Family Law Intake Checklist: from first inquiry to booked consultation

A step-by-step family law intake checklist: what a complete inquiry looks like, when staff take over, when follow-up stops, and how to track each consultation.

Most family law firms don't have a lead problem. They have a gap between an inquiry arriving and a consultation being booked, and that gap is where people go to another firm. This checklist covers the four parts of intake that decide whether an inquiry becomes a consultation: the inquiry itself, the handoff to staff, the follow-up, and the status tracking that shows what actually happened.

1. What a complete inquiry looks like

An inquiry is complete when an attorney could prepare for the consultation without calling the person back first. For family law that means a short, fixed set of facts, collected the same way every time, whichever channel the inquiry came through.

• Name, phone, email, and the best time and channel to reach them
• Matter type: divorce, custody, modification, support, protective order, or other
• County, so you know the court and whether the matter is in your area
• Any court date or deadline already set
• A safety answer: is anyone in danger right now?
• Where the inquiry came from: search, ads, referral, or a returning visitor
• Opposing party's name, for the conflict check, collected before anything is scheduled

2. When staff take over from automation

Automation is for speed and consistency. People are for judgment. The handoff rules should be written down before anything goes live, reviewed by an attorney, and tested on real scenarios, because family law intake includes calls where getting it wrong has real consequences.

• Any yes on the safety question goes to a live person immediately. This rule should not be configurable away.
• A court date within the next few days flags the lead for a staff call first thing next business day
• The person asks to speak to someone, or asks a question the sequence can't answer
• The matter falls outside your practice or your area: a staff member sends a referral, not a booking link
• Anything that edges toward legal advice is routed to an attorney, never answered by automation

3. When follow-up should stop

Most firms try once and stop. A better sequence keeps going on a fixed schedule across calls, texts, and emails for about two weeks, then slows to a monthly check-in for people who are still deciding, which in family law can take months. The Convert Engine page shows a full day-by-day sequence. Just as important is knowing when to stop:

• The person replies on any channel, and a staff member takes over the conversation
• A consultation is booked, and reminders replace follow-up
• The person texts STOP or unsubscribes
• Staff mark the lead as retained elsewhere, not a fit, or closed

Texts and calls should respect consent and quiet hours. A sequence that messages a frightened person at 11pm undoes the goodwill the fast first reply earned.

4. How to track consultation status

Every inquiry should move through the same named stages on one record, with the date each change happened. Without that, nobody can say how many inquiries became consultations, how many consultations became clients, or where the rest went.

1. 01New: the inquiry arrived. Record the time and the source.
2. 02Contacted: the first real two-way contact happened. The gap between New and Contacted is your response time.
3. 03Qualified: the matter type, county, and safety answer are in, and the matter fits your practice.
4. 04Booked: a consultation is on an attorney's calendar.
5. 05Held: the consultation happened. Booked but not held is your no-show rate.
6. 06Retained or Not retained: the outcome, with a reason when it's not retained.

Once these stages exist, the marketing questions get answerable. You can see which source produced signed clients rather than just inquiries, which is how you find out whether SEO is bringing you clients or whether Facebook ads are worth it.

The checklist

1. 01Every inquiry gets a reply within minutes, at any hour, by text and email
2. 02Every inquiry collects the same fixed set of facts, including the safety question
3. 03A yes on the safety question reaches a live person immediately, and you've tested that it does
4. 04After-hours calls are answered, not sent to voicemail (see how)
5. 05Unanswered inquiries get a multi-channel sequence, not a single callback
6. 06Follow-up stops on reply, booking, opt-out, or a staff decision
7. 07Consultations get a reminder that says what to bring
8. 08Every inquiry moves through the same named stages on one record
9. 09The source of each inquiry stays attached through to the outcome
10. 10Someone reviews response time, no-show rate, and consultation-to-retained rate every month