Scripts show the lines. Dialogues show what happens when a real caller does not follow them. Six calls, annotated at the moments where the case is signed or lost, for intake teams to read aloud and practice.
These are examples. The firm, the intake specialist and the callers are invented, the fee is a placeholder, and the calls are compressed to show the moments that matter. In an engagement the dialogues are written from your own recorded calls, your services and your fee policy, and the attorney reviews them. Each dialogue below is a whole call, compressed, with the annotation at the moments that matter. The lines come from the legal intake scripts page; what the dialogues add is the caller not cooperating. Intake teams practice these in pairs, with the person playing the caller told to push back the way real callers do, because the skill is not knowing the line. It is saying it in the two seconds when every instinct says to retreat. 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.
IntakeThank you for calling Hartwell Law, this is Dana. May I have your name?
CallerMichael.
IntakeThank you, Michael. Tell me a little about what is going on, and then I will explain how we work and what the next step would look like.
CallerI was rear-ended on Route 9 on Thursday, the other driver's insurance keeps calling me, my neck is killing me, and I do not know if I am supposed to be talking to them.
IntakeI am glad you called before you did. I am going to ask you a few questions so the attorney has what they need when they look at this. Have you seen a doctor?
CallerUrgent care on Friday. They said soft tissue.
IntakeAnd the adjuster, have you given them a recorded statement?
CallerNot yet. They want one tomorrow.
IntakeOkay. This is exactly the kind of matter the firm handles every week, and the attorney who would look at it is someone I would want on my own case. What I can do right now is get you in front of them before tomorrow. There is a consultation slot at four today. Does that work?
CallerToday? Yes.
No evaluation of the claim, no advice about the adjuster. The specialist noted the deadline the caller volunteered and used it to set the next step the same day. The firm statement came before the fee because this caller's question was never going to be price.
CallerBefore anything, how much do you charge?
IntakeFair question. The consultation is three hundred dollars, and the attorney goes over how the matter itself would be handled when you meet. Can I ask what is going on so I know which attorney you should see?
CallerThree hundred just to talk?
IntakeThree hundred for an hour with an attorney who does this every week, and you leave knowing where you stand. Tell me what happened.
CallerMy landlord is keeping my deposit and I think he is lying about the damage.
The number was stated once, the silence was held, and the second question about price got one plain sentence of value and a redirect, not a discount. Most lost calls of this kind are lost at "three hundred just to talk," when the specialist says "well, we could probably do a free fifteen minutes." The <a href="legal-intake-objection-handling.html" %(L)s>legal intake objection handling</a> page has the nine versions of this objection.
CallerI just need to know if I have a case. Can you tell me that?
IntakeI cannot, and I would not want you relying on an answer from me. What I can do is get the facts to the attorney today and get you a time with them, and that is a real answer instead of a guess. When did this happen?
CallerI do not want to pay for a consultation if there is nothing there.
IntakeI understand. The consultation is where you find out, from the person who is qualified to tell you. Would Thursday morning or Friday afternoon be better?
The boundary is stated as a service to the caller, not as a rule. The specialist does not apologize for it and does not evaluate the case to make the caller feel better, which is the error that puts a non-lawyer in the practice of law and still loses the case.
CallerI am talking to a couple of firms before I decide.
IntakeThat is the right thing to do. Can I ask what you are comparing?
CallerMostly who I feel good about. And cost.
IntakeThen let me make this one easy to compare. The consultation is three hundred, the attorney you would see has handled matters like yours for twelve years, and I can have you in front of them tomorrow at nine. The firms that will call you back in three days are telling you something too.
CallerNine works.
Agreement with the caller's process, one question to learn the criteria, and a firm statement built on the criteria the caller named. The last sentence is the only comparative line on this page and it compares speed, which the firm controls, not outcomes, which it does not.
CallerI am not even sure I want to do this. I just want to know my options.
IntakeYou do not have to decide anything today. The attorney can walk you through the options, and you decide after that, with real information. Can I ask you a few questions so they are ready for you?
CallerOkay.
IntakeAre there children?
CallerTwo.
IntakeAnd is there anything happening right now that feels urgent, or is this about planning?
CallerPlanning. For now.
IntakeThen here is what I recommend. I put you with the attorney on Monday, it is confidential, and nothing starts unless you say so. Monday at eleven?
The specialist removed the pressure the caller named ("I am not sure I want to do this") and still asked for the next step. Those two things are not in tension; the ask was framed as the lowest-commitment way to get the information the caller said they wanted.
IntakeHi, this is Dana from Hartwell Law, we spoke yesterday about the deposit. I said I would check whether the attorney had a slot this week, and she does, Thursday at two. I would like to hold it for you.
CallerI was going to call you. I talked to my brother and he thinks I should just let it go.
IntakeThat is a reasonable thing to consider, and the attorney can tell you in an hour whether he is right. If she agrees with him, you have lost an hour. If she does not, you will be glad you asked. Thursday at two?
CallerFine. Thursday.
The follow-up opened with a reason to call that was not "checking in," named the next step before the caller could restate the objection, and treated the brother's advice as a question for the attorney rather than an argument to win. The <a href="legal-intake-follow-up.html" %(L)s>legal intake follow-up</a> page covers the cadence this call sits inside.
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 half-day session for intake teams and attorneys, with the assessment beforehand and the weekly measure designed in the room.
Read them aloud in pairs, one person as the caller, with the caller instructed to push back the way real callers do. Then swap. The point is not to memorize the lines but to feel the two or three seconds where the specialist wants to retreat, and to practice not retreating.
They are composites built from the patterns that recur across intake desks: the price-first caller, the caller who wants advice, the caller who is calling around. Names and details are invented. Any firm using them adapts the wording to its practice areas and reviews it against its jurisdiction's rules.
The silence after the fee, followed closely by the end of the qualification, where the specialist offers to send information instead of recommending a next step. Both are behavioral, not knowledge, failures: the specialist knows the line and does not say it.
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.