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.
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.
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 rather than 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.