Law Firm Spotlight
Ticket Crushers Case Study: Winning With Pay Later
Who: Adam Cohen, managing partner of Ticket Crushers
Stephanie Martinez, Ticket Crusher's operations manager
Why: Makes payment easy for clients and convenient for firms
Where: San Francisco, California
Based in California, Ticket Crushers is a traffic and DUI law firm that offers criminal defense services for criminal cases, traffic violations, and DUI charges. The Ticket Crusher team focuses on the zealous advocacy of clients and providing the most effective defense possible.
To enhance and optimize the firm, Ticket Crushers partnered with LawPay for their billing and payment needs. Most recently, Ticket Crushers started using Pay Later, LawPay’s legal fee lending solution, which allows clients to pay for legal services over time while the firm still receives the total amount owed upfront.
Here, we’ll discuss how Ticket Crushers has benefited from using LawPay and Pay Later.
Modern customers require modern payment options.
Law firms that cater to first-time legal clients, like Ticket Crushers, report cost as the primary deterrent for customers who decide not to retain legal counsel. With 61% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck and the hourly rate for legal representation sitting at $300 as a national average, law firms must utilize available tools to help potential clients afford services.
With Pay Later from LawPay, Ticket Crushers can offer potential clients payment plans as low as $60 a month while the firm continues to collect their entire rate at the time of service. "We're able to offer them much lower monthly payments,” said Adam Cohen. “All we do is send them a link, they click, and they apply with some basic information. A soft credit check is done. And if approved, they get low monthly payments, and the law firm gets paid upfront.” Pay Later allows the firm to offer affordable advocacy to clients that may not otherwise have the financial resources to retain legal counsel.
Flexible payments lead to more clients.
Most of the clients served by Ticket Crushers are experiencing their first interaction with the judicial system. They face fees that significantly burden their finances, often forcing the clients to choose between paying for food and shelter and their legal fees.
With multiple ways to pay and 24/7 access, LawPay has given Ticket Crusher clients the flexibility they need to pay for legal services at any time, from anywhere."A lot of our clients ask for payment plans. And no lawyer will take a payment plan for $60, $70, or $80 a month,” said Cohen. “We're able to collect the money upfront, and the client can get on a payment plan that they can afford."
A win-win situation for the client and the firm
Using LawPay's solutions, Ticket Crushers have been able to create a streamlined and consistent client experience by sending secure payment links via email and text messages, taking payments over the phone, and scheduling payments when convenient for clients. "It really is a win-win for everybody. The clients are satisfied because they have low monthly payments, and the firm is happy because we're getting paid upfront,” said Stephanie Martinez.
Ticket Crushers reports that many of their first-time customers become repeat clients. Additionally, many clients have referred their family, friends, and coworkers, increasing the firm's profit.
Focus on the case, not the billing
Ticket Crushers indicated that LawPay has helped them address specific inefficiencies in the firm. The ability to pay online, finance cases, implement payment plans, and initiate recurring payments has resulted in dozens of billable hours returned to Ticket Crushers' lawyers.
"[This] is changing the legal landscape,” said Adam Cohen. “Nobody wants to be a bill collector… Getting the money upfront allows the lawyers to focus on the case and not focus on the billing."
With LawPay's automatic invoicing and Pay Later solution, Ticket Crushers can minimize time, prompting clients to pay and mitigating unpaid invoices by breaking payments into smaller, more affordable amounts.
LawPay and Pay Later have become non-negotiable aspects of Ticket Crushers' day-to-day operations. "We've used many legal practice management systems across the time the firm's been open, and one of our must-haves is the software must integrate with LawPay," said Stephanie Martinez.