Law firms
The first firm to call back signs the case.
Someone who just had an accident calls four firms in one afternoon. They retain the one that picked up. Your intake is not losing cases on merit — it is losing them on minutes.
This is your Tuesday.
- A potential client calls during a hearing. Voicemail. By the time anyone calls back, they have signed with the firm that answered.
- Your paralegal retypes the same client information into the case management system, the retainer, and the court form.
- A conflict check means someone searching three places and hoping they remembered all three.
- The intake questionnaire gets emailed, then chased twice, then filled out wrong.
- A statute deadline is tracked in one person’s calendar and nowhere else.
- A Spanish-speaking caller describes their situation to whoever answers, who does not speak Spanish.
The same week, run differently.
- TodayCalls during hearings go to voicemail and are returned hours later.AfterThe caller gets an immediate text, a callback time, and the intake questionnaire.
- TodayIntake information is retyped into three documents.AfterCaptured once. The case file, the retainer and the forms are populated from it.
- TodayConflict checks depend on remembering where to look.AfterA conflict check runs across every system at intake and logs the result.
- TodayUnsigned retainers are chased when someone notices.AfterRetainer follow-up runs on a schedule and stops the moment it is signed.
- TodayDeadlines live in one person’s calendar.AfterDeadlines are calculated from the triggering date and visible to the whole firm.
- TodaySpanish-speaking clients wait for a bilingual staff member.AfterIntake runs in the caller’s language from the first message.
$105,624
recovered per year
38
intakes missed a month
A five-attorney firm, from its own numbers: Intake calls a week: 22. Share not reached within the hour: 40%. Average matter value: $3,300. Intakes that sign: 25%. Clio found 48% of firms unreachable by phone in 2024. The 28% we assume a fast response wins back is our own figure. Referrals from signed clients are not counted.
What slow intake costs you
Four numbers your intake log already has. The math is shown in full underneath.
Everything updates as you type. Nothing is sent until you ask for the breakdown.
Case value lost to intake speed
$105,624 USD
per year
How that number is built
- 38 intakes a month are not reached within the hour
- 11 of them have not retained anyone else yet
- 2.7 of those sign at your current rate
- $8,802 a month in matter value
The 32% recovery rate reflects callers who have not yet signed elsewhere when a firm responds quickly. Referrals from signed clients are not counted.
Where these numbers come from
The volumes and values below are published research. The recovery percentages are our own assumptions — nobody publishes a measured rate for how much of a lost lead a fast response wins back, and pretending otherwise would be the kind of thing this page exists to argue against.
- ResearchOnly 40% of firms answered the phone; 48% were unreachable by phone entirely. Email got a response 33% of the time. Clio Legal Trends Report, secret-shop of 500 US firms, 2024
- ResearchFirms that improved intake, particularly with online tools, saw roughly 50% more new clients and revenue. Clio Legal Trends Report, 2024
- DatedAverage matter values by practice area. Treat as illustrative — the underlying dataset is old, and your own numbers belong in the calculator instead. Above the Law practice-area dataset, 2018
- Our assumptionThe 28% we assume is recoverable is our own model. Clio bounds the opportunity; nobody has measured how much of it a fast response wins back. Palanca Sur assumption
Watch an intake call get answered during a hearing.
A real call, a real intake questionnaire, unedited.
The ask
What five days gets you
$950 USD
In five days you will have intake that responds in under a minute, qualifies, and puts a completed questionnaire in your case system.
Start with a diagnostic- Response
- Immediate response to every intake call and form, day or night.
- Qualification
- Qualification questions specific to your practice area, before anyone is billed for the call.
- Case file
- Completed intake written into your case management system.
- Conflicts
- Conflict check triggered automatically at intake.
- Language
- English and Spanish, chosen from how the caller contacted you.
The questions I actually get asked
Is an automated intake giving legal advice?
No. It collects facts and schedules an attorney. It is explicitly scoped to gather information and say when a lawyer will call — the same thing a well-trained receptionist does.
What about confidentiality and privilege?
Intake data stays in your systems, and the conversation is scoped so nothing privileged is solicited before an attorney is involved. I will walk through exactly where every field lands before anything is built.
We use Clio / MyCase / Filevine / CASEpeer.
That is where this writes to. The intake system feeds your case manager rather than becoming a second place client data lives.
Our cases are not all the same.
The qualification path branches by practice area. Anything that does not fit a path is routed to a person immediately rather than guessed at.
Not quite your business?
15 minutes, no deck, no pitch.
Bring the process this page describes. You’ll leave knowing whether it’s worth automating and roughly what it’s worth.