A Paralegal’s Perspective: My take on litigation Intake

The first two months of the new year are historically when we have a bit of an uptick in hearing from perspective clients. The rush and excitement of the holidays has come to an end and people are looking ahead to the fresh new start and are ready to get their lives moving forward and back in order!

I actually had someone ask me a couple days ago what I do for a living. Telling them I was a paralegal was met with a resounding “That’s so cool!”.  I giggled a bit, thankful that being in a profession that isn’t always synonymous with “cool”, and certainly not on the top 10 list of things that a little kid may say that he or she wants to be when they grow up, could be seen for the integral part that it plays in our firm and any firm, for that matter!

While I wear many hats at our firm, one of the most important roles that I have as paralegal and office manager is being the first line of defense behind the telephone. I touched upon this briefly in one of my earlier posts – since I never know who is on the other end of a phone call, there’s a lot of pressure in delivering that great first impression and filling in all the blanks before it crosses Laura and Amy’s desks!

According to the Oxford Dictionary, intake is, quite literally, the action of taking something in. During the process of intake, I am conducting a pseudo interview of a prospective client all while taking in all what is being told to me to compile a timeline of events, damages sought, and what they are looking for our firm to do to help. And while I can credit my years of high school typing classes and starting as a Court Assistant 20 years ago transcribing Judges’ decisions from a Dictaphone for being able to keep up with what information I’m being provided, I do let the perspective client know that I am typing notes that will be proofread and put into a more cohesive form for either Laura or Amy or both to review.

During intake, I always work in reverse. Yes, that sounds ridiculous when what we do in a law firm is so structured and methodical, but hear me out! You can tell that some of these perspective clients call propelled by extreme bouts of nerves, anger, hopelessness, excitement, etc. They finally got up the courage to make the call and someone picked up the other line that can listen – so you better buckle up! Most times, I don’t even have the person’s first and last name until the end of the call when I summarize everything we’ve discussed. At the end of each intake call, I’m thanking them for answering all of my questions and closing the loops on the chains of events or cast of characters that we will need in order to evaluate the next steps on our end. The sighs of relief and “thank you for listening” are plentiful. 

It’s all relative. We’re here to help others and deliver exceptional customer service. The intake process is crucial in putting all the pieces today and charting where we go from here. Good intake = good data=delivering the best legal services possible. 

Disclaimer: The information contained in this post is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for advice regarding your individual situation. We invite you to contact us and welcome your calls and communications. Contacting us, however, does not create an attorney-client relationship.

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