Personal Injury Intake Checklist: from paid lead to signed case

A step-by-step personal injury intake checklist: what a complete lead looks like, when staff take over, when follow-up stops, and how to track each case.

Personal injury firms pay more per lead than almost any other practice, and they lose many of those leads in the first hour. The claimant who filled out your form is usually contacting other firms in the same sitting, and the firm that has a real conversation first usually signs the case. This checklist covers the four parts of PI intake that decide whether a paid lead becomes a signed retainer: the inquiry, the handoff to staff, the follow-up, and the status tracking that ties each case back to the click that produced it.

1. What a complete PI inquiry looks like

A PI inquiry is complete when an attorney could judge case value and urgency without calling the person back. That takes a fixed set of facts, collected the same way whether the lead came from a form, a call, or a chat.

• Name, phone, email, preferred language, and the best time to reach them
• Accident type and date: auto, truck, slip and fall, dog bite, or other
• Where it happened, so you know the jurisdiction and whether it's in your area
• Liability picture: police report, citation, witnesses, photos
• Injuries and treatment status: ER, urgent care, ongoing treatment, or none yet
• Insurance on both sides, and whether the claimant has already spoken to an insurer
• Whether they've signed anything or been offered a settlement
• Whether another firm already represents them
• Where the lead came from: the ad, page, or referral that produced it

Two more items belong on the record early, even though they're rarely complete at first contact: the treating providers, so records can be requested once the case signs, and any health insurance, medical liens, or letters of protection the claimant knows about. Liens and referral arrangements tracked in someone's inbox are how money goes missing on cases that already settled. Document AI for building medical record chronologies is in development, so for now the goal is a complete, consistent list of providers and payers on every file.

2. When staff take over from automation

Automation handles the timing: the reply within a minute, the first questions, the scheduling. People handle the judgment calls. Write the handoff rules down before anything goes live, have an attorney review them, and test them against real scenarios.

• Serious injury, hospitalization, or a death goes to a person immediately
• A high case-value score flags the lead for a same-hour callback from the intake coordinator
• The claimant has already talked to an insurer, been offered a settlement, or been asked for a recorded statement
• The claimant asks whether they have a case or what it's worth: never answered by automation, always routed to an attorney
• The accident date suggests a deadline could be close. Deadlines vary by state, so these go to an attorney to check
• The claimant is represented by another firm: a polite close, with no booking

3. When follow-up should stop

Purchased and paid leads are the most perishable kind, so follow-up should start within a minute and keep going across calls, texts, and emails for about two weeks, then slow to a monthly check-in. Some claimants come back once they realize their treatment is going to take longer than they expected. The Convert Engine page shows a full day-by-day sequence. These events should end it:

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

Respect consent and quiet hours on every text and call. Many PI leads come in after hours, and the AI receptionist can take those calls live instead of leaving them for a morning callback.

4. How to track case status

Every lead should move through the same named stages on one record, with the date of each change. That's how you find out how many paid leads were contacted, how many signed, and which ad campaigns produced the cases.

1. 01New: the lead arrived. Record the time, the source, and the campaign.
2. 02Contacted: the first real two-way conversation happened. The gap from New is your response time.
3. 03Qualified: accident, liability, treatment, and insurance facts are in, and the case fits your criteria.
4. 04Booked: a consultation or signing call is scheduled.
5. 05Signed or Not signed: the outcome, with a reason when it doesn't sign.
6. 06Treating, demand, and settlement: the case stages that follow, still tied to the original source.

Once those stages exist, you can report cost per signed case by channel instead of cost per lead. That's the number to bid on in Google Ads, and the one that shows which campaigns to scale. See how this fits the rest of a personal injury practice.

The checklist

1. 01Every lead gets a reply within a minute, at any hour, by text and email
2. 02Every lead collects the same facts on accident, liability, treatment, and insurance
3. 03Serious injuries and high-value cases reach a person immediately, and you've tested that they do
4. 04After-hours calls are answered, not sent to voicemail
5. 05Questions about case value or legal advice always go to an attorney
6. 06Possible deadline issues are flagged for attorney review, with rules set by state
7. 07Unanswered leads get a multi-channel sequence, not a single callback
8. 08Follow-up stops on reply, booking, opt-out, or a staff decision
9. 09Every lead moves through the same named stages on one record
10. 10The ad, page, or referral that produced each lead stays attached through to the signed case
11. 11Someone reviews response time, sign rate, and cost per signed case every month