaLead sellers and directory networks pass on 'talk to a lawyer' requests by practice area and county | $50–$75 per exclusive lead for family law and estate planning at Lawayer, and $100–$150 for immigration, criminal defense, DUI and employment1234 | Exclusive at Lawayer and at Martindale-Avvo's LeadDirect; shared programs cost less and send the same person to several firms | Name, phone, email and the person's own short description of the matter | Real time: delivered within minutes, and intake races to call back first | Per lead, by real-time bid or by monthly fee, depending on what the buyer's state allows; ABA guidance permits paying a lead seller only if it doesn't recommend you |
| Pay-per-call and live transfersCall networks route someone who asked for a lawyer straight to your intake line | From $165 per qualified criminal defense or DUI call at Axel PR; Legal Pay Per Call quotes $40–$150+ a call by practice area and jurisdiction567 | Exclusive: one caller, one firm; where several firms cover a metro, the higher bid gets the call | A live caller; because the person started the call, it isn't solicitation under ABA Model Rule 7.3 | Live; criminal and DUI calls peak on weekend mornings and Mondays, after arrests | Neither asks for a contract; Axel PR is prepaid, with credits for calls that don't qualify |
| Matching sites and bar referral panelsLegalMatch-style case matching, and state or local bar lawyer referral services | LegalMatch memberships from $455 a month, set by practice area and location; Michigan's bar referral panel costs $150 a year plus 10% of the fees from referred clients891011 | Shared at LegalMatch, where several member lawyers can answer one case; a bar panel sends each screened caller to a panel lawyer for a first consultation | A case summary first at LegalMatch, with the person's name and phone only once they choose to talk | Whenever people post a case or call the bar, so volume rises and falls with your county and practice area | A LegalMatch membership or a yearly bar panel fee; ABA Model Rule 7.2(b) and Texas Rule 7.03(e) let lawyers pay advertising costs and a referral service's usual charges |
- Lawayer, Buy legal leads (price tiers by practice area), as of November 2026.
- Martindale-Avvo, LeadDirect, as of November 2026.
- Leads.net, Legal leads (pricing models by state), as of November 2026.
- American Bar Association, Comment on Model Rule 7.2 (paying lead generators), as of November 2026.
- Axel PR, Exclusive criminal defense and DUI calls (rate card), as of November 2026.
- Legal Pay Per Call, Legal pricing, as of November 2026.
- American Bar Association, Model Rule 7.3: Solicitation of Clients, as of November 2026.
- LegalMatch, FAQ (attorney membership prices and how cases are answered), as of November 2026.
- State Bar of Michigan, Lawyer Referral Service panel fees, as of November 2026.
- American Bar Association, Model Rule 7.2: Communications Concerning a Lawyer's Services, as of November 2026.
- State Bar of Texas, Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct (Rules 7.03 and 7.04), as of November 2026.
Who uses legal leads
Family, criminal, estate and employment firms
People reading about a divorce, a DUI charge, a living trust or a problem at work in the counties you serve, before they've chosen a lawyer.
Immigration and disability practices
Immigration and Social Security disability claims are federal matters, so many of these firms take clients across several states.
Legal marketing agencies
One lane per client firm and practice area, each held to that firm's counties before any of its budget is spent.
Every field we have, at one price per person
Name, job title, company and website, business email with its validation status, personal email, every mobile we have with its own do-not-call flag, direct and company phones, LinkedIn, department, title and employer history, schools, home city, age, gender, household income, net worth, homeowner, married and children at home, the company's size, revenue, NAICS and SIC codes and address, and why they're here: the topics they researched or the pages they visited. The same fields in the dashboard, the CSV, the API and the webhook.
Every field, by group 70 in all
Who they are33
- First Name
- Last Name
- Job Title
- Seniority
- Standard Title
- Department
- Job Function
- Sub-departments
- Headline
- Title History
- Employer History
- Education
- LinkedIn Connections
- Company
- Website
- Industry
- NAICS
- SIC
- Employees
- Employee Range
- Revenue
- Revenue Range
- Company Address
- City
- State
- Company ZIP
- Company Country
- Company Description
- Photo
- LinkedIn Headline
- Current Title (LinkedIn)
- Current Company (LinkedIn)
- Location (LinkedIn)
Home and household11
- Home City
- Home State
- Home ZIP
- Home Country
- Age Range
- Gender
- Household Income
- Net Worth
- Homeowner
- Married
- Children at Home
How to reach them12
- Business Email
- Email Status
- Personal Email
- Mobile
- Mobile on DNC
- Direct Phone
- Company Phone
- Company LinkedIn
- X (Twitter)
- GitHub
- All Mobiles
Why they're here9
- Intent Topics
- Intent Score
- Last Active
- Visited Page
- Visited At
- Lane
- Keywords Matched
- Intent Strength
- First Seen
The ID that lasts5
- Exported
- Seen Before
- Suppressed
- Lead ID
- Person ID
Aim it at the people you can serve
Lanes take household and location filters as well as topics, so you only pay for people you can serve. For this market, these matter most:
- One lane per practice area, so a DUI audience never sees a divorce ad.
- Age range, homeowner and net worth for estate planning and living trust lanes.
- The states where your lawyers are admitted, or no location limit for federal immigration and disability work.
- Home state, city, ZIP codes, or a radius around a ZIP code.
- Homeowner, household income, net worth, age range, married and children at home.
- Require a mobile, or only mobiles that aren't on do-not-call lists.
Pay per lead, only when you export
100% usage-based: pay per lead, no subscription. From 10¢ a person, falling to 5¢ as your month grows, with no seats or contract: add funds to a prepaid balance and spend them on any lane.
Intent leads
Charged once a month per person, however many of your lanes find them.
| People this month | Each |
|---|---|
| First 2,500 | 10¢ |
| 2,501 – 7,500 | 8¢ |
| 7,501 – 20,000 | 6.7¢ |
| Above 20,000 | 5¢ |
10,000 in a month cost $817.50; 50,000 in a month cost $2,987.50. Only the people inside each band get its price. More than 100,000 a month? Talk to us.
Free before you buy
Size the market and check who's in it at no cost.
- Daily counts for every lane and every topic.
- Samples of the people in a lane, before you export.
- Quotes on every export, shown before you pay.
- Exclusion lists, so you never pay for people you already have.
- API, webhooks and CSV on every account.
Set it up in 3 steps
- 01
Add the topics
Create a free account and start a lane with topics such as “Hiring a Lawyer”, “Criminal Defense” and “DUI Legal Representation”. Or describe what you sell and pick from the topics we suggest.
- 02
Narrow it to your market
Give each practice area its own lane, then hold it to the states and counties where your lawyers take cases.
- 03
Export, or have them sent
Check the count free every day. Export a CSV when it looks right, pull leads through the API, or have each new person sent to your CRM by webhook.
How to work legal leads
- 01
Read your state's version of Rule 7.3 first
Every state writes its own solicitation rules. Most ban live calls for paid work, many require a label on written solicitations, and some want copies filed. Texas, for example, treats an email as properly marked when ADVERTISEMENT is the first word of the subject line, and wants a copy filed with the State Bar's Advertising Review Committee within 10 days of sending. Settle the format before the first export.
- 02
Run one lane per practice area
DUI, divorce, immigration, living trusts, workplace disputes and disability claims each need their own ad, landing page and intake questions. Keep Hiring a Lawyer as a lane for a general practice, or leave it out if your firm takes one kind of case.
- 03
Turn each lane into a labeled ad audience
Load the lane's emails and mobiles into your Meta and Google ad accounts as a matched audience, limited to the counties you serve. Mark the ads as attorney advertising where your state requires it, and name the lawyer or firm responsible with contact details, as Model Rule 7.2(d) asks of any communication about your services.
- 04
Name the service, never the person's problem
Don't write that you know someone is facing a charge or a divorce. A spouse, parent or employer may see the screen, and a message that exposes a criminal or family matter can hurt the person you hope to represent. For workplace topics, write only to the personal address, never a work inbox.
- 05
Write for the readers the rules protect most
The comment to Rule 7.3 names older people, people whose first language isn't English and people with disabilities as especially vulnerable to pressure, which describes much of the estate, immigration and disability audience. Keep offers plain, such as a flat fee or a free first consultation, and never suggest a link to a court or a government agency.
- 06
Answer fast once they reach out
When a person calls, texts or fills in your form, they've opened the conversation and you can follow up by phone. Staff intake for evenings and weekends, when people facing a DUI charge or a custody fight tend to call.
Cadence
Export the criminal and DUI lanes twice a week, since arraignments and license hearings come quickly, and the other practice areas weekly. Refresh each ad audience with every export and drop people from exports older than two weeks; for living trusts, send a monthly email to people who haven't unsubscribed, because many families put off an estate plan for months.
Thinking about a living trust in {county}? One free 20-minute call with an estate planning lawyer: what a trust would cost, whether it keeps your estate out of probate in {state}, and whether a will is enough. No obligation. {lawyer name}, {firm} · {phone} · {city}, {state} Attorney advertising
Interest signals, not opt-in leads
These people researched the topics above. They didn't fill in a form or agree to be contacted, so these aren't opt-in or consented leads. Every mobile carries its own do-not-call flag. Follow the TCPA, state telemarketing laws, the national and state do-not-call rules and your industry's own marketing rules before you call or text. They work best for email, ad audiences and other compliant outreach.
Legal leads questions
How counts, targeting and prices work for legal leads. The lanes guide covers keywords, filters and strength in detail.
How much do legal leads cost?
100% usage-based: pay per lead, no subscription. Intent Leads charges 10¢ per lead for the first 2,500 in a month, then 8¢ up to 7,500, 6.7¢ up to 20,000 and 5¢ after that, from a prepaid balance. Counts and samples are free, and each person is charged once a month however many of your lanes find them. Other ways to buy them, as of November 2026. Web form leads by practice area: $50–$75 per exclusive lead for family law and estate planning at Lawayer, and $100–$150 for immigration, criminal defense, DUI and employment. Pay-per-call and live transfers: From $165 per qualified criminal defense or DUI call at Axel PR; Legal Pay Per Call quotes $40–$150+ a call by practice area and jurisdiction. Matching sites and bar referral panels: LegalMatch memberships from $455 a month, set by practice area and location; Michigan's bar referral panel costs $150 a year plus 10% of the fees from referred clients.
Are these legal leads exclusive?
No. Nobody submitted a request for a lawyer that we split among firms, and nobody is holding on your line. Your ads and emails find people while they're still reading about their legal problem, and another firm advertising in the same county could find them too, so the clearer offer wins.
How fresh are legal leads?
The counts on this page are for November 14, 2026, the latest data day. Everyone in a lane read about its legal topic within the past 14 days, and each data day brings in people who weren't there before. Criminal and DUI matters reach court fast, so export those lanes at least twice a week; a weekly export is enough for estate planning.
Can I target only my state, county or ZIP codes?
Yes. Set the home state, list the ZIP codes in the counties you serve, or draw a radius around each office, and see the free count before you export. Immigration and disability firms that represent clients in many states can leave location open.
Do legal leads include phone numbers?
On November 14, 2026, 5,790,358 of the 7,541,006 people researching divorce, DUI, immigration and estate lawyers (77%) had at least one mobile number. Yes. You get every mobile number on file for the person, each marked if it's on a do-not-call list, along with a personal email. Upload the numbers to ad platforms to raise your match rate; don't use them to cold-call, which Rule 7.3 forbids for paid work.
Can a lawyer call or text these people?
Calling, no. ABA Model Rule 7.3 forbids seeking paid work through live person-to-person contact, which covers phone and real-time video, unless the person is a lawyer, has a family, personal or past professional tie to you, or routinely hires such lawyers for business. The rule's comment counts texts as written contact, but states differ, and marketing texts to people who never opted in run into the TCPA. Email carrying the label your state requires is the safer first step.
Which practice areas are covered?
Criminal defense, DUI representation, immigration, family law, living trusts, employment problems, Social Security disability representation and hiring a lawyer in general. Personal injury has its own page with accident and injury topics, and you can add your own keywords, such as probate or traffic tickets, which become topics of their own.
Can I get only DUI or only immigration leads?
Yes. Each topic can run as its own lane with its own filters, so a DUI firm can use DUI Legal Representation alone and an immigration practice Immigration Law alone. You pay for the people each lane delivers, and anyone found by two of your lanes is charged once that month.