Law Firms Stop Missing Limitations Dates When Every Intake Is Screened
What it takes off your plate
The AgentWorks Case Intake Agent is what makes that headline true: it screens every new Intake for conflicts and limitations dates before an attorney ever takes the consult. It takes the first hour of every new Matter off your intake coordinator, the person who today answers the call, types the prospective Client's details into Clio, types them again into the conflicts database and then searches party names one spelling at a time.
That search is where the risk lives. A former Client appears under a maiden name. An adverse party is a subsidiary of a Client Organization you already represent. The intake note says "the accident was a while ago," and nobody calculates the limitations date until the file reaches an attorney's desk. One missed SOL costs the firm the case and potentially a malpractice claim. Meanwhile the phone keeps ringing, and the Clio Legal Trends Report found that 48% of law firms were essentially unreachable by phone. Your coordinator cannot answer the next call while re-keying the last one.
What the Case Intake Agent does, step by step
The Case Intake Agent starts with the prospective Client, then does the screening behind the conversation.
- Answers the inquiry. It picks up the call, the web form or the email, confirms the caller's name and contact details and asks what happened in plain terms.
- Runs the practice-area questionnaire. A personal injury Intake gets asked for the date and place of the incident, the other parties and insurers; a business dispute gets asked for the counterparty, the contract and the key dates; an estate matter gets asked for the decedent, the executor and the heirs.
- Searches for conflicts across the firm's whole matter history. It checks every party against current and closed Matters, including name variations, former names, misspellings, corporate affiliates and parent companies, and lists each possible hit with the Matter it came from.
- Flags urgency. From the incident date and practice area it identifies when a limitations period may be running short and marks the Intake urgent, with the date that drove the flag, for an attorney to confirm.
- Books the consultation. When the search is clear, it offers the prospective Client times from the assigned attorney's Google Calendar, confirms the slot by text and email and sends a reminder the day before.
- Hands the attorney a summary. Before the consult, the attorney receives the facts, the parties, the conflict results and the urgency flag in one note, ready to review.
The agent never clears a conflict or calculates a deadline on its own authority. It surfaces the hits and the dates; the attorney decides.
Where the work is recorded
Every step lands where your firm already works, so the Intake never lives on a sticky note.
In Clio, the agent creates the contact and the prospective Matter with the questionnaire answers attached, records the conflict search terms and results, and stores the urgency flag with its source date. The conflicts record shows exactly which names and affiliates were searched, which matters when anyone later asks how the firm cleared the file.
On the Client record in the CRM, the team sees the original call or form, every text and email to the prospective Client, the consult booking and any follow-up. When the attorney calls, they know what the person was already asked.
The next morning, the intake coordinator opens the queue and sees which Intakes came in overnight, which are cleared and booked, which have a possible conflict waiting for review and which carry an urgency flag. They pick up exactly where the agent left off. An agent that could not record its results would just be a chatbot; this one builds the conflicts trail your firm is expected to keep.
What your people do instead
Your intake coordinator stays with the prospective Client who needs a person: the caller who is frightened after an accident, the family business owner who needs reassurance before sharing details. They review the conflict hits the Case Intake Agent surfaced instead of running the searches, and they escalate urgent files the moment they are flagged.
Your attorneys walk into each consultation already knowing the facts, the parties and the clock. The first meeting becomes advice and trust, not form-filling.
For the capture side of intake, including calls after hours, read securing signed retainers after hours, and for how lost Intakes drain a practice, see why law firms lose high-value cases at intake.
One next step
To see whether intake screening or another workflow should go to an agent first, take the free Legal Industry Assessment. It shows which workflow an agent should take first in your practice. To see the AgentWorks Case Intake Agent alongside the other agents built for law firms, visit the Legal industry page.
See where the Case Intake Agent would start in your legal business.
I'm Victoria, the Legal ambassador here. The free Industry Assessment reads your website and asks how calls, follow-ups and records happen today, then shows the first workflow worth handing to an agent like this one — and what your team gets back. Leave your email and I'll send the link.
Victoria replies from legal@agentworksstudio.com. One email with the link — no list, no drip, unless you ask for the weekly letter. Or go straight there →