Scoring Methodology

The Jacob Score™
How We Measure Tort Opportunity

Developed by Jacob Malherbe · Founder, Mass Tort Ad Agency · Updated March 2026

The Jacob Score™ is a 0–100 composite litigation investment signal that tells plaintiff attorneys where a tort stands today — not six months ago. It is computed nightly from live court filing data, FDA regulatory signals, news velocity, and signal recency, blended with expert editorial judgment. One number. Forty-two torts. Updated every two hours.

Four Weighted Dimensions

⚖ Momentum 30%

Court filing velocity over the last 30 days versus the prior 30 days. Accelerating dockets score higher. Verdict and settlement events apply maximum bonus weight — they are the clearest signal that a tort is producing results.

Signals: court_filing · verdict · settlement · mdl_formation · bellwether_set · trial_date
🔬 Science 25%

FDA regulatory weight: recalls, Class I/II actions, adverse event accumulation from FAERS. Strong science is the prerequisite for surviving Daubert — torts with peer-reviewed causation and FDA action score highest.

Signals: recall · regulatory_action · adverse_event · FAERS disproportionality
📣 Campaign 25%

News volume, alert-level distribution, and total signal health. High campaign scores indicate an active media and legal ecosystem — the conditions that produce qualified claimants at scale. High-alert signals apply bonus weight.

Signals: news · high-alert events · total 7-day signal volume
📅 Timeline 20%

Recency of the last meaningful signal. Torts with activity in the last 7 days score 100 on this dimension. Torts that have gone quiet for 90+ days score 15. Timeline is the staleness detector — it prevents dead torts from holding inflated scores.

Signals: days since last oracle signal across all types

Composite Formula

Momentum×0.30
Science×0.25
Campaign×0.25
Timeline×0.20
Jacob Score™=Live Composite (blended with editorial seed)

Score Ranges

70–100
PROVEN
Verdicts or major settlements confirmed. MDL mature. Campaign window is open but CPL is rising with market awareness.
55–69
ACTIVE
MDL formed or bellwethers set. Strong science. Campaign economics are favorable — the window is open.
40–54
DEVELOPING
Science established, litigation forming, early filings accelerating. First-mover advantage is meaningful here.
0–39
EMERGING
Novel theory, pre-MDL. Signal monitoring active. Lowest CPL. Highest risk. Appropriate for sophisticated operators only.

Seed Blend — Why It Exists

Live signal data takes time to accumulate. A tort that filed into D1 yesterday has 3 signals — not enough to compute a meaningful composite. The seed blend anchors scores to editorial judgment while live data builds up. As signals accumulate, the engine trusts its own data more.

< 10 signals
30% live
10–50 signals
50% live
50+ signals
70% live

The editorial seed baseline represents Jacob Malherbe's expert assessment of each tort as of March 2026, drawing on 15+ years in plaintiff mass tort marketing and $250M+ in managed ad spend across 600+ law firms. It is not a static number — it updates as the engine accumulates data and as litigation facts materially change.

What the Score Is Not

The Jacob Score™ is not a legal opinion. It does not predict case outcomes, settlement values, or litigation results. It is a business intelligence signal designed to help plaintiff law firms prioritize intake marketing spend — nothing more. All scores carry the standard TortIntel disclaimer: not legal advice, not financial advice, for informational purposes only.

Update Cadence

The Jacob Score Engine™ runs every two hours, immediately after the signal ingestion pipeline completes. Each run pulls fresh data from the oracle_signals D1 table, recomputes all four dimensions for every active tort, blends with the editorial seed, and writes the result back. The score you see on any tort page is never more than two hours old.

See the Scores Live

The Jacob Score™ is displayed on every tort intelligence page. Pro subscribers see full dimension breakdowns, filing velocity charts, and score history.

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