Is It Legal for Law Firms to Buy Signed PI Cases? ABA and State Rules (2026)

The short answer for personal injury firms

Paying for marketing is generally allowed; paying for a client is where the problems start. Under the ABA Model Rules, a lawyer may pay the reasonable cost of advertising and of lead generation, but may not give anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer, and may not share legal fees with a nonlawyer.

Two questions decide most vendor arrangements. First, what triggers the vendor’s fee: an advertising service, a lead, or a signed or accepted client? Second, how does the vendor reach injured people: advertising they respond to, or live calls, messages and visits? A firm is responsible for a vendor’s solicitation it knows about and keeps accepting, so both questions belong in your diligence.

What the ABA Model Rules say

Rule 7.2(b) bars giving value for a recommendation, with exceptions that include the reasonable cost of permitted advertising. Comment [5] says a lawyer may pay for generating client leads only if the lead generator does not recommend the lawyer, the payment is consistent with the fee-division and professional-independence rules (1.5(e) and 5.4), and the generator’s communications are not misleading under Rule 7.1.

Rule 7.3 bars live person-to-person solicitation for pecuniary gain, and Rules 8.4(a) and 5.3 make a lawyer answerable for doing it through someone else. ABA Formal Opinion 501 (2022) applies this to a lead generator paid a flat monthly fee: once the lawyer learns the generator is phoning people and keeps signing them, the lawyer is responsible. Formal Opinion 506 (2023) allows trained, supervised nonlawyers to handle intake and obtain the client’s signature on the fee agreement, provided the client can always speak with a lawyer.

Can a law firm pay a vendor per signed case?

Several bar opinions say a fee that depends on signing or acceptance is a referral payment, not an advertising cost. The table lists the most direct authorities we found; none of the ABA opinions issued in 2025 or 2026 addresses lead generation.

Jurisdiction	Authority	What it says
Florida	Florida Bar Ethics Opinion 18-1 (2018)	Fixed periodic fees and a fixed charge per matter referred are generally permissible; a percentage of the fee, a value-based charge or a flat charge per case accepted by the lawyer is generally impermissible fee-splitting. Rule 4-7.22 covers anyone providing tips or leads.
New Jersey	Advertising Opinion 47 / Ethics Opinion 741 (2021)	Lawyers may pay per lead but not per client retained; high per-claimant prices or advertised retention rates suggest the lead is really a paid referral.
New York	State Bar Opinions 1279 (2025) and 1294 (2026)	A flat per-matter “administrative” fee to a referrer is a prohibited referral payment; a lead generator’s fee may not vary with whether a client is retained.
Illinois	State Bar Advisory Opinion 25-02 (2025)	A fee paid only when a client is placed with a lawyer is a fee for services, not an advertising cost.
Texas	Ethics Opinions 561, 573 and 706; Rule 7.03	A for-profit service that matches consumers with paying lawyers operates as an uncertified referral service; fees tied to a firm’s revenue are fee-sharing.
California	Bus. & Prof. Code 6155; AB 931 (2025)	Referral services must be State Bar certified; AB 931 put the ban on paying for recommendations into statute from January 1, 2026.
Georgia	Rule 7.2(b), effective March 1, 2026	Bars paying for recommendations except advertising costs and approved referral services, and adopts the ABA lead-generator comment.
Arizona	2021 rule changes; ABS program	Allows referral fees and fee-sharing with nonlawyers, but still bans live solicitation; lawyers licensed elsewhere remain bound by their own state’s rules.

Runner, capper and barratry laws that changed in 2025–2026

Texas: barratry under Penal Code 38.12 is a third-degree felony, and 2025 amendments (H.B. 2733) added social-media and other electronic solicitation. Under Government Code 82.0651, as amended by H.B. 4325, a person solicited but not signed can recover a $50,000 penalty, and contracts procured by barratry are voidable.

California: runners and cappers commit a crime and contracts they secure are void (Bus. & Prof. Code 6152–6154). SB 37 added private lawsuits over capping and uncertified referral activity from January 1, 2026, and AB 2039, signed in September 2026, adds a $25,000 civil penalty per capping violation.

Florida: Statute 877.02 makes procuring signed retainers through solicitation a crime, and 817.234(8) bars non-advertising outreach to crash victims for 60 days after the accident. Georgia: O.C.G.A. 33-24-53 reaches both runners and the practitioners who pay them, and the new Rule 7.3 bars personal injury solicitations within 30 days of an accident.

Questions to ask a case vendor before you buy

Ask each vendor, in writing, and give the answers to your ethics counsel:

What exactly triggers your fee, and does it change if the claimant signs, is accepted or recovers?
How do you reach claimants: advertising they respond to, or outbound calls, texts, direct messages or visits? How soon after an accident?
Do you recommend our firm to claimants, or route them by neutral, disclosed criteria?
Who signs the client, under whose supervision, and how can the client speak with one of our lawyers before signing?
Are you a certified or registered referral service, or a Florida qualifying provider, where that is required?
Can we review every ad, script and landing page used for our cases, and end the arrangement if they change?

How CaseLead structures its engagements

CaseLead Agency acquires prospective clients through paid advertising on Meta and Google, qualifies them by telephone, completes human intake and coordinates your firm’s retainer when signing is in scope. The services, the billable event and the payment schedule are written into each proposal so your ethics counsel can review the structure before work starts. Your firm makes every acceptance decision.

How we prepared this guide

We read the ABA Model Rules and formal opinions, state bar rules and ethics opinions, and the Texas, California, Florida and Georgia statutes on their official sites on October 9, 2026. Some California bill details come from official committee analyses and the Governor’s signing records rather than final statute text. This is a summary for buyers, not legal advice; rules differ by state and change often.

Questions law firms ask

Is it legal for a law firm to buy signed personal injury cases?

It depends on the state, how the vendor is paid and how it contacts claimants. Paying for advertising or leads can be permitted; paying a fee that depends on a client signing or being accepted is treated as a prohibited referral fee in several bar opinions. Ask your ethics counsel.

Can a law firm pay a lead generator per signed case?

Florida Bar Ethics Opinion 18-1, New Jersey Opinion 741, New York Opinion 1294 and Illinois Opinion 25-02 all treat a fee that depends on signing, retention or acceptance as a referral payment rather than an advertising cost. Arizona is the main exception.

Can a vendor’s staff sign a client on our retainer?

ABA Formal Opinion 506 (2023) allows trained, supervised nonlawyers to obtain a client’s signature on the fee agreement, provided the prospective client can always speak with a lawyer. Your firm remains responsible for that intake.

What changed in 2025 and 2026?

Texas expanded barratry to social-media solicitation and raised civil penalties (September 1, 2025). California added private lawsuits over capping and a statutory ban on paid recommendations (January 1, 2026). Georgia adopted new advertising and solicitation rules (March 1, 2026).

Sources and further reading

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