Track, Calculate & Pay
Attorney Referral Fees.
Every other legal platform tracks referral fees and stops there. Disbo goes further — calculating the split, generating ethics documentation, and paying the referring attorney directly from the settlement disbursement. No separate check to cut. No process to chase.
- Pay referral fees in the disbursement workflow
- Co-counsel fee payment & multi-party splits
- 50-state ethics compliance documentation
- Receivables tracking with automated reminders
Built to connect with the tools you already use
- 1
A case settles — a referral fee is owed. Somewhere, there's an agreement that says how much.
- 2
Dig through old emails and the filing cabinet for the original fee agreement.
- 3
Find it. Calculate the percentage by hand — gross or net? Read the agreement again.
- 4
Check the state's ethics rules — written consent? Joint responsibility? Documentation?
- 5
Cut the check, update the spreadsheet, move on to the next case.
- 6
The referring attorney calls — they calculated a different number.
- 7
Meanwhile, a fee another firm owes you quietly goes past 90 days. Nobody is tracking receivables.
- 8
A multi-state referral comes in — which state's rules apply? The spreadsheet doesn't say.
- 9
Quarter-end: nobody can say what's been paid, what's still owed, or whether every disclosure was documented.
End of the line
Uncollected fees, a disputed calculation, and a compliance file you can't produce. Two options.
Option A
Pull a paralegal off casework to rebuild the fee history from old emails and bank statements.
Option B
Write off the disputed fee and hope nobody ever asks for the disclosure paperwork.
Neither option should exist. There's a third: pay the referring attorney in the same disbursement as everyone else.
Automated fee calculation, documentation, and payment. 50-state ethics compliance.
Disbo tracks every referral fee obligation from case inception through final payment. Fees are calculated automatically when cases settle, compliance documentation is generated per your jurisdiction, and payments are included in the disbursement workflow.
Every referral fee agreement is stored in Disbo. When a case settles, the fee is calculated automatically based on the agreed percentage and settlement amount. No manual math, no disputes.
Client disclosure letters, fee-sharing documentation, and written consent forms generated automatically per your jurisdiction's specific rules. Multi-state cases handled with the correct rules for each.
Referral fees are included in the settlement disbursement workflow. When a case settles, the referring attorney is paid alongside every other recipient — no separate process needed.
Track fees owed to your firm from other attorneys. Automated reminders at 30, 60, and 90 days. Aging reports show outstanding receivables at a glance.
Tracking referral fees isn't the same as getting paid.
Most attorney referral fee software stops at tracking. The system records that a fee is owed, calculates the amount, and generates a ledger entry — but when it's time to actually pay the referring attorney, someone still has to write a check, initiate a wire, or log into the bank separately. That manual gap is where referral fee revenue leaks, relationships sour, and compliance records fall apart.
Disbo is referral fee management software that closes the loop: track the agreement, calculate the split at settlement, generate ethics documentation per your jurisdiction, and execute the payment — all in one workflow. When you approve a disbursement in Disbo, the referring attorney is paid alongside the client, providers, and lienholders. No separate step. No chasing checks.
For co-counsel fee payment and multi-party splits, the same principle applies: every party's share is calculated from the agreement on file and paid in the same disbursement. One approval covers everyone.
Other platforms track referral fees. Disbo pays them.
Platforms like Clio, CosmoLex, and TrustBooks record that a referral fee is owed. But the payment is typically a separate manual step. Disbo is built so tracking, calculating, and actually paying the referring attorney all happen in one workflow.
| Capability | Spreadsheets | Practice Mgmt (Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, Smokeball) | Trust Accounting (CosmoLex, TrustBooks, LeanLaw) | Disbo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Track referral fee obligations | ||||
| Calculate fee splits automatically | ||||
| Generate ethics documentation | ||||
| KEYActually pay the referring attorney | ||||
| Electronic payment rails (Quick Pay / Standard Pay) | ||||
| 50-state ethics compliance |
Common questions about referral fees.
Yes — and this is Disbo's core differentiator. Most practice management and trust accounting tools (Clio, CosmoLex, MyCase, TrustBooks, LeanLaw, etc.) let you track that a referral fee is owed, but the actual payment still requires a separate manual step: cutting a check, initiating a wire, or logging into your bank. Disbo closes the loop. When a case settles, the referring attorney is paid directly through Disbo's disbursement workflow — alongside the client, providers, and lienholders — using Disbo Quick Pay, Standard Pay, or paper check. No separate process needed.
Virtually every major legal software platform — Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, Smokeball, CosmoLex, TrustBooks — is 'track only.' They let you note that a referral fee obligation exists, and some will calculate the dollar amount, but the payment is typically a manual step outside the platform. Disbo is built to track the obligation, calculate the fee, generate ethics compliance documentation, and execute the payment in a single integrated workflow.
Yes. All 50 states require some form of written disclosure and client consent for attorney fee sharing, but the specific rules differ by jurisdiction — California, New York, Texas, and Florida all have distinct requirements for documentation, proportionality, and consent language. Disbo generates the correct client disclosure letters, written consent forms, and fee-sharing documentation for each case based on the jurisdiction's specific rules. Every payment is documented with a full audit trail, so your records are bar-audit-ready at all times.
Yes. When multiple referring attorneys are involved in a single case — for example, a co-counsel arrangement and a separate referral relationship — Disbo calculates each party's share based on their individual agreement terms and pays all parties through the same disbursement. The system supports different percentage structures for each attorney, sliding-scale fee arrangements, and tiered splits. Every calculation and payment is documented in the audit trail.
When a case settles, Disbo automatically calculates the referral fee based on the agreement stored in the system. The fee percentage is applied to the attorney fee (or gross settlement, depending on the agreement terms). Sliding-scale structures, tiered percentages, and multi-party splits are all supported. Every calculation includes a complete audit trail showing the formula applied.
Disbo enforces referral fee ethics rules for all 50 states. This includes client disclosure requirements, written consent documentation, fee proportionality rules (where applicable), and referring attorney competence verification. The system automatically generates the correct disclosure letters and consent forms based on the jurisdiction of each case.
When multiple referring attorneys are involved in a single case, Disbo calculates each party's share based on their individual agreement terms. The system supports different percentage structures for each referring attorney and ensures the total referral fee obligation is allocated correctly. All splits are documented in the audit trail.
Yes. Disbo tracks both outgoing referral fees (fees you owe to referring attorneys) and incoming receivables (fees owed to your firm from cases you referred out). The receivables dashboard shows outstanding amounts, aging categories, and payment history. Automated reminders are sent at 30, 60, and 90 days for overdue receivables.
Referral fee payments are integrated directly into the settlement disbursement workflow. When you approve a disbursement, the referral fee is paid alongside every other recipient — client, providers, lienholders, and co-counsel. Payments can be sent via Disbo Quick Pay, Standard Pay, or paper check based on the referring attorney's preference stored in the Disbo network.
Need to look up the referral fee rule for a specific state?
Compare written consent, joint responsibility, and contingent caps across all 50 states.
Related Features
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