Law Firm Intake Form: What to Ask Before You Take an Injury Case

An intake form is the first structured conversation a firm has with a potential client. Done well, it tells your team within minutes whether a case is worth pursuing, who needs to call back and what to ask next. Done badly, it either scares people away with a wall of fields or collects so little that every inquiry needs a second call just to learn the basics.

Most injury firms actually need two versions: a short form on the website that gets someone to reach out, and a fuller intake sheet your team works through on the first call. This guide covers what belongs in each. For the systems that store and route this information, see legal intake software.

The web form: short on purpose

The job of the form on your website is to start a conversation, not to replace it. Every extra field is another reason for a worried, injured person to give up halfway. Keep it to what you need to call them back and route the inquiry:

• Name.
• Phone number, and email if they prefer it.
• The type of incident, as a simple choice such as car accident, truck accident, fall or work injury.
• The state, or city, where it happened.
• A short optional box for what happened, in their own words.

Tell the visitor what happens next, for example that someone will call them back shortly. Have your counsel review any consent wording on the form for how you plan to follow up. The guide to law firm landing pages covers forms for paid campaigns in more detail.

The first-call intake sheet

Once someone is on the phone, your intake team can gather what the web form leaves out. A good intake sheet follows the order of a natural conversation, so the caller feels listened to rather than processed.

Contact and basics

Full name, best phone number, a backup contact method, the best time to reach them and their preferred language. Confirm the spelling of names. A misspelled name or a wrong digit in a phone number can lose a case before it starts.

What happened

Date, location and a plain description of the incident. For a vehicle crash, who else was involved, whether police came and whether a report was made. For a fall, where it happened and who owns or manages the property. Let the caller tell the story first, then fill gaps with specific questions.

Injuries and treatment

What injuries they have, whether they went to an emergency room or urgent care, which doctors they have seen since and whether treatment is ongoing. This is often the most important section for deciding whether to take a case, and it is where a caller may need the most patience.

Insurance and other parties

The caller's own insurance, the other party's insurance if known, and whether any insurer has already contacted them or asked for a recorded statement. If an adjuster is already involved, that changes how urgently the firm needs to respond.

Prior representation

Whether they have spoken to or hired another lawyer about this incident. A caller who already has counsel needs different handling, and asking early avoids wasted work on both sides.

Conflict check details

Collect the names of everyone involved, including the other driver, property owner, employer or insurer, so the firm can run a conflict check before going further. Information shared by a prospective client can create duties for the firm even if it never takes the case. ABA Model Rule 1.18 addresses this, and states adopt it differently, so check your state bar's rules and train your intake team to gather only what the conflict check and screening need at this stage.

Dates that matter

Note the incident date clearly and flag anything that could shorten the time to act, such as a claim against a government body, which often has much shorter notice deadlines. Your attorneys decide what the deadlines are, but the intake sheet should make sure nobody misses the date that starts the clock.

Questions to leave for later

Intake is not the place for a full case review. Detailed medical history, wage records, every photo and document and a complete account of prior claims can wait until the firm has decided to move forward. Asking for all of it on the first call makes intake slow and can make a promising caller feel interrogated.

Make it easy for your team to act

An intake form is only useful if the answers reach the right person quickly. Decide in advance which answers mean a case goes straight to an attorney, which need a follow up call and which are a polite decline. Store everything in one place so a callback does not start from zero. The guides to law firm CRM and personal injury case management cover what happens after intake.

Speed matters as much as the form itself. Someone who was hurt and reached out to your firm has often reached out to others too. The firm that calls back first, with a clear and kind conversation, usually has the advantage.

Common mistakes

• A web form so long that visitors abandon it.
• No phone number field, or a field that does not accept common formats.
• Legal language the caller has to translate.
• Skipping the conflict check details until after a long conversation.
• Not recording who else the caller has spoken to, including insurers and other lawyers.
• Answers stored in several places, so nobody has the full picture.
• No clear rule for which inquiries go straight to an attorney.

The short version

Keep the website form short: name, phone, incident type, state and an optional description. Use a fuller intake sheet on the first call that covers contact details, what happened, injuries and treatment, insurance, prior representation, conflict check names and key dates. Leave the full case review for later, check your state's rules on prospective clients and make sure every answer reaches the right person fast.