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Bring in a deal or export editable assumptions and formulas. Files stay on your device.
Includes $100 intake; excludes 15% management on media. September 9, 2026 snapshot—not a live quote. The calculator adds management automatically in media mode.
Retention & fee structure
Retention is the share of signed cases remaining after records review. Contingency fee starts at an editable 40%. Your fee share is what you keep after referral / co-counsel splits; use 100% if there is no split. Match costs below to this same economic interest.
Time & payment assumptions
Payment share is conditional on passing records review. Settlement value is per paying case. The discount rate is your required annual return—not a loan interest charge. Avoid adding the same nonpayment risk twice.
Itemized additional costs
Enter total dollars you bear over the deal, outside the acquisition budget. Do not repeat intake, review, setup or fee splits already included. These costs are modeled as paid upfront and unreimbursed; they do not reduce the acquisition budget or case count.
Illustrative scenario · edit any assumption
Adjust assumptions & costs +
Direct retainer pricing includes the management and intake charges in your quote. Add only excluded review and setup costs below.
Cost source & definitions
Settlement economics
Enter an average settlement value to calculate.
Projected profit = your fee proceeds minus total capital. Present value also accounts for time and your required return.
All capital (acquisition budget plus itemized additional costs) is paid today. Your share of attorney fees arrives once at the payout year. Projected profit is before tax and unentered costs. MOIC = your fee proceeds ÷ total capital; single-payout IRR = MOIC^(1/years) − 1. With no positive payout, IRR is undefined (total loss). These scenario cash flows do not model funder waterfalls, expense reimbursements or staged capital calls.
Turn up the pressure
What if acquisition costs rise and fewer cases remain?
Settlement values are your assumptions. Results are scenarios, not forecasts or investment returns.
Sources, definitions & calculation method
Benchmark source: MTAA market data, snapshot captured September 9, 2026. “Reported benchmark” means a dated rolling 30-day figure, not a live feed into this app. Firm names identify qualification criteria, not clients.
MTAA's published CPSC includes a standard $100 intake allowance and excludes its 15% management fee and setup costs. Here, the $100 allowance is removed to obtain media cost per reported signing, then your chosen fee and expenses are added. Signing feedback coverage is not independently verified for every included campaign; these are reported events, not independently verified legal cases.
Last Cost per Signed Retainer: Supplied by Jacob Malherbe on September 9, 2026. This is the date the figures were provided, not the date the costs were incurred. Cost periods and qualification criteria were not supplied with the figures. Last Cost is used directly in retainer mode without adding management or intake charges again; excluded review and setup costs remain separate. It is not a live price, verified market average, or guaranteed quote.
Planning estimates: Profiles without a Last Cost or reported cost use the same illustrative $1,000 media-cost starting point. This is not a tort-specific market benchmark. Replace it with your quote or evidence. Historical event counts are context only and are never used to infer current acquisition costs or signing rates.
Math: In retainer mode, variable cost/signing = entered cost per signed retainer + excluded review cost. Management and intake are not added again. In media mode, variable cost/signing = media × (1 + management fee/100) + intake + review. Signed retainers = max(0, budget − setup) ÷ variable cost. Remaining cases = signings × review survival. Effective cost = total budget ÷ remaining cases. Downside increases the entered retainer price (or media cost in media mode) and reduces survival by percentage points. Expected paying cases = remaining cases × payment share. Expected gross settlements = paying cases × average settlement per paying case. Gross attorney fees = gross settlements × your fee percentage. Your fee proceeds = gross attorney fees × your fee share. Total capital = acquisition budget + itemized additional costs. Projected profit = your fee proceeds − total capital. Calculations use unrounded values; counts display to one decimal. Linear scaling assumes the same costs at the entered budget; capacity and saturation are not modeled.
Only aggregated public data is included. Saved scenarios remain in this browser on this device. Shared links contain scenario inputs. No claimant information is required.
Time, probability & returns: PV = your expected fee proceeds ÷ (1 + discount rate)^years; NPV = PV − total capital. All capital (acquisition budget plus itemized additional costs) is paid today. Your share of attorney fees arrives once at the payout year. Projected profit is before tax and unentered costs. MOIC = your fee proceeds ÷ total capital; single-payout IRR = MOIC^(1/years) − 1. With no positive payout, IRR is undefined (total loss). These scenario cash flows do not model funder waterfalls, expense reimbursements or staged capital calls. Downside adds delay and reduces review retention and conditional payment share; additional dollar costs stay fixed. Blank assumptions leave dependent outputs blank. Payment share is a scenario assumption; common litigation risks can affect the whole portfolio. Return methodology.
The market, with context.
Last Cost per Signed Retainer, supplied by Jacob. Reported media benchmarks shown separately.
Status reflects the source snapshot. Estimates are editable planning inputs, not evidence of current market prices. View source & methodology ↗
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Book a conversation ↗Use “Export report” in the stress test to bring your scenario to the discussion.