The question behind the price question is always "what will this help me accomplish." The answer changes shape with the fee model. Four versions of stage three, with the words, and for each the way intake tends to undermine it. Examples; the real ones are written for your policy.
Whether the first meeting costs three hundred dollars, nothing, a percentage of a future recovery or is part of a flat package, the caller is asking the same question underneath the number: what will this help me accomplish? The intake specialist who answers the number and not the question loses the call at the silence that follows, usually by filling it with a discount, a disclaimer or an apology. This page gives stage three of the legal intake scripts four times over, once per fee model, as examples. The real version is written for your policy and reviewed by your attorney, as the law firm intake training program page explains. Scope, plainly: everything on this page concerns the conversation that turns an inquiry into an engagement. Nothing here is legal advice, nothing touches the legal work or the attorney's judgment, and any wording a firm adopts is reviewed by the firm against its jurisdiction's rules on attorney advertising, solicitation and fee communication before it is used.
CallerWhat is this going to cost me?
IntakeThe first meeting is three hundred dollars for the hour. That is the hour where she goes through everything you told me, tells you plainly where you stand and what to do before Friday, and lays out what handling it would involve, so you leave with a plan whether or not you go further with us. If the firm takes the matter on, she explains how that fee works when you meet.
CallerThree hundred just to talk.
IntakeThree hundred for an hour with the person who does this every week, and a plan for Friday. Tuesday at ten or Wednesday at two?
The second objection gets one sentence of value and the next step, not a payment plan nobody asked for. Pattern that breaks it: yielding; the specialist softens the number before the caller has reacted. Fix: the held pause, practiced, and a weekly count of fees stated without softening on the <a href="legal-intake-call-review-scorecard.html" %(L)s>call-review scorecard</a>.
CallerIs the consultation free?
IntakeIt is, and I want to be clear about what it is, because it is not a quick phone chat. It is forty-five minutes with the attorney, in person or on video, where he goes through what happened, tells you what your options are, and you decide together whether this is something the firm takes on and what that would involve. People leave it knowing where they stand. I would like to put you in that meeting on Thursday at two.
CallerAnd if I decide not to go ahead?
IntakeThen you have spent forty-five minutes and you know more than you did. Thursday at two?
The value has to be built higher, not lower, when the fee is zero, and the meeting has to be framed as ending in a decision, or the no-show rate does the firm's marketing budget no favors. Pattern that breaks it: role rejection; the specialist offers the free meeting as a favor ("no pressure at all, whenever you like") and the caller treats it accordingly. Fix: the expectation line, rehearsed, and a count of free consultations booked with a specific time and a confirmation.
CallerI cannot afford a lawyer right now.
IntakeThat is the first thing most people say, so let me explain how this firm works on matters like yours. There is no fee for the meeting, and if the firm takes the case, its fee comes out of any recovery at the end rather than out of your pocket along the way. The attorney goes through exactly how that works, in writing, when you meet. What I can do today is get you in front of her before the adjuster calls you again.
CallerSo I pay nothing now?
IntakeNothing for the meeting. She will walk you through the agreement itself on Thursday. Does two o'clock work?
One approved sentence on how contingency works in this practice, repeated rather than elaborated, and the agreement itself left to the attorney and the paper. Nothing about what the case is worth or what the caller will receive. Pattern that breaks it: over-preparation, the specialist trying to explain the whole fee structure and percentages on the phone, which both delays the ask and puts a non-lawyer into territory that belongs to the attorney. Fix: the sentence, the boundary, the next step.
CallerHow much is a will?
IntakeCan I ask what made you start thinking about it now? ... So the main thing is that your kids are not left sorting this out. The firm does that as a flat package: the planning meeting with the attorney, the documents, and the signing, for a fixed fee of eighteen hundred dollars, with no hourly billing on top. Most people ask whether that includes the power of attorney and health care documents, and it does. Whether you need the trust version instead is something the attorney will tell you in the first meeting, not something I would guess at.
CallerOkay. What is the first step?
IntakeThe planning meeting. She has Monday at eleven.
The why-now question first, so the package is stated in terms of what the caller wants to accomplish. The number, what it includes, the one inclusion most callers ask about, and the package comparison handed to the attorney explicitly. Pattern that breaks it: the specialist answering "how much is a will" with a price list, which turns the firm into a commodity in the first thirty seconds. Fix: one question before the number, every time, and a count of it.
The hubs: legal intake and sales training and lawyer intake sales training. The working pages: legal intake scripts, legal intake dialogues, legal intake objection handling, law firm value proposition for intake, law firm intake sales process, legal intake follow-up, the fee conversation by fee model, the call-review scorecard and the R2R for intake teams. The engagement: the call audit and the twelve-step program.
A conversation about how your firm charges for the first meeting and the matter, and what intake should say about each.
State the number once, say what the hour accomplishes in the caller's own terms, and be honest about what comes after. Then move to the next step and let the silence belong to the caller. The fee is not defended and not apologized for.
The risk with a free consultation is the opposite one: it gets offered as nothing, so it is booked lightly and skipped easily. Intake has to establish what the meeting is for and what the caller leaves with, so that it is worth showing up for, and set the expectation that it ends with a decision about next steps.
The caller's question is usually "what does it cost me" and the honest answer is a sentence the firm approves about how contingency works in its practice. The intake job is to say that sentence plainly, not to promise anything about the outcome or the recovery, and to move to the meeting, where the attorney explains the agreement.
The number is easy; the explanation of what is included and what is not is where it goes wrong. Intake states the package in terms of what the caller said they want to accomplish, names the one or two things most callers ask about inclusion, and leaves package comparisons to the attorney unless the firm has approved a short version.
No. They are examples with placeholder numbers and an invented firm. The engagement writes the fee stage for your actual policy and the attorney reviews it, including anything about contingency, payment plans or what a package includes.
Dr. Jeffrey Scott Stanton, DCH is the former EVP of Learning & Development at Douglas Elliman Real Estate and the founder and Chief Learning Officer of R2R Diagnostic Group, where he helps real estate organizations and agents diagnose and fix the behavioral patterns behind inconsistent performance.