On 2026 benchmarks, family law leads run $70 to $180, with a median around $110 and a typical lead-to-customer close rate near 15%. 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 family law defaults loaded.
Your ceiling of $113 per lead sits inside the $70 to $180 band for family law, so profitability depends on buying at the cheap end or converting better than average. Two levers move you clear of the band: close rate and job value. At a 24% close rate your ceiling clears $180, the expensive end of the market.
Two readings from the same dataset: the band above is the blended cost-per-lead row; paid search alone implies $64 / $106 / $182 per lead (Google cost per click divided by landing-page conversion at each quantile). Search-only leads usually cost more than the blend.
| Gross profit per customer | $2,250 |
| Value per leadusing the 15% industry benchmark close rate | $338 |
| Breakeven lead cost | $338 |
| Your ceiling | $113 |
Balanced: a lead may cost up to a third of the money it brings in. A sensible default for most businesses.
Plots your real number on the scale next to the benchmark band ($70 to $180).
These bands are industry medians. If you want to know what leads cost in your market right now, we will pull the numbers for your area at no cost.
Family law runs on retainers rather than contingencies, which makes its lead math more predictable than personal injury and less forgiving of intake mistakes. Initial retainers commonly run $3,000 to $7,500, with contested matters replenishing several times over. The client is stressed, comparison-shopping, and price-sensitive in a way injury claimants are not, because the money is coming from their own account.
Consultation structure shapes close rates here more than advertising does. Firms charging for consultations filter harder and close a higher share of those who book; free-consult firms fill the calendar and close a smaller share of a bigger top. Both models work, but they produce different close-rate inputs, so run this calculator with the number that matches your actual model instead of an aspiration.
Divorce inquiries also carry a timing quirk: many arrive months before the client is ready to file. A lead that goes quiet in February and retains in June is a normal family-law lead, which argues for measuring close rates over 90 to 120 days and for follow-up sequences that assume a long fuse. Sources that look weak at 30 days often look fine at 120.
A worked example: a practice averaging $4,500 initial retainers at 50% effective margin keeps $2,250 per matter. Closing 15% of inquiries puts $338 of value on a lead; the divide-by-three ceiling is about $113, mid-band for the vertical. Lift the close to 25% through consult structure and the ceiling reaches $188, above the expensive end of the market.
The conflict-check caveat unique to this practice: in smaller markets, one spouse consulting a firm conflicts it out of representing the other, and aggressive competitors know it. Some share of your consult volume exists to disqualify you, which is one more reason the qualified-lead count matters more than the raw one.
Charging filters for intent: fewer consults, higher close rates, and better-qualified retainers. Free consults fill calendars and win volume markets. Either works in the math; what breaks the math is running free-consult close-rate expectations on a paid-consult model.
Because filing for divorce is a decision people sit with. A meaningful share of inquiries retain 60 to 120 days after first contact, so measure lead sources on a long window and build follow-up that assumes the client is not ready yet.