Legal Intake Software

Legal client intake is the process of attracting leads, following up with them, engaging them, setting up a consultation, and ultimately securing and onboarding them as paying clients. Throughout the process, lawyers need to collect important information from leads to determine whether their area of practice suits their needs, and discuss details like fees and whether they’ve ever worked with a lawyer before.

Inputting all of this information requires a considerable amount of work for lawyers if they rely on a manual system; running their firm from their inbox or spreadsheets. For this reason, lawyers looking for the most efficient way to handle their client intake process rely on legal intake software which simplifies and automates a significant portion of these often inefficient tasks.

A client intake form is an integral piece of the client intake process. Leads fill out the necessary information needed to determine whether a law firm is a good fit for their legal needs. A well-constructed intake form includes fields for a client’s basic information such as full name, address, and other contact details. Interested prospects fill out the nature of their case including as many details as possible in order to help a lawyer best pre-screen before a consultation.

The more details that are requested on an intake form, the better a lawyer can qualify a lead before setting an appointment. Client intake software like Lawmatics creates customized templates for lawyers that can be repurposed for each practice area in a firm and inputted directly into the law firm database, making the process faster with less chances of errors.

The legal client intake process is broken up into four different stages. The initial stage is the minute a client first contacts a firm. They usually contact a firm through an online advertisement, by a referral or by calling from a directory. An effective client intake process efficiently captures a lead’s information to ensure that they progress into the next stage of the client intake process which is being followed up with.

Many lawyers have a difficult time keeping up with all of their incoming leads manually. This can cause uncertainty about who has already been followed up with. However, with the help of technology like Lawmatics, legal firms can track each lead in a database to see where each lead stands in the client journey.

Once a lead has been followed up with, the next stage of the client intake process takes place— a consultation. In many cases, scheduling a consultation requires several back and forths trying to find the right time that works for everyone, which is why more and more attorneys are turning towards automated appointment scheduling to speed up the process. Leads can choose a time slot from whatever dates you make available, and self-schedule automatically.

The final stage of the client intake process is securing the client and finalizing the attorney-client relationship. It’s at this point that any paperwork necessary for onboarding the client is drawn up and signed. With the help of legal client intake software like Lawmatics, lawyers can save a significant amount of time they would have otherwise spent on drafting up complex paperwork. Not only can intake software help draft up documents in a fraction of the time, but there’s no need for clients to print, sign, and scan back signatures thanks to e-signature tools.

No matter what area of practice they specialize in, any lawyer can benefit from using client intake software to make their process more efficient, and in turn, create happier clients and more referrals. It’s as simple as signing up for a free demo and seeing how Lawmatics can help revolutionize your client intake process.