Over the course of a year, I have more than 365 leads from LegalMatch. There might be some days when it gives me multiple leads.
LegalMatch has been a great way for people to get hold of me and to contact me, especially those that aren't really sure they should be turning to lawyers for help with criminal defense. A lot of them don't want other people to know, including family members, what they're going through and the fact that they even need to be consulting with a criminal defense lawyer.
During this COVID pandemic, we still had face-to-face meetings with clients regularly. LegalMatch has helped people get in touch with us without having to walk into the office. In this way, LegalMatch is very beneficial to us during this pandemic.
With LegalMatch, those who aren’t sure what they're looking for get initial input and they don't have to go out attorney shopping, which is really what people are looking for right away. That’s what they experience with LegalMatch.
A potential client posts a case on LegalMatch and I would respond to that and copy my assistant. It's then on the client to schedule an appointment with my office, for us to meet, to discuss if they need an attorney, whether I would be the right type of attorney for the particular issue they have. Also, what it would take financially for us to get involved in the case.
I'm using LegalMatch daily, but leads can get in touch with me even on weekends, early mornings and late at night. Over the course of a year, I have more than 365 leads from LegalMatch. There might be some days when it gives me multiple leads. There is quite a bit given the market that I'm in.
A relatively high percentage of these leads end up becoming clients because getting through the LegalMatch case intake process means they’ve already invested 10 to 20 minutes inputting information into the system. A lot of times those people are already committed to having a consultation with me.
With criminal defense, a lot of people are embarrassed or they're scared. LegalMatch provides a great forum for them to reach out to attorneys and have questions answered in a very non-threatening fashion.
That’s one of the things I really like about LegalMatch -- it compels people to spend time putting information together to get to me.
LegalMatch is an excellent lead generation platform for us lawyers because we get more information from it and know that people are committed before they will actually get through to us. With some other lead generating services, it's a lot easier for people to put the information in. I think that’s one of the problems with them, you don't really have people that are serious about wanting to talk to a lawyer. Maybe they're hoping to just get either a free response and waste your time and money paying for a click. So, I think the LegalMatch platform and how it's set up is an effective way of screening for qualified leads.
I get the most out of my LegalMatch membership by making sure that I respond to everybody that posts anything on LegalMatch, as quickly as possible. I try to get back to every email that I receive on LegalMatch within at least 24 hours, typically within eight hours and, oftentimes, within an hour when I think it's really important.
In the criminal defense area, people usually are pretty stressed out by the time they go to LegalMatch and start looking for potential criminal defense attorneys. They're wanting an immediate response. That’s how I use LegalMatch most effectively.
It's definitely a good use of marketing and resources as long as you respond and get back to potential leads immediately.
The main advice that I would give to any new attorney thinking about getting a LegalMatch membership is it's definitely going to pay for itself and it will pay for itself exponentially as long as you respond to all the potential leads, as fast as possible.