What a legal answering service should do — and what to require before you sign
Most legal answering services are judged on whether someone picks up. That is the low bar. The thing that actually decides whether the service earns its fee is what happens in the ninety seconds after the caller says "I think I need a lawyer" — whether the information you get back is usable, whether an urgent matter is visibly urgent, and whether the caller was told anything your firm would not have said. This page is the checklist we think you should hold any service to, including this one.
The five things worth checking
- Does it take a structured intake, or just a name and number? A message saying "called about an accident" costs you a second call to find out anything useful.
- Does it say anything substantive to the caller? A service that speculates about your chances, quotes a fee, or implies you have taken the matter creates a problem you inherit.
- Are urgent matters separated from the rest? A statute deadline or a court date next week should not be sitting in the same undifferentiated list as a billing question.
- Can it handle a caller who is not comfortable in English? In much of the US a meaningful share of first calls are in Spanish, and a caller who cannot explain the problem does not call back.
- What happens on the tenth simultaneous call? Human services queue. Whether that queue is disclosed to you is a fair question to ask.
Where SamCaller sits against that list
- SAM takes a structured intake in natural conversation and returns a written summary plus the recording, not a message slip.
- It gives no legal advice, quotes no fees and promises no representation — it tells the caller a member of the firm will follow up, and nothing more.
- Anything the caller describes as time-sensitive is flagged separately, so a deadline is visible before you open the list.
- It handles Spanish and English on the same line, switching to whichever the caller uses, without a transfer or a second number.
- It answers simultaneous calls in parallel. There is no hold queue, because there is no single person answering.
Pricing: per call, not a monthly minimum
The usual structure in this category is a monthly plan sized to a call volume you have to guess at, plus per-minute overage when you guess low. SamCaller is 9¢ a minute for the calls actually handled, with no setup fee and no lock-in. For a firm whose after-hours volume is genuinely unpredictable, that is the difference between paying for coverage and paying for a plan.
What we are not claiming
We are not making a blanket confidentiality certification, because that would be a claim about your obligations rather than ours. What we can tell you concretely: call recordings and summaries go only to your firm’s account, SAM volunteers nothing to the caller about other matters, and we will answer specific questions about data handling in writing before you put a real line on it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a legal answering service?
A service that answers a law firm’s phone when the firm cannot — after hours, at weekends, or while everyone is already on a call — and captures the caller’s information so a prospective client is not lost to voicemail. The useful ones take a structured intake rather than just a name and number.
How is this different from a general answering service?
A general service is optimised to take a message. A legal one has to know what not to say: no advice, no fee quotes, no comment on the merits, no implication that the firm has taken the matter. It also has to recognise that a mentioned deadline or court date changes how fast the message needs to reach you.
Can it answer callers who do not speak English?
Yes. SAM answers in whichever of its languages the caller uses and stays there for the rest of the call — Spanish and English are on the same line, with no transfer and no second number for the caller to find.
What does a legal answering service cost?
Services in this category usually price as a monthly plan plus per-minute overage. SamCaller charges 9¢ a minute for calls actually handled, with no setup fee and no contract, so a quiet month costs less than a busy one.