Why per-case AI fees add up for contingency firms
Paying by the case or the page feels cheap on one file. Here's how a contingency firm can work out what per-case AI fees really cost over a whole year.
A lot of legal AI is sold by the unit: a fee per case, per chronology, per demand or per thousand pages. On a single file, the number usually looks small next to the value of the case. That's the point of pricing it that way.
For a contingency firm, though, the way you pay for software matters as much as how much you pay. This post walks through how to look at per-unit pricing across a whole year, so you can compare it fairly with a flat subscription. It's arithmetic, not a sales pitch: depending on your caseload, per-unit pricing may genuinely be the better deal.
Why the shape of the bill matters
Personal injury firms are usually paid when cases resolve, often months or years after the work starts. Your costs, meanwhile, arrive as you do the work: staff, rent, records fees, experts and software.
Per-unit pricing ties software costs to the moments you're busiest and least paid. A month where twelve new cases reach the records stage is a good month for the pipeline, but it's also the month your records bill jumps, long before any of those cases settle.
A flat subscription moves the other way. You pay the same each month whether it's busy or quiet. In slow months that can feel like paying for capacity you aren't using. In busy months, it's predictable.
Neither is right for every firm. The question is which shape your cash flow can carry.
A worked example, with made-up numbers
Here's a way to compare. The figures below are hypothetical, chosen only to show the arithmetic. Put your own numbers in.
Say a firm has:
- 3 lawyers and 3 staff
- 10 new matters a month that need a medical chronology
- an average of 800 pages of records per matter
- one demand letter per matter
Now imagine two pricing models:
| Per-unit vendor (hypothetical) | Subscription (hypothetical) | |
|---|---|---|
| Chronology | $X per case or per 1,000 pages | included |
| Demand draft | $Y per letter | included |
| Seats | may be extra | per person per month |
To compare, work out a year of usage: 120 matters, about 96,000 pages and 120 demand letters in this example. Multiply each by the per-unit price, add any seat or platform fees, and compare that with the subscription's annual total for six people.
Then do it twice more: once for a slow year (say 70% of the volume) and once for a busy year (say 140%). Per-unit costs move with volume; subscription costs mostly don't. The gap between the two in the busy year is what busy-month pricing costs you.
Questions to ask about any per-unit plan
- What counts as a unit? "Per case" can mean per matter, per chronology, or per re-run when new records arrive. Re-runs are common in PI, because records keep coming.
- What happens to pages that aren't useful? Records often include duplicates, fax cover sheets and billing pages. Are they charged?
- Are there minimums? Some plans have monthly or annual minimums that change the math in slow months.
- Can you pass the cost to the client? Whether a per-case software fee can be charged as a case cost depends on your engagement agreement and your state's rules. ABA Formal Opinion 512 says general overhead generally shouldn't be billed as an expense. Check before you assume.
Questions to ask about any subscription
Subscriptions have their own fine print. Ask:
- What's the allowance? "AI included" usually means included up to a limit. Ask what the limit is and what happens past it.
- Is the allowance pooled? A firm-wide pool is friendlier to firms with a few big cases than a per-person limit.
- What's the commitment? Annual billing is common. Know what you're signing up for.
How we price Meruit
We chose one monthly price for the whole firm, not per lawyer, with no per-case or per-letter fees. Essentials is free for up to 2 users, without AI. Growing Practice and Large Firms add AI chronology suggestions and first drafts of demand letters, with a monthly allowance of record pages shared across the firm, so one large case doesn't run a single person's allowance out. Current prices and limits are on the pricing page.
We think that shape suits most contingency firms better, because it doesn't penalize a busy month. But the honest advice is the same whatever you buy: model a slow year, a normal year and a busy year with your own numbers, and pick the pricing your firm can live with in all three.