How Settlement Scout Makes Money
Reviewed Sep 26, 2026
Written by
Settlement Scout editorial team
Checked against
official sources, linked
Key takeaways
Settlement Scout is free for you to use. We're paid on the other side of the transaction: when a visitor opts in to be connected, participating law firms and legal marketing companies pay us a fee for that connection.
On this page
This guide, at a glance
Does being paid change what the content says?
Where the money actually comes from
The short version
- You never pay us anything. Reading the site, using the calculator, and checking whether you may qualify all cost nothing.
- Participating law firms and legal marketing companies pay us a fee when we connect them with a visitor who has opted in.
- We never sell your crash report. If you use a report lookup or report-status feature, that data is used only to get you your own report. It is not sold, shared with a marketing partner, or used to build an advertising profile.
- Report data is never used for marketing. A crash report is not a lead list. We don't hand it to law firms, and we don't use it to target ads.
Does being paid change what the content says?
No. Our editorial content, including the crash-report guides, the settlement pages, and the state deadline pages, is written and sourced independently of any paying partner. A law firm or marketing company cannot pay to have a page written a certain way, cannot edit our content, and does not see it before publication. Full detail: Editorial Policy.
Where the money actually comes from
When you use a claim-check tool on this site (currently hosted on our partner claim-intake platform) and choose to move forward, we may pass your opt-in details to one or more participating law firms or legal marketing companies so they can follow up with you about your potential claim. Those firms and marketing companies pay us for that introduction. That's the entire model. There's no ad revenue, no data broker relationship, and no subscription.
Does this change what you'd pay a lawyer?
No, and this is worth spelling out. The fee a law firm or marketing company pays us for a connection is separate from, and has no effect on, whatever fee arrangement you make with that firm if you decide to hire them. Most car-accident firms work on contingency, meaning you pay nothing upfront and the firm takes an agreed percentage of any settlement or award. That percentage is between you and the firm. Settlement Scout doesn't set it, doesn't take a cut of it, and isn't a party to your retainer agreement.
Questions about this: mike@optimax-ai.com.
See also: About · Editorial Policy · Disclaimer · Privacy
About the authors
Settlement Scout editorial team
We write from official sources (state agencies, legislatures and insurers' own pages) and link each one. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice.
Editorial policyHow this site is paid for
Participating law firms and legal marketing companies pay us a fee when a visitor opts in to be connected with them. They cannot pay to change what a guide says.
How we make money