Claims marketing due diligence: what to ask a lead source

Send these questions to any lead generator, claims management company or marketing agency before you sign with them. They're written for partners, COLPs (compliance officers for legal practice) and marketing leads at firms doing personal injury, housing disrepair and other high-volume claims.

The twenty questions at a glance

Eight topics, twenty questions. Each topic links to its questions further down, and the last column says what a good written answer gives you to file.

These questions are not for anyone looking for a solicitor. It isn't legal advice, and we're not a law firm.

We run ads and intake systems for law firms, so we'd be on the receiving end of this list too. Every question should get a plain answer in writing that you could show the SRA if it ever asked.

Which SRA rules apply when a claims firm uses a lead source?

Three SRA documents cover most of it, and each one makes the firm answer for its marketing partners. Here's what each one is for.

On 9 July 2026 the SRA also opened a consultation on third-party litigation funding in consumer claims, and published new guidance the same day.^[32] Its announcement noted "extensive reliance on third parties, including referrers, marketers and litigation funders".^[32] The consultation closed on 17 September 2026.^[33] Check the SRA's news page for any outcome before you sign a new partner.

What people mix up

One mix-up to avoid. The December 2024 notice is about unsolicited approaches and misleading publicity, so it isn't a "lead generator notice". It does name claims management companies and lead generators as third parties whose methods the firm has to check.^[2] The SRA's announcement says firms should "regularly obtain and review any publicity or promotional material used by third parties" they work with.^[3]

The January 2026 notice goes a step further. It says the firm's duty "includes taking responsibility for the clarity and accuracy of third-party advertising".^[4] Two other bodies come up below: the ASA, which covers ad wording, and the FCA, which regulates claims management companies.^[5]

Read the documents themselves, and let your own lawyers decide what they mean for your arrangements. Then send the whole list and keep the written replies with the contract.

Where did the enquiry come from?

You should be able to trace every enquiry to one ad, one page and one form. If a partner can't show that route, you can't show anyone that the person wasn't approached cold.

The ASA's guidance of 15 January 2026 adds a test for lead generators. A lead generator should "say so prominently, early on the page or ad".^[6] If it sells every lead to one firm, it should "make that clear and name that firm".^[7]

1. Which ad, page or form produced each enquiry, and can you send us a dated copy of each?
2. Do your ads and pages say early on that you're a lead generator and not a law firm, and do they name us?
3. Do you buy enquiries from anyone else, and if so, from whom?

A partner that buys from others should be able to answer every question on this page for its own suppliers too.

How was the person contacted?

Get it in writing that nobody cold called, door knocked or sent targeted messages to find the person. The SRA's December 2024 announcement lists "a failure to assure themselves that a lead has not come through a cold call" as poor practice.^[8]

The warning notice sets a test for referred clients. A firm should be able to show the client wasn't acquired "through cold calling or door-knocking, or other targeted or unsolicited approaches".^[9] It also says it's not acceptable to argue that the third party wasn't regulated by the SRA.^[10]

For opt-in survey data, the SRA wants consent that "specifically granted permission to be contacted for the purposes of being offered legal services".^[11]

4. What exactly did the person agree to, and can you show their consent to be contacted about legal services?
5. Will you confirm in writing that neither you nor anyone you buy from uses cold calls, door knocking or targeted unsolicited messages?
6. Do you contact people again if they asked about a claim earlier and didn't go ahead?

Question six is there because the SRA tells firms to be cautious about "'re-marketing' techniques". That's where a third party tries to re-engage people who first got in touch with it.^[12]

This guide covers only what to rule out. It says nothing about how to approach people who haven't asked for help.

What is paid, and for what?

A firm can't pay for the referral of a personal injury claim. The rule is in section 56 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO).^[13]

What the SRA treats as a referral fee

It catches a regulated person who pays to receive a claim. It also catches one who refers a claim and "is paid or has been paid for the referral".^[13] The SRA's guidance adds that payment "includes any form of consideration", not only cash.^[14]

Paying a marketer for genuine marketing is a different thing under LASPO, but the line is drawn on evidence. The SRA names two warning signs: paying per lead, and payments that vary with referral numbers. Either is "likely to suggest that the payment is for the referrals rather than for the marketing".^[15]

If a payment looks like a referral fee, the firm has to prove otherwise. In the SRA's words, "the onus will be on the regulated person to demonstrate that the payment was not for the referral".^[16] The SRA's own example is a claims company charging a fixed fee per client. Its view: "it is therefore likely that the payment would include a referral fee element".^[17]

7. Is any part of your fee charged per lead, per enquiry, per client or per instruction?
8. Does the fee change with the number of enquiries you send us?
9. What does each line on your invoice buy: ad spend, design, tracking or staff time?
10. Whose name is the ad account in, and who holds the money for ad spend?

Here's where we stand, stated once. We run ads in the firm's own ad accounts. Every enquiry stays exclusive to the firm, and we don't buy, sell or share leads.

Whatever the pricing model, ours included, check it with your compliance officer before you sign.

Exclusivity: who else sees the enquiry

Exclusive should mean one firm receives the enquiry and nobody else does. A shared or resold enquiry costs more than it looks, because two firms end up calling the same person.

Panels deserve a closer look. The SRA's guidance treats a call centre that passes details to member firms on a rota as making a referral.^[18] The firms then "need to be satisfied" that they're paying for the marketing, not the referral.^[19] Our guide to conveyancing leads and panels compares panels with bought leads and your own enquiries.

11. Is each enquiry sent only to us, and will you put that in the contract?
12. Do you work with a panel of firms, and what happens to enquiries we turn down?

The records to keep on file

Keep a dated file of every ad, page and script your partners use, and review it on a schedule. The warning notice says firms "need to keep and maintain records to demonstrate their compliance with their obligations".^[20]

It also suggests regular spot checks on new clients, asking them how, and by whom, they were contacted.^[21] That's one short question at the first call. Record the answer in the client file.

13. Will you send us every live ad, landing page and call script, with the date each went live?
14. Who signs off a change before it goes live, and where is that sign-off recorded?

What must an ad or landing page say about no win, no fee?

The fee, and how it's worked out, should appear in the ad or on the landing page before anyone signs. That's the first of four pitfalls in the ASA's guidance on mass legal claims ads.

• Fees not shown up front. The ASA wants ads or landing pages to explain "how fees and charges are calculated in a successful claim, including the percentage fee deducted from compensation".^[22]
• Costs liability. Ads should also say clients may be liable for costs in some cases.
• Headline figures without caveats. An "up to £X" figure has to say it's before deductions, such as fees and insurance.^[23]
• Unclear e-signatures. Ads should "make it clear next to the signature that it forms a legally binding contract".^[24]
• A hidden lead generator. A lead generator should say so early and prominently, and name the firm if every lead goes there.^[6]

The SRA's January 2026 notice pushes the same way from the firm's side. It expects costs to be explained by "detailing the basis for all charges and deductions including success fees".^[25]

15. Where an ad says "no win, no fee", does the ad or its landing page show the fee percentage and how it's worked out?
16. If a form asks for an e-signature, does it say right next to the box that signing creates a binding contract?

Nothing we build is published before the firm signs it off, so the wording check happens before launch, not after a complaint. Make your compliance officer part of that sign-off for every ad and page.

Data protection questions

Find out who controls the enquiry data, and how long recordings and form logs are kept. The SRA's notice points firms to UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) when marketing to the public.^[26]

This guide doesn't say what those laws allow for your arrangements. Start with the ICO's guidance on direct marketing and electronic communications. Then check the answers with your data protection lead or compliance officer.

17. Who is the controller of each enquiry's data, and what does the contract say about it?
18. How long do you keep call recordings and form logs, where are they held, and who can see them?

Leaving a partner without losing your data

Agree before you sign that the firm can leave with its ad accounts, pages, tracking and every enquiry. Once a contract is ending, a partner has little reason to say yes.

19. Who owns the ad accounts, domain, landing pages, tracking and CRM if we stop working together?
20. How fast, and in what format, will you hand back every enquiry and its history?

Our guide to choosing a legal marketing agency covers account ownership, exit and reporting for any partner, not only claims work. With Naelar, the CRM and landing pages are set up in the firm's name, and the firm owns them.

Measuring a lead source by cost per instruction

Judge each source by cost per instruction: what you spent on it, divided by the new clients from it who signed. Cost per enquiry (spend divided by enquiries) flatters sources that send volume nobody can use.

We found no public UK cost per instruction figures we could rely on. US figures exist, but fee models, case values and referral rules differ, so they don't transfer. Fill in the table with your own numbers instead.

Add one more row: how long your team took to reply to each enquiry. A source can look weak when the real delay is in your own intake. If you would rather own the route to enquiries than buy them, see our guides to PPC for law firms and SEO for solicitors.

The table only works if each enquiry's source is recorded at first contact and carried into your CRM. Our intake and CRM service does that inside the firm's own systems. Our PPC management for solicitors service covers the ads themselves.

Does the partner need FCA authorisation?

It depends on what the partner does, and this guide doesn't draw that line. Ask the partner to say in writing which regulator, if any, authorises it. Then check the answer on the FCA's claims management pages, which link to the Financial Services Register.

The SRA's January 2026 notice says lead generators and claims management companies "may be subject to different regulatory frameworks".^[27] A written answer shows which one the partner says applies. Your compliance officer can take it from there.

Is housing disrepair about to change?

Possibly, but nothing has been decided. The MoJ and MHCLG ran a joint call for evidence on housing disrepair claims, which was open until 12 February 2026.^[28]

The call for evidence floated a ban on referral fees in these claims. It said a ban "would tackle the issue of claimants being passed to the firm willing to pay the highest referral fees".^[29] Legal Futures reported it on 5 December 2025 under the headline "MoJ floats referral fee ban to curb housing disrepair misconduct".^[30]

When we checked the GOV.UK page on 9 October 2026, it still showed a closed call for evidence with no published response.

In its update of 12 December 2025, the SRA said it was "reviewing feedback to inform potential reforms".^[31] Since then it has consulted on litigation funding in consumer claims (see the rules section), but we found no SRA decision on disrepair referral fees. Until the government responds, treat disrepair referral fees as an open question, and check the GOV.UK page before you act.