Criminal defense leads are exclusive, real-time inquiries from people researching their own charge.
All 10 criminal defense companies in our directory generate their own traffic, and 8 offer exclusive, real-time leads. Most sell criminal defense as one practice area among many, and one runs a network built only for DUI.
Criminal defense is a small, owner-generated market. Every one of the 10 companies in our directory generates its own traffic, much of it from consumer legal information sites, free arrest or case evaluation forms and paid search. Eight offer exclusive leads and eight deliver in real time. Live transfers appear at five sellers, appointments at three, and inbound calls, signed cases and aged leads at two each, while only one also sells shared leads.
What makes criminal different is the person on the form. They are usually researching their own charge, often a DUI, and the details that decide whether a firm wants them are the charge, the jurisdiction, whether a lawyer is already on the case and how soon court is. Sellers publish little criminal-specific screening, so the seller who captures those details sets the standard. Funding splits the market: three sellers want money down before the first lead, while three others advertise no minimum at all.
Juiced lets each firm fund a wallet, set filters and caps by area and case type, and bid above your minimum so the highest bid wins the lead in seconds. Leads no firm takes go to your own marketplace, where the price falls until someone buys with Buy Now or a standing Buy Order. Delivery is by webhook into the firm's CRM, email or text.
What criminal defense lead companies sell
What the 10 companies in our criminal defense directory say they offer, read from their own websites.
| Product | Companies offering it |
|---|---|
| Exclusive leads | 8 of 10 |
| Real-time leads | 8 of 10 |
| Shared leads | 1 of 10 |
| Aged leads | 2 of 10 |
| Inbound calls | 2 of 10 |
| Live transfers | 5 of 10 |
| Booked appointments | 3 of 10 |
| Signed cases or retainers | 2 of 10 |
Counts cover everything each company says it sells, which can include other verticals.
Exclusive real-time leads are the standard product, offered by 8 of the 10 sellers, and only one sells shared leads beside them. Live transfers at five sellers, appointments at three and inbound calls at two are add-ons; Juiced distributes web leads, so calls and transfers need separate call tracking. Aged leads at two sellers and signed cases at two show the range: an unsold criminal lead still has buyers at a lower price, and some firms will pay more for a client already signed.
What criminal defense leads are screened for
Criminal defense sellers publish few screens written for criminal matters alone, so these combine the criminal-specific questions in the data with the checks multi-practice legal sellers run on every lead.
- Charge and stage. One seller qualifies people who are accused, charged, or convicted and seeking an appeal or expungement, and also crime victims. A DUI-only seller's evaluation asks about the circumstances, the BAC level and any previous DUI offenses.
- Practice area match. Six of the 10 sellers say they screen against criteria or questions written for each practice area, and a lead in the wrong category is a credit or non-billable reason at three.
- Already represented. Two sellers credit or replace leads from people who already have a lawyer. In criminal matters a public defender or a retained attorney may already be on the case, so ask before you sell.
- A reachable person. Wrong or disconnected numbers are the most common return reason, named by five sellers. One does not credit no contact or voicemail.
- Identity, duplicates and spam. One seller checks identity against a national database, one checks every lead against the leads it has already stored, and duplicates, spam and repeat callers are credit or non-billable reasons at three.
- Jurisdiction. Every seller targets by some form of geography, and wrong location or outside the service area is a return reason at three, so capture where the offense happened as well as where the person lives.
What a criminal defense lead has to carry
Every seller lets firms choose geography, from a state, metro or region to a county list or a radius, and six also target by practice area or case type. One adds minimum case value, one routes calls by business hours, and one sells only in the region or jurisdiction a DUI firm picks.
Every lead type in Juiced starts with ten default fields. Add your own on top, and decide for each one whether it is required and whether the buyer receives it.
The criminal defense fields
Field names and answer options checked against 11 public lead forms, form templates and posting specs in this market, October 2026.
| Field | Type | Why |
|---|---|---|
| case_type | List of Values | Asked by most of the forms and specs we reviewed. DUI or DWI, Drug charge, Assault or domestic violence, Theft or property crime, Sex crime, White collar or federal, Traffic, Expungement, Other criminal charge, Not sure |
| case_description | Text | Asked by most of the forms and specs we reviewed. |
| tcpa_consent | Boolean | Records that the consumer checked the consent box; the wording itself is kept with the lead. |
| has_attorney | Boolean | Asked in a few of the specs and forms we reviewed. |
| arrest_date | Dates | Asked in a few of the sources we reviewed. |
| court_date | Dates | Asked in a few of the sources we reviewed. |
| offense_state | States | Asked in a few of the sources we reviewed, apart from where the person lives. |
| consent_certificate_url | URLs | Carried in a few of the specs we reviewed. |
| source_sub_id | Identifiers | Carried in a few of the specs we reviewed. |
| who_needs_help | List of Values | Asked in a few of the sources we reviewed. Myself, Family member |
Every lead starts with these
| Field | Type |
|---|---|
| first_name | Text |
| last_name | Text |
| phone | Numeric |
| address_1 | Text |
| address_2 | Text |
| city | Text |
| state | Text |
| zip | Postal Codes |
| county | Counties |
Provenance
| Field | Type | Why |
|---|---|---|
| source_url | URLs | The page the lead was captured on |
| consent_timestamp | Date & Time | When the consumer submitted the form |
| ip_address | IP Address | The address the form was submitted from |
This page does not state what the rules on consent require. They are published by the FCC and the FTC, and TCPAWorld tracks how they change. The full list of field types is on the lead fields page.
What you need to decide on a lead is not what you need to sell it
Every field carries four switches rather than one required flag.
Ping with zip, county, state, case_type, has_attorney, arrest_date, court_date and offense_state. That tells a firm the matter is in its area and practice, without exposing the person's identity before the bid.
Who sells criminal defense leads and where they come from
All 10 companies generate their own leads. Most run many practice areas at once, two also act as networks or marketplaces, two are performance agencies and three run call centers. One runs a network of DUI information sites and forums with a free arrest evaluation, and one operates a family of consumer legal guide sites that includes a criminal defense site.
Traffic sources are named loosely: search, paid ads, social, legal guide content and owned sites. Two unusual ones stand out: one names overflow calls from agencies, and one partner lead providers used only for its higher-funded accounts. The pattern for a buyer is simple. A criminal lead is usually a form fill from a person who was reading about their own charge, which is why speed and a clean charge description matter.
How criminal leads are priced and what firms commit
Eight price per lead and four per call. Three quote a custom price, two charge per sale or signed retainer, and one sells calls where the firm bids at or above a minimum set for each service area. One sets a fixed price per lead and also offers raw, qualified or signed lead levels, and one tiers DUI lead prices by location.
Six of the 10 say there is no long-term contract. Three ask firms to put money down first: an initial deposit, a minimum purchase of call credits, or a deposit credited toward leads that is not itself refundable, with other unused funds refundable on request within a set window. Three advertise no minimum spend or retainer at all, and one adds funding bonuses and reward points.
Onboarding is split. Two let a firm sign itself up and fund an account, while five assign an account manager, rep or support team who sets coverage, volume or the price per call. One reviews whether buying leads fits the firm's regulatory situation before starting, and one builds the firm a free directory profile.
- Get the funding terms in writing: whether a deposit is credited, refundable, or neither, and what happens to bonus funds.
- Agree the charges, counties and caps before the first lead.
- Decide up front whether the firm is buying form fills, transfers or both.
Returns, credits and what sellers say they check
Seven of the 10 mention returns, but only five list reasons. Wrong or disconnected numbers are the most common, followed by wrong category, wrong location and duplicates or repeat callers at three each, and already represented at two. The other two mention a credit policy or an easy return process without saying what qualifies.
The rules around the reasons differ. Two sellers take credit requests only through a dashboard or portal inside a set window, and call sellers settle disputes from the recording: one judges live calls only on the initial recording, and one counts a call as billable only after a set buffer time or a clear sign of intent. One verification department calls returned leads back before deciding.
On consent, half the sellers say something: one names consent certificate services and says its forms carry clear consent for contact, one says its prospects ask for information without incentives, one tells people the form leads to contact by an affiliated professional, and one leaves consent to its traffic partners. None says it scrubs leads against do-not-call lists. The rules are published by the FCC and FTC.
Read the agreement, and know the supply side
The researchers found criminal and multi-practice legal sites whose policy pages did not match what the sales pages offered: a refund policy that covered agency services but not the pay-per-lead program, terms of use written only for consumers, placeholder links and counters, and startup timing stated two different ways. Read the agreement, not the homepage.
Four of these companies buy from outside sources as well as generating their own, naming publishers, affiliates, media buyers, agencies and other lead sellers. Their publisher terms include an application listing traffic sources, no incentivized or robocall traffic, transparent sourcing and documented consent. Payouts are described as performance-based, per qualified call or per lead, with what qualifies defined in advance.
If you buy criminal leads from publishers, keep a source sub ID on every lead so returns for wrong numbers or represented defendants trace back to the traffic that sent them.
How Juiced runs a criminal defense lead business
Buyers fund a wallet
Each buyer adds funds before leads arrive and is charged as each lead is delivered. Approved returns are credited back to the wallet. No invoices to send and no payments to chase.
Buyers set filters and caps, then bid
Each buyer filters on your fields and caps how many leads they take. They bid above your minimum, and the highest bid wins the lead in seconds.
Delivery goes where the buyer works
By webhook into the buyer’s CRM, by email or by text.
Unsold leads go to your marketplace
A lead no buyer takes is not dropped. It goes to your own marketplace, where its price falls until someone buys it outright or a standing buy order picks it up.
Related
- Criminal defense lead buyers and sellers: every company in this market, checked against its own website
- How to sell criminal defense leads: who buys, what to screen for and the order to build in
- Legal lead distribution: the wider vertical
Frequently asked
Should criminal defense leads be exclusive?
Eight of the 10 criminal defense companies in our directory offer exclusive leads, and several say each lead goes to one firm only and is never resold. Only one also sells shared leads. In Juiced, each lead goes to the highest bidder, so firms compete on price while each still gets the lead alone.
Should DUI leads be a separate lead type?
One seller in this directory sells only DUI leads and asks about BAC level and previous offenses, so firms that take only DUI work do exist. Make case_type a required ping field, or build a separate DUI lead type, so those firms can filter for it.
Do criminal defense firms prepay for leads?
Three sellers ask for a deposit or prepaid call credits before the first lead, and three say there is no minimum. Kyle's rule is to have every firm fund a balance first, with no free samples and no invoices. In Juiced, the firm funds a wallet and is charged as each lead is delivered.
What return reasons do criminal defense sellers publish?
Wrong or disconnected numbers are the most common. Wrong category, wrong location and duplicates follow, and two credit people who already have a lawyer. No contact and voicemail are not eligible at one seller. Write your own list before the first lead. In Juiced, approved returns are credited back to the firm's wallet.
What happens to criminal leads no firm buys?
Two sellers sell aged leads, and one runs a first-come marketplace of unsold exclusive leads at a discount. In Juiced, leads no firm takes go to your own marketplace, where the price falls until a firm buys with Buy Now or a standing Buy Order.
Can a firm buy criminal defense in a different area from its other practices?
Yes. Six sellers let firms choose practice areas, and every one lets them choose geography, from a state to a county list or a radius. In Juiced, a firm sets filters on state, county or zip for each lead type, so criminal defense can cover a different area than its other work.
What do criminal defense leads sell for?
No prices are published here. Sellers rarely publish them, and what a criminal defense lead sells for depends on whether it is exclusive or shared, a web lead or a call, the geography, how fresh it is and how many buyers want it. The pay-per-lead pricing guide shows how to work out your own floor from cost and let buyers bid above it.
Does Juiced handle criminal defense calls or live transfers?
No. Juiced distributes web leads and delivers them by webhook, email or text. It does not track or route phone calls, so if calls are part of your product you need call tracking software for that side.
Sell more of the criminal defense leads you already generate.
Funded buyers, bids above your minimum, and a marketplace for the leads nobody took the first time.
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