Business · Mass Tort Glossary
Also known as: CAC, cost per retained case, cost per signed case, cost per retainer
Case acquisition cost is the total expenditure a plaintiff law firm incurs to sign a single retained claimant into a mass tort docket, calculated by dividing all campaign-related spend—media buys, agency fees, call center costs, intake labor, and CRM overhead—by the number of executed retainer agreements produced. Unlike a simple cost-per-lead metric, case acquisition cost accounts for every dollar consumed through the full intake funnel, making it the primary financial benchmark for evaluating campaign efficiency and projecting docket-building budgets. Firms use this figure alongside projected case value and settlement timelines to determine whether a given tort remains economically viable to pursue at scale.
Mass Tort Ad Agency manages claimant-acquisition campaigns built on the concepts in this glossary — transparent cost-plus-15% pricing, in-house CloudIntake qualification, and chain-of-custody on every signed retainer. See the torts we run or book a strategy call.
This glossary is compiled by Mass Tort Ad Agency from 15 years and $250M+ in plaintiff Meta ad spend. Browse the full reference or talk to our team.
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