The case that signed across the street

9:40 p.m. A woman rear-ended that afternoon fills out the firm's web form from her couch. Neck pain, a totaled car, a week of lost work. The form lands in a shared inbox. At 10:15 the next morning, an intake specialist calls. She signed with another firm at 8.

Picture a personal injury firm with eight lawyers and 600 open cases. Web forms and after-hours calls waited for the morning. One lead in four signed. Retainers went out by mail. Paralegals spent their days chasing medical records, and each case waited nine months between signing and demand. Demand letters were built by hand from piles of records. Each paralegal could carry 45 cases.

What SBK rebuilt

SBK mapped the path from first call to settlement paid out. Speed at intake was worth more than anything else. Each case that signed with a faster firm was a fee of about $15,000. Every lead is now reached within minutes, day or night, and screened on the call. The client signs electronically before hanging up. Records requests go out the same day and are tracked to arrival. Demands are drafted from the records for the lawyer to sharpen. Payouts are checked step by step before money moves.

What moved

Two in five leads signed, up from one in four. Demands went out five months after signing instead of nine. Each paralegal carried 75 cases instead of 45. Settlements were paid out in a week. Every extra case signed was a fee the firm used to hand to whoever called first.