Honest comparisonFor expert witnessesSourced pricing

Should you join MedLegal AI, Expert Institute, SEAK, or someone else?

Written for the clinician who's already getting pitched by three of these platforms a quarter and wants the honest breakdown before sending a CV anywhere. Peer tone. Sourced pricing where public. "Contact for quote" flagged where the platform won't publish.

There are three business models in expert-witness platforms. Most experts evaluate them as if they're substitutes — they're not. Two of them compete for your annual marketing budget. One of them competes for your hourly engagement. The third (us) competes for the time you spend AFTER the call lands. Pick the right one by understanding which problem each one is actually solving for you.

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The three models, in plain English

Model 1

Pay-to-list directories

You pay an annual fee, you get a profile in their directory, you hope attorneys find you. The directory does no matching, no vetting, no introduction — it's a yellow-pages page with SEO.

Examples: SEAK ($655/yr standard listing), JurisPro ($399/yr, no cut of hourly), HG Experts ($295–$550/yr premium), JD.MD, Medilex, ALM Experts (law.com), Experts.com
Model 2

Broker / referral services

Free for experts to join. They market to law firms, the firm pays them a search/engagement fee, they introduce you. The firm sees a marked-up engagement total; you generally bill your full rate. The broker's fee makes the engagement more expensive to the firm than hiring you direct.

Examples: Expert Institute (engagements from $3,500/search per their published pricing), Round Table Group (finder's fee added to expert's rate, paid by firm), TASA Group, ForensisGroup
Model 3 — us

Workflow SaaS + free listing

We sell you the software you USE on a case after the call lands — AI records intake, Daubert template generator, deposition prep, chronology builder. Network listing on /experts is free and bundled. No referral fee, no cut, no markup. Non-exclusive.

Pricing: $49/mo Pro (1 seat) · $249/mo Professional (5 seats) · $499/mo Firm (20 seats) · $19 pay-per-analysis
Sources for above pricing: SEAK fee per store.seak.com (standard listing); JurisPro fee + no-cut policy per jurispro.com (verbatim: "Unlike other internet companies, we do not take a portion of your hourly rate once you are retained"); HG Experts per hgexperts.com/expert-witness-premium-listing.asp; Expert Institute per expertinstitute.com/process/pricing (individual services from $3,500/engagement, subscription pricing "custom"); Round Table Group fee model per sidehusl.com/round-table-group (verbatim: "RoundTable simply adds a finders fee onto the expert's rate, which is paid by the law firm, not the expert"); ALM Experts, JD.MD, Medilex, TASA, ForensisGroup: pricing not publicly disclosed, "contact for quote."

The honest comparison table

What each model actually costs the expert, and what each model actually does. Where a platform's price is not publicly disclosed, this table says so — we don't fabricate competitor numbers.

Feature Pay-to-list directories
(SEAK, JurisPro, HG, JD.MD, ALM)
Broker / referral
(Expert Institute, Round Table, TASA, ForensisGroup)
MedLegal AI
Cost to expert $295–$655/yr (SEAK, JurisPro, HG published) $0 to join $0 for listing on /experts · $49/mo for workflow SaaS
Cut of your hourly 0% (JurisPro: "we do not take a portion of your hourly rate") Firm pays broker on top of your rate (finder's fee or search fee, varies) 0% — no broker fee, no markup, no engagement cut
Time to get listed Days to weeks (manual editorial review) Weeks (vetting interview + reference checks) ~1 week (credential verification only)
AI records intake (2,000 pages → Bates-cited chronology) Not offered Expert Institute offers paid Medical Chronologies for attorneys (separate service, custom pricing); experts do not have access as a workflow tool Included in $49/mo — 40 min typical
Daubert challenge support (template generator for your opinion) Not offered Not offered to experts Included — built-in template generator
Deposition prep against your transcript Not offered Not offered Included — voice + paper modes
Conflict screening You do it Broker does it before referring You do it (workspace-partitioned per-case)
Payment terms (when broker is involved) You bill firm direct — your terms Firm pays broker, broker pays you. Net-30 to net-60 typical industry pattern (not publicly published per-platform) You bill firm direct — your terms (we are not in the payment chain)
Exclusivity Non-exclusive Generally non-exclusive (varies per platform) Non-exclusive
Lead generation Listing visibility only — you wait for inbound Active outbound to firms — matched introductions Listing visibility on /experts (inbound). We do not generate leads for you.

What MedLegal AI does NOT do (and you should know upfront)

We do not find cases for you. Our /experts directory is searchable and SEO-indexed, so attorneys arrive and contact you direct — but we don't do active outbound matching the way Expert Institute or Round Table do. If your primary need is case flow, a broker is doing something we're not.
We do not vet attorneys for solvency or case quality. When an attorney finds you on /experts and emails, you do the same vetting you do for any inbound retention call. We pass the contact through, we don't pre-screen the firm.
We do not take a referral fee — but that means we do not push leads at you either. Brokers are paid when you take a case. We are paid $49/mo whether you take ten cases this month or zero. So we have zero economic reason to push you a case. The upside: aligned incentives on your workflow. The downside: nobody at MedLegal AI is hustling to fill your calendar.
We are newer than SEAK. SEAK has been running expert-witness directories for decades. If you want the legacy brand, that's a real reason to pay them. We are 2026-built workflow software; we win on what happens after a case lands, not on directory tenure.

Why this reverses the existing model

Broker incentive: more hours per case

If a broker's fee is tied to the engagement (search fee, finder's fee, or markup paid by the firm), the broker's margin is bigger when the engagement is bigger. They have no reason to want you to spend less time per case.

Our incentive: less time per case

We charge a flat $49/mo regardless of how many cases you take or how much you bill on each. So we built the records-intake automation that compresses 8 hours of file-flipping into 40 minutes. Your time goes to medical opinion, your hourly stays the same, the case turns around faster — and you can take more cases without burning out. Aligned incentives.

The pay-to-list directories have a different misalignment

SEAK, JurisPro, HG Experts — they charge you the same fee whether you get one inbound a year or fifty. So they have no reason to invest in conversion. They sell shelf space. (To be fair: this is also the honest, low-drama model. You pay, you get listed, no one is hustling. Some experts prefer that.) MedLegal AI is the same low-drama model on the directory side — free instead of $400/yr — with the addition that we make money when you actually use the workflow.

The money math

A typical expert doing three med-mal case reviews per month at $400/hr (low end of the physician rate band per our /expert-network page) and four hours per case. Two scenarios:

Scenario A: SEAK listing + self-sourced

Gross billings (3 cases × 4 hrs × $400)$4,800/mo
SEAK standard listing ($655/yr ÷ 12)−$55/mo
Workflow tool spend$0/mo
Time spent on records intake (manual: ~8 hrs/case × 3 = 24 hrs/mo)24 hrs/mo
Net: $4,745/mo, 24 hrs records work

Scenario B: MedLegal AI listing + workflow

Gross billings (3 cases × 4 hrs × $400)$4,800/mo
/experts directory listing$0/mo
MedLegal AI Pro workflow ($49/mo)−$49/mo
Time spent on records intake (AI assist: ~40 min/case × 3 = 2 hrs/mo)2 hrs/mo
Net: $4,751/mo, 2 hrs records work — 22 hrs back

Direct dollar delta is small (you save $6/mo on subscription — not the point). The real delta is 22 hours/month back, which is either (a) capacity for ~5 more cases, or (b) clinical time, or (c) family time. The reason we built the workflow tool is that 22 hours is what the typical expert reports losing to records intake on a busy month, and 22 hours per month at your hourly rate is the actual economic question — not the $49 sticker.

Sourcing note on the math: the $400/hr lower bound is the floor of our published physician case-review band on /expert-network. The 8-hr-per-case manual records intake figure is the typical clinician-reported number for a ~2,000-page medical chart, not a published industry stat. Your actual time will vary by chart size, specialty, and how organized the producing party's discovery dump is. The 40-min AI-assist figure is the median observed turnaround on Pro plan usage to date.

What if you do both?

Many experts will. The platforms are not mutually exclusive. The reasonable stack is:

For lead generation

Whatever's working — your existing attorney clients, a broker's outbound, a SEAK listing, LinkedIn, referrals from other experts. We don't compete here.

For directory presence

Bundle a free MedLegal AI /experts listing with whatever paid directory you're already on. More surface area, no cost.

For case execution

This is the slot MedLegal AI was built for. Records intake, chronology, Daubert template, depo prep. The work that happens after the call.

FAQ

Are you saying I should leave Expert Institute or quit SEAK?

No. Many experts use multiple platforms at once. We're the workflow tool on TOP of whatever lead source you use — directory, broker, or your own client list. We don't compete with your lead source. We compete with the time you spend per case once a case lands in your inbox.

How do attorneys find me on your expert directory?

Searchable directory at /experts filterable by specialty, state, jurisdiction, and credential set. SEO-indexed so your profile is also discoverable on Google. Inbound contact goes direct to your email — we don't gatekeep the introduction or charge per lead.

What if I'm already paying SEAK or JurisPro?

Keep them, drop them, or stack them. MedLegal AI is the workflow tool, not a lead source replacement. Many experts pay a directory $400–$700/year for marketing and use MedLegal AI for case execution. The two are additive, not substitutes. There is no exclusivity clause.

How do you make money if listing is free?

The $49–$499/mo workflow SaaS subscription. AI does the 2,000-page records intake so your time goes to medical opinion, not file-browsing. We are not a broker — there is no referral fee, no engagement cut, no markup added to your hourly. We make money when experts find the workflow tool worth $49/mo. If they don't, they cancel.

What's the catch?

No catch. We're betting that clinicians who try the workflow on real cases will keep paying $49/mo because it compresses 8 hours of file-flipping into a defensible Bates-cited chronology in 40 minutes. If the workflow is not worth it on your cases, you cancel. We lose. You don't.

Doesn't Expert Institute already offer medical chronologies?

Yes — as a paid service to attorneys, not as a workflow tool experts use. Per their published pricing, individual services like Medical Chronologies use "custom pricing based on page count" and are sold to the law firm as part of the engagement. MedLegal AI ships the chronology tool to the expert directly as part of the $49/mo workflow. Different distribution model, same underlying capability.

Why is your /experts listing free when SEAK charges $655/yr for the same kind of profile?

Because the directory is not our business model. The workflow SaaS is. The directory exists to give experts a reason to sign up, because every expert who signs up is a candidate to try the $49/mo workflow tool. SEAK's business model is the directory itself, so they have to charge for it. Different model, different pricing logic. Their pricing isn't wrong — it's just a different product.

Do I have to use both the directory and the workflow tool?

No. You can join the network listing only, free, no workflow subscription, no obligation. You can also subscribe to the workflow tool without being publicly listed on /experts if you prefer (some experts working primarily with one or two captive firms prefer this). The two are independent.

I see you're newer than SEAK. Why should I trust you?

Honest answer: you shouldn't trust us blind. Try the free /experts listing (no cost, no risk) and read this comparison. If/when you want to try the workflow, there's a 14-day trial with no credit card required. Cancel anytime. The platform was built by a clinician for clinician case-review workflow — the design constraints came from real experience with how expert-witness case prep actually works.

Join the MedLegal AI expert network

Free listing on /experts. Searchable directory. SEO-indexed profile. No cut, no exclusivity, no contract term. The workflow tool is a separate decision you can make later (or never).

Join the network → Browse the directory