On 2026 benchmarks, criminal defense law leads run $60 to $170, with a median around $100 and a typical lead-to-customer close rate near 25%. What your business can afford is a separate number: gross profit per customer, times your close rate, divided by a profit factor. The calculator below runs that math with criminal defense law defaults loaded.
Enter your average job value to see the most you can afford to pay for a lead, and how that ceiling compares with what leads cost in your market.
Criminal defense is the fastest-converting practice area in law: the client has a court date, the timeline is not negotiable, and the retainer decision happens in days. DUI defense runs $2,500 to $6,000 in most markets, drug and assault matters range wider, and federal work operates in another bracket entirely. Close rates reflect the urgency, running 15 to 35 percent of qualified inquiries, well above PI signing rates.
The economics are flat-fee-friendly, and flat fees make this calculator unusually accurate for the vertical: value per lead is retainer times margin times close rate with little variance to argue about. The variance lives in the mix. A practice weighted toward DUI sees consistent $3,500 tickets; one taking court-appointed overflow alongside private work has a blended number that needs honest computing before any lead math means anything.
After-hours response is the whole game in this vertical, more even than in plumbing. Arrests happen at night and on weekends; the family searching for a lawyer at 2 AM retains whoever answers. Practices with genuine 24-hour intake report close rates at the top of the band and can pay top-of-market lead prices; nine-to-five practices compete for the leftover daylight inquiries.
A worked example: a defense practice averaging $3,500 retainers at 55% margin keeps $1,925 per matter. Closing 25% of qualified inquiries makes a lead worth about $481, and the divide-by-three ceiling comes to $160, near the expensive end of the market band. At a 15% close the ceiling drops to $96, which still clears the median with the practice profitably in the game.
The caveat particular to defense work: lead volume follows enforcement patterns you cannot see coming: a checkpoint blitz, a new prosecutor's charging priorities, a local scandal. Monthly lead costs swing with those waves, so judge the channel on quarters and keep intake capacity a little ahead of average demand.
A court date is a deadline no one can ignore. Retainer decisions happen in days, close rates run 15 to 35 percent of qualified inquiries, and the firm that answers at 2 AM signs the case. Speed and availability beat brand in this vertical.
At a $3,500 typical retainer, 55% margin, and a 25% close, about $481 in expected value, which supports paying up to roughly $160 per lead at a conservative profit target. Practices below that close rate should fix intake hours before lead spend.