Legal services
AI chatbot for law firms: automating client intake
At a law firm or legal consultancy, every new matter starts the same way: ten minutes of questions. What is it about, what exactly happened, when, has a letter already been sent, and who is involved. Only then do you know whether the matter suits you. An independent lawyer handed that part over to an AI chatbot that runs the intake on the website. Here is what it does and why intake in particular lends itself to this.
Why intake at a law firm lends itself to this
At a law firm, billable time is the product. Every hour spent gathering facts is an hour not spent on the matter itself. The annoying part is that those first ten minutes are nearly always the same, yet they have to happen. Without that information you cannot judge whether a case has merit, falls within your practice areas, or is worth taking at all.
On top of that, people with a legal problem rarely call during office hours. They search in the evening, after rereading the other side's letter once more. If all they find is a contact form, chances are they click through to the next firm.
What an AI chatbot takes over at a law firm
- Running the full intake as a conversation instead of a form.
- Asking targeted follow-up questions per practice area, because an employment matter needs different facts than a tenancy dispute.
- Collecting contact details at the moment someone clearly wants to go further.
- Closing the conversation with a summary and the booking link for an appointment.
- Sending an automatic email after every completed intake, with the details and the summary.
Follow-up questions per practice area: employment, family, tenancy
This is the difference between a chatbot and an intake. A generic assistant asks for a name and an email address. An intake knows that in a dismissal the date on the letter matters, and that in a tenancy dispute the question is whether the defect has already been reported. Those questions sit in the assistant per practice area, so you do not have to make a round of calls anyway just to find out where you stand.
| Practice area | What the assistant probes for |
|---|---|
| Employment | Type of contract, what was announced, date on the letter, whether anything has been signed |
| Family | Whether there are minor children, whether a lawyer is already involved, what triggered it |
| Tenancy | Renting or letting, what exactly is happening, whether the defect was reported in writing |
| Debt collection | Amount, how long outstanding, whether a demand was sent and whether it was in writing |
The summary is the real product
What makes this setup valuable is not the chat, but what is waiting in your inbox afterwards. Not a bare phone number with a note that someone called, but a summary stating what it is about, what happened, which deadline is in play and how to reach them.
That lets you decide in thirty seconds whether to take the matter, refer it or decline. And when you call back, you are not starting from zero. That saves time, and it spares the client the feeling of having to tell their story twice.
Do not ask for contact details too early
A form up front puts people off, especially on a sensitive subject. Let the assistant help first and ask for details only when someone signals they want to go further. You get fewer enquiries that lead nowhere and more you can act on straight away.
Multilingual, if your clients are
In a practice with many non-native clients, the first barrier is often the language rather than the law. Here the assistant opens in three languages in sequence, so visitors see immediately that they can be helped in their own. The conversation then continues in whichever language they pick, and the summary you receive still arrives in Dutch.
What it explicitly does not do
The assistant gives no legal advice and makes no claim about the merits of a case. That is a deliberate limit, and it is the first thing lawyers ask about. It gathers information and sets up the appointment. The judgement stays with you, because that is precisely what people are paying for.
What you need to set this up
- Your practice areas, with the questions you already ask for each one
- The limit: what the assistant may and may not say
- A booking link or calendar for the appointment to land in
- The email address the summaries should go to
- The languages your clients approach you in
Frequently asked questions
- Does the assistant give legal advice?
- No. It runs the intake and gathers information. It makes no statements about the substance of a matter and does not estimate the chances of success. You define that limit yourself during setup.
- What happens to sensitive information?
- The conversation and the summary go to you, not anywhere else. Chatwize runs on European servers. Deliberately keep the assistant from asking for more than you need for a first assessment.
- How long does setup take?
- Most of the work is not technical but writing down the questions you already ask. Once you have those per practice area, the intake is usually live within a day.
- And if someone would rather speak to a person?
- Then the assistant hands the conversation over, or sets up an appointment through your booking link straight away. Everything said so far comes along, so the client does not have to explain it again.
Ready to make this happen for your team?
Book a short demo and we'll show how Chatwize fits your customer questions, channels and processes.