Law firm intake software
Law firm intake software your firm owns, not rents.
Every inquiry read for its facts, graded against rules your attorneys wrote, put in front of a person on a clock, and called back from the number the caller dialed. The software never decides whether a case has merit. A lawyer does.
By Jimmy Hackett, founder of Playground Giants · Updated October 6, 2026
Talk about your intakeLegal intake software: three ways to buy it
Most of what ranks for intake software is a product you subscribe to. That fits many firms. The question that separates the options is who writes the rules that decide what happens to an inquiry, and where the record of that decision lives.
Rent an intake CRM
Forms, lead lists and follow-up sequences, priced per seat. Good at storing and nudging leads. Grading, response clocks and the rules usually stay with your staff.
Rent an answering service or AI receptionist
Someone, or something, picks up every call. Coverage is the value. The script and the record of each call live with the vendor until they are sent to you.
Own the intake system
One intake path for calls, forms and email, graded on facts by your own rules, on a clock, with an audit trail, on accounts in your firm's name. More setup at the start, no rent on the part that carries legal weight.
There is a longer comparison of the first two in legal intake services vs. an intake system your firm owns.
Client intake software for law firms, with the line in the right place
The software does this
- Captures every inquiry from calls, web forms and email in one place
- Extracts the facts: what happened, when, where, who else was involved
- Grades them against your written rules, the same facts always the same grade
- Alerts a person on a response clock, and escalates when it is missed
- Calls back from the local number the caller dialed, in one tap
- Writes every step to an audit trail
Your firm does this
- Writes the rules, in plain language a lawyer can change
- Decides whether to take a matter, always a person
- Judges merit and value, which no grade ever describes
- Owns the accounts, the numbers, the data and the record
Why the split matters is in legal intake automation that grades facts and never merit.
Running today
A personal injury firm
This is how intake runs for a personal injury firm, which is not named at its preference. Paid inquiries are captured, graded and in front of the firm within seconds, and the first two were picked up in under 15 minutes. Callbacks come from the local number the caller dialed.
The firm reported its first signed retainer from its paid ads 12 days after they first served, and a second on October 2, 2026. Two signed cases are not a volume result, and there are no cost figures here: the engagement has not reached its first formal measurement point.
Read the full case studyHow it starts
With a two week Workflow Audit. I map how inquiries reach your firm today, where they wait, and which parts are safe to automate, then price the build in phases. It is a $2,500 fixed fee, credited in full if you build within ninety days, and the plan is yours either way.
Questions about law firm intake software
Is this legal intake software I subscribe to?
No. It is intake software built for your firm and run on accounts in your firm's name: hosting, database, phone numbers and analytics. There is no per-seat license. If you replace me, you change the passwords and keep operating.
How is it different from an intake CRM?
An intake CRM stores leads and sends follow-ups well. What it usually does not do is read each inquiry for its facts, grade it against rules your attorneys wrote, start a response clock, and leave an audit trail of every step. This sits in front of the tools you already use and can feed them.
Does the software decide which cases we take?
No, and it is built so it cannot. A model reads the inquiry and extracts the facts, then stops. Ordinary code applies your firm's written rules to those facts, and a person makes the call. Anything the model is unsure about goes to a person rather than being guessed at.
What happens to the leads we pay for?
Each one is captured, graded and put in front of a person within seconds, and the callback comes from the same local number the caller dialed, so it does not look like a stranger calling.
What does it cost to start?
Every build starts with the Workflow Audit: two weeks, a $2,500 fixed fee, and a written plan that is yours either way. If you build within ninety days, the full fee comes off the build price.
Tell me how inquiries reach your firm today.
A short message is enough for me to tell you whether there is anything worth building. If there is not, I will say so.
Talk about your intake