What is call patching and how it will benefit your law firm
Call patching is one of our customers’ favorite features here at Answering Legal, because our lawyers are able to speak with their prospective new clients right away, even when the attorney isn’t in the office. Here’s how it works:
A call to your office is answered here at Answering Legal by one of our legal virtual receptionists. They ascertain the caller’s personal information, and find out whether the customer is an already existing client of yours, or is a potentially new client looking to hire you for your services. We recommend that all attorneys speak to potentially new customers right away, as callers generally end up hiring the first attorney they speak with on the phone. For that reason, after we’ve learned the caller’s name, contact information, and the matter with which they are calling you, we’ll let the caller know we’ll be placing him/her on a brief hold while we try to get you on the line.
Then, we’ll call you, let you know who is on the line, and ask whether or not you’d like to take the call. If you can, we transfer that caller over to you. We don’t charge for any of the time you spend on that line with the caller. You also get a detailed message that includes all of the caller’s contact information sent to you via text message and/or email.
If you can’t take the call, that’s where our message taking services come into play.
Our message taking capabilities and how you can use them
Whenever one of our legal virtual receptionists answers a call for your law firm, at the conclusion of the call, we will send you a message that includes the caller’s name, phone number, and any other pertinent information from the conversation. We’re always able to perform a full legal intake, which you can read more about below, but unless the caller is a potential new client, we won’t perform a legal intake.
In the case that the caller is an existing client, a judge, opposing counsel, or an insurance company, we will send you a message with the information that you’ve requested us to get. For an existing client, we’ll get their name, phone number, and the reason for their call. For a judge, we’ll get the judge’s name, the case number that the call is regarding, a phone number, and a detailed message from the judge. For an insurance company, we’ll get the case number, the representative’s name, and a phone number at which you can call them back.
For the new client, we perform one of our customers’ favorite services, a legal intake.
How we perform the legal intake for potential new clients
We always find out the caller’s basic information, including their name, phone number, and an email address if you’d like. We then ask the set of predetermined questions you’ve provided for your legal intake. This includes any and every question that you tell us you want us to ask, that will help you get the best understanding of that person’s potential case, so that when you call that person back, you have the best chance of getting them to hire you for your services. Here are some short examples of information we might ask for during a legal intake, depending on the type of law you may practice. All of these examples would, of course, include the caller’s basic information as well.
Criminal Defense:
- The charges
- The date of the arrest
- The county/municipality the matter occurred in
- The next court date
Personal Injury:
- The type of accident
- The date of the accident
- The injuries sustained
- The medical diagnosis/prognosis
- Where the accident occurred
- The nature of the accident
Bankruptcy:
- Is there a home in foreclosure?
- Have wages been garnished?
- Are you currently employed?
Family/Divorce:
- Are there children involved?
- Is there a home owned between the married parties?
- Is this an amicable divorce?
All of the preceding information can be customized to your exact liking, and you can tell us the specific questions you’d like to have asked. We can make changes to this process at any time.