Why firms lose new matters on the phone
Someone who needs a lawyer is often stressed, and they often ring two or three firms in the same afternoon. The firm that takes the call, listens properly and gets the basics down usually gets the first conversation.
Reception at a law firm also has a job that is hard to do well under pressure. Calls come in while someone is at a counter, a client is in a meeting or a lawyer is on the phone to a registry. Voicemail feels like a dead end to a person who has just been served papers.
An AI receptionist answers each call, takes the details in a steady, unhurried way and never pretends to know the answer to a legal question. Its job is to get the right information to the right lawyer.
Intake that gives the lawyer something to work with
Every new matter enquiry gets the same core questions, in the same order: which area of law it sits in, a short summary in the caller's own words, when the matter needs attention, how to reach them and whether anyone else is involved. The team receives that as a short written intake, not a voicemail to decode.
You write the questions. A conveyancing firm and a family law practice will ask different things, and the AI follows the list you approve for each area of law.
Conflict check details, collected carefully
A conflict check depends on accurate names. The AI asks for the other parties, any companies involved and any related people, asks the caller to spell unusual names, and reads them back before the call ends. That gives your team a clean list to check against its own records.
The AI does not run your conflict check, does not search your records and does not decide whether a conflict exists. That decision stays with the people who are responsible for it. Some callers will not know every party yet, and the AI notes that rather than guessing.
Existing clients, routed or messaged
Existing clients call about a settlement, a document, a hearing date or a question they have been meaning to ask. Before anything about a matter is discussed, the AI confirms who is calling against the details you set. Then it routes the call to the lawyer or assistant on the file, if they are free.
If nobody is free, it takes a message. The message says who is calling, what they want, the best number, and how urgent the caller says it is. It does not give out file details beyond what your rules allow.
Court dates and deadlines
The AI listens for words that mean time matters: hearing, court date, served, filing, notice, settlement tomorrow, or a letter with a due date. When it hears one, it asks for the date, the court or venue and what the caller has been given, then flags the call as urgent to the team you name.
It does not interpret the date or tell the caller what to do about it. That is for the lawyer. If a caller describes an immediate risk to someone's safety, it tells them to hang up and call 000.
Where it stops
A few things are off limits by design. The AI does not give legal advice, does not say what a court is likely to decide, does not quote fees, and does not promise a result or a timeline for a matter. Fee questions go to your published consultation information or to your team.
Confidential details, kept to what is needed
A caller who is calling a law firm is often sharing something private. The AI tells every caller at the start that they are speaking with the firm's AI assistant. It asks only for what the intake and the conflict check need. You approve that list on the discovery call.
Call summaries go to the people you name in setup. You can see how the firm handles personal details in the privacy policy, and the detail of your own setup is confirmed on the discovery call.
What setup involves
Setup starts with your areas of law, the intake questions for each, the lawyers who take which matters, and the rules for urgent calls. We also agree what the AI can say about fees and consultations, and what it must always pass to a person. Your plan and pricing are on the pricing section.