How to Tell Whether a Criminal Defense Lead Has Been Resold

You don't need to take a vendor's word for whether a lead has already been shopped around — there are concrete signs in the lead itself and in how the person responds that tell you almost as much. Run down this list before assuming a lead's "exclusive" label means what it says.

What signs in the person's response show a lead was resold?

• They mention being contacted by other firms. The clearest signal there is. If someone says "another attorney already called me" or "I've gotten a few of these," the lead has circulated regardless of what the vendor promised.
• They sound rehearsed or guarded on the first call. Someone fielding their third or fourth attorney call in two days often answers differently than someone hearing from a lawyer for the first time — shorter, more defensive, already comparing.
• They ask what makes you different from the others. A direct comparison question, unprompted, is a strong sign you're not the only call they've taken.

What in the lead data suggests it was resold?

• The information reads as templated or generic. A lead with oddly generic phrasing, no specific case detail, or formatting that looks assembled from a database dump rather than pulled from an actual filing is more likely to have come from a list that's been repackaged and resold multiple times.
• The charge or case description is vague. "Criminal matter" or a broad category with no specific offense listed often means the vendor is working from thin, resold, or aggregated data rather than an actual case record.
• No case number or court reference is provided. A lead tied to a real, current filing should be traceable back to it. The absence of any reference to check isn't proof of resale on its own, but it removes your ability to verify the alternative.

What should the vendor be able to show you?

• The vendor can't show you the underlying source record. Ask to see, or verify, the actual filing a lead is based on. A vendor working from a real, current case should be able to point to it. One that can't, or that gets evasive, is a meaningful red flag.
• The timing doesn't match when the case was actually filed. If you can check a case's filing date against when you received the lead and there's a significant gap, the data has likely already passed through other hands — or sat in a batch — before reaching you.
• The vendor won't answer directly when asked. A straightforward "how many other firms might see a case matching my filters" question deserves a straightforward answer, even an honestly limited one. Repeated deflection to the word "exclusive" without specifics is itself information.

What this checklist doesn't tell you

None of these signs, alone or together, prove a specific lead was sent to a specific competitor — that's usually not verifiable after the fact. What they do is separate leads worth taking at face value from leads worth treating skeptically. The fuller discussion of why exclusivity is hard to guarantee at any real volume, and what a more useful question to ask actually looks like, goes deeper into the reasoning behind this list.

How should you use the list?

Keep a mental (or literal) tally the first few times you work leads from a new source. A pattern of two or three of these signs showing up repeatedly across a batch tells you more about the source than any single instance does. For the surrounding context, see what separates exclusive from shared leads, what an aged or resold lead costs you, the broader checklist for what makes a lead high quality, and a vendor evaluation checklist.

See how referrals are traced back to a specific, current court filing — the traceability check applied on the delivery side.