A family law inquiry starts with one question: is it safe to reply?
Intakes.io is a managed intake service for law firms in Canada. For family law firms, it handles the safe-contact question, the first reply, the consult booking and the follow-up through the deposit and the signed retainer. You get an intake CRM and the team that manages it. The lawyer keeps conflict checks, legal advice and every decision on the file.
The three moments that decide the outcome
Safe contact
A person fills in your form at 11 p.m. A call, a voicemail or a text that shows the firm's name on a shared phone could put them at risk.
A quick call back is the friendly thing to do.
The inquiry has no record of how or when it is safe to reach the person, so whoever replies picks a channel out of habit.
A message in the wrong place can end the conversation and cause real harm, and the person may not try another firm. Intakes.io asks first which number and which channel are safe, and when, and uses only that.
The person who is shopping three firms this week
Someone contacts three family firms on Monday and books with the one that spoke to them first and made the next step clear. The other two get back to them on Thursday.
Family clients choose on price or on the lawyer's reputation.
The first reply and the next step were treated as admin, left to whoever was at the desk.
The consult goes to the firm that answered first and made it easy to book. You never see the inquiries that quietly went elsewhere.
The consult that needs a deposit and the retainer that needs a signature
You ask for a deposit to hold the consult, and later another to start the file. Each step is a link the person has to act on while they are upset, busy and sometimes watched.
If they wanted help, they would have paid.
Nobody owns the step between booked and paid, or between sent and signed. A paid consult with no reminder is a no-show waiting to happen.
Consults go empty, retainers sit unsigned, and the file looks open after the person has gone to another firm.
What Intakes.io handles, what stays with you
Example: Fernhill Family Law (fictional firm)
Questions family law firms ask
It is a fixed monthly fee plus a one-time implementation fee, both quoted in writing after the audit. The first term is 3 months, then it runs month to month. Seats are unlimited. What moves the price is on the pricing page.
Intakes.io asks how and when it is safe to reach the person, records the answer in the file and applies it to every later message, including reminders. You approve the wording and the rules. It does not judge whether someone is safe. A lawyer does.
It gets a reply, on the channel the person says is safe. Every call, form, text and WhatsApp message is answered at any hour in wording you approve, and the consult can be booked before morning. Anything that needs judgment waits for a lawyer.
No. Intakes.io screens only on the rules you approve, and a lawyer decides whether to act on every file. Anything unclear goes to a person, and nothing in the screening is a judgment about the person's case.
You do. Intakes.io collects the names the check needs, such as the other party, and hands them to whoever runs it. The consult is booked on the rules you set, and the decision to act stays with the lawyer.
No. Keep Clio or the practice management system you use. Intakes.io is the intake CRM and syncs to Clio, PracticePanther, Filevine and Smokeball, so the matter opens with the intake notes attached and nothing is retyped.
Book a 30-minute audit on your numbers
Bring a recent month of inquiries. You see where this step stalls today.