An intake call that gives advice is worse than the call you missed
Legal intake has two hard requirements that no general purpose AI receptionist meets: it must not give legal advice, and it must not take a matter without a conflicts position. Everything else, the pleasant voice, the calendar integration, the transcript, is available from every vendor on this results page and none of it protects the firm.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callHarriet Nwosu“I was served yesterday and I need to know if I should respond.”
Advice declined · Conflicts details taken · Consultation booked
- No advice
- It will not tell a caller what to do, what a document means, or whether they have a case
- Conflicts first
- Names of all parties captured before a matter is opened or a fee discussed
- $0
- billed for robocalls and sales calls, on every plan
The call this line cannot afford to get wrong
Every AI receptionist on this results page books appointments and speaks well. This is the law firm call where that stops being enough.
The caller says
“Do I have a case here? What's the deadline to file?”
What a generic AI receptionist does
A general purpose AI receptionist is a language model with a phone number, and that question is the single easiest one in the world for it to answer plausibly. It gives a limitation period. It is wrong for the jurisdiction, or right for the wrong cause of action, and it is now a recorded statement from your firm to a person who may have relied on it.
What this one does
Advice is a hard refusal with a stated sentence. The agent says it cannot answer that and that a lawyer will, and continues with what it is allowed to take: who the parties are, what the matter concerns, when it happened, and whether anything is already listed. The refusal is the reason this can be trusted on an intake line at all.
AI receptionist for law firms: what is actually configurable
Each of these is something the product does on a real call. Where it refuses to act, the refusal is the design rather than a limitation.
It runs the conflicts questions before it opens anything
The caller's full name, the other side's full name, any related parties and any company names. That is the first thing a firm needs and the last thing a booking bot asks for, and taking a matter without it is the mistake that ends up in front of a regulator.
It captures a matter summary in the caller's own words
What happened, when, what documents exist, whether there is a court date, and what they want. Recorded rather than paraphrased, so the fee earner reads what the client actually said instead of a model's compression of it.
It states your fee structure and refuses to estimate a matter
Consultation fee, whether you work on contingency, hourly ranges by practice area. Those are settings. What a specific case will cost is not, and it says so rather than anchoring a client to a number no partner agreed.
It knows which practice areas you take and which you do not
A firm that does not do criminal or family work should not be booking consultations for either. Declining on the call with a reason is faster and kinder than a wasted hour, and it keeps the diary for the matters you want.
What it asks on a law firm call
Not a name and a preferred time. Each of these has an operational reason behind it, and every one of them is yours to change.
“What kind of matter is it?”
Routes to the right department and the right attorney. A closing call in a litigator's calendar is a wasted hour for both.
“Who is the other side?”
The conflict check cannot start without it, and starting it before the consultation is what stops a firm discovering a conflict after taking instructions.
“Is there a deadline or a limitation date?”
A limitation date changes everything about urgency, and it is the one thing a caller assumes the firm already knows.
“Have you instructed anyone else on this?”
A caller shopping between firms, or moving from one, is a different conversation — and sometimes a file transfer.
“How did you hear about us?”
The only marketing attribution most firms will ever get, captured on every call rather than never.
“Are you the client, or calling on someone's behalf?”
Decides who can be spoken to, and it is a question that gets awkward if it is asked late.
What it will never do on a law firm call
You are handing your phone to software that talks to your customers when you cannot. These are the lines it does not cross, and the exact words it uses instead.
It gives no legal advice. None
It will not say whether someone has a case, what they are likely to receive, what the law says, or what they should do next. The distinction between taking an intake and giving advice is the entire reason a firm can use this at all, and it is enforced rather than encouraged.
What it actually says
“I'm not able to advise on that — I'm not a lawyer. What I can do is make sure Ms Adeyemi has the full picture before you speak on Wednesday.”
It never comments on the merits or the value
No indication of whether a claim is strong, what it might be worth, or how long it will take. Those are the sentences a caller repeats back later, and a firm should not be defending a number an answering service invented.
What it actually says
“I honestly couldn't tell you what it's worth, and you shouldn't rely on me if I did. That's exactly what the consultation is for.”
Conflict details are captured before the appointment
The other side's name is taken on the intake call and the check is queued, so a conflict surfaces before a consultation rather than after instructions have been taken. That sequencing is a professional obligation, not a convenience.
What it actually says
“Can I take the other party's name? We run a conflict check before every consultation — it's just so we're sure we can act.”
The four things it answers from
Configuration rather than something a model has been asked to remember. Change one at eight in the evening and the next call uses the new value.
Fixed-fee consultation
$250
Residential closing
From $1,400
Departments
Property, family, wills
Conflict check
Before every consultation
What law firms say before they say yes
In the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“Intake is where we win or lose clients. I will not automate it.”
The intake you lose is the one that rang at 6:40pm and reached voicemail, and legal callers are the most likely of any category to ring the next firm on the page immediately. This does not replace the intake conversation; it makes sure there is one to have, with the conflicts already run.
“Confidentiality.”
A fair question to put to every vendor here, and the honest position is that this is your data, recorded, retained under your settings, and not used to train anything. Ask the same question of the products that answered it with a badge rather than a sentence.
“Callers will push it for an answer.”
Constantly, and rephrasing does not work. The advice refusal is a rule with an approved sentence rather than a tone the model is holding, so the fifth attempt gets the same answer as the first.
It books into the calendar you already keep
Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV. An AI receptionist that emails you a summary has built a nicer voicemail; this one creates the appointment and texts the caller.
…and a lot more besides
- Warm transfersWarm transfersAnnounced — who is calling and why, before you take the line.
- Spam never billedSpam never billedRobocalls are spotted, zero-rated, and never become a customer.
- A number per sourceA number per sourceVan, yard sign, Google listing — see which line brings the work.
- Team & on-callTeam & on-callTries you, then a second number, then whoever is on call.
- Run it by textRun it by textReply to a text to move a job, block a morning, clear a day.
- Clear a day, everyone toldClear a day, everyone toldCall off a wet Tuesday; every customer is told and re-offered.
- Never invents an answerNever invents an answerNo price or slot it was not given. It takes a message instead.
- Any trade, no codeAny trade, no codeGoal, questions and guardrails are settings, not a rebuild.
Will it give legal advice?
Never. It declines with a stated sentence and routes to a lawyer, and that refusal holds however the question is rephrased.
Does it handle conflicts?
It captures the caller's full name, the opposing party, related parties and any company names before a matter is opened or a fee is discussed, so the check can be run before anybody is committed.
Can it book consultations?
Into the right fee earner's calendar, with your consultation terms stated and a confirmation text, rather than a promise that somebody will ring back.
What about calls outside our practice areas?
It knows what you take. Anything else is declined politely on the call with a reason rather than occupying a consultation slot.
What does an AI receptionist for a law firm cost?
From $99 a month, flat, with unlimited call flows and a monthly talk time allowance. There is a free tier for building and testing the agent before it answers a live intake call.
Comparing against a human answering service instead?
That is a different question with a different answer, and it has its own page: the answering service for lawyers, with a full law firm call played second by second.
Trades that answer the phone the same way
The same archetype, which is what the product actually branches on. Every trade has one of these pages.