TrustedForm and Lead Verification for Law Firms

Why lead verification matters to a law firm

When your firm calls or texts someone who filled in a form, you're relying on that person's consent to be contacted. Calls and texts to consumers are regulated by federal law, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and by state laws. If a contact is ever questioned, the first thing anyone asks is: can you show what this person agreed to, and when?

Verification also protects your intake team's time. A lead with a real, working phone number and a record of a genuine form session is worth calling. A lead with a made-up number or no record isn't.

This guide explains the tools. It isn't legal advice. Your firm's counsel should decide what your consent and contact practices need to look like.

What a TrustedForm certificate records

TrustedForm is a product from ActiveProspect. When a web form runs the TrustedForm script, a certificate is created for the visit. According to ActiveProspect's support documentation, a certificate includes:

• The URL of the page hosting the form
• The date and time the form was filled in
• The consumer's IP address
• Their browser and operating system
• A snapshot of the form page as the consumer saw it
• A log of their interactions with the form
• A unique certificate ID

In practice, that means you can open the certificate and see the page, the consent language on it, and when the person filled it in.

Lead matching: does the certificate belong to this lead?

A certificate only helps if it matches the lead you received. TrustedForm handles this with what it calls lead matching. When the person types an email or phone number into the form, TrustedForm stores a secure, hashed version of it. Later, the lead buyer can compare the phone or email in the lead against those stored values. If they match, the certificate documents the same person who's in your CRM. ActiveProspect explains lead matching here.

If a certificate doesn't match the lead's contact details, treat that as a reason to ask questions.

Claiming and keeping certificates

Certificates aren't kept forever by default. ActiveProspect's documentation says an unclaimed certificate is only available for a limited time, and firms with their own TrustedForm account can retain certificates for long-term storage. The current windows are on ActiveProspect's certificate page.

What that means for your firm:

• If you have your own TrustedForm account, retain the certificates for leads you contact, and run lead matching when you do.
• If you don't, at least save the certificate link with the lead in your CRM, and ask your lead company how long they keep their copy.
• Either way, keep the certificate with the intake file, so it's there if anyone asks.

SMS phone verification

A certificate shows that a form session happened. It doesn't prove the phone number belongs to the person. That's what phone verification is for.

With SMS verification, the phone number entered on the form is checked by text message before the lead is delivered. It confirms the number is a real mobile number that the person filling in the form can access. That cuts down on typos, fake numbers and numbers that belong to someone else.

For your intake team, it means fewer wasted dials and fewer awkward calls to the wrong person.

What to check on every lead you buy

Make these checks part of your intake routine, or ask your CRM admin to automate them:

1. There's a certificate link with the lead, and it opens.
2. The certificate's date and time line up with when the lead arrived.
3. The page in the snapshot is the vendor's campaign form, and it shows consent language.
4. The phone or email on the lead matches the certificate.
5. The phone number was verified.
6. The person's answers make sense for your screening criteria.

If a lead fails any of these, flag it under your replacement policy.

Questions to ask a lead vendor about verification

• Does every lead come with a TrustedForm certificate, or only some, or only on request?
• What consent language is on the form, and does it cover the way my firm will contact people?
• Is the phone number verified before delivery? How?
• Do the leads come from your own forms, or do you buy them from others?
• How long do you keep your copy of each certificate?
• What happens if a certificate is missing or doesn't match?

For the bigger picture on buying leads, read how pay per lead works for law firms and exclusive vs shared PI leads.

How Augment Leads handles verification

• Every lead comes with a TrustedForm certificate.
• Every lead's phone number is SMS-verified.
• The claimant fills in our own campaign form themselves, from our own ads, and gives documented express written consent to be contacted.
• Every lead is exclusive: one firm per lead, never resold.
• Unqualified leads get replaced under our written replacement policy, agreed before your first paid order.

We describe our process. We don't make legal compliance claims on your firm's behalf, and your counsel should review how your team follows up. See our FAQ for more.

Spanish-speaking MVA and workers' comp leads are also available.

Frequently asked questions

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Related: MVA leads, workers' comp leads.