Chatbot Lawyer: Legal Chatbots Guideline
Capturing new leads and converting them into paying clients is a time-consuming and potentially unbillable process. A chatbot lawyer helps by providing 24/7 assistance to all of your firm’s website visitors. This includes answering common questions, filling out intake forms, and scheduling consultations. Your firm benefits by automating client intake tasks and possibly boosting overall leads.
This article covers a general overview of chatbot lawyers, how chatbots can positively impact your firm’s productivity and lead intake, and practical tips for integrating a chatbot into your firm.
What is a Chatbot Lawyer?
A legal chatbot is programmed or artificial intelligence (AI) software for lawyers that integrates into a business website and provides live chat assistance to visitors.
Chatbots can assist your law firm website visitors by helping them:
- Find information on your firm’s website
- Receive immediate answers to common questions
- Fill out and upload intake forms
- Schedule consultations
Many chatbot services also provide additional tools such as two-way texting (via their platform) and follow-up automation. A chatbot for law firms ensures you never miss an opportunity to generate new leads.
Are Chatbot Lawyers Practical?
Attorneys are already strapped for time. In addition to billable work, lawyers also need to perform mundane, non-billable tasks such as signing on new clients (often with a quota).
Lawyer bots lighten the daily admin load by answering general questions and capturing client intake. A legal chatbot is also completely programmable with new legal technology, so your firm is in full control of the bot. Once a chatbot gathers lead information or answers questions, your firm receives a detailed summary of the conversation and complete intake information and forms (if provided) by potential clients.
There are also ethical rules when using legal chatbots. This typically includes a message that all information gathered by the chatbot is (and will remain) private and secure. Rules can also require disclosure that the chat is coming from a human. Check your local jurisdiction to ensure that all chatbot guidelines are followed.
All in all, a legal bot can act as a digital assistant available at all hours of the day to handle client intake and immediately answer common questions. This is essential, as delayed responses often equate to missed client lead opportunities. But this AI tech is not a replacement for lawyers or paralegals.
Chatbot Lawyers FAQs
How Do I Get a Chatbot Lawyer?
Chatbots are generally easy to integrate into your firm’s website and are available as a custom build or a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. If you hire a developer to design a custom chatbot, it functions exactly as you want but typically costs more money and time.
On the other hand, legal chatbots from SaaS services are usually ready-to-use, affordable, and paid in monthly installments. They typically feature full support for installation and training and may also integrate with existing case management software.
For example, SaaS service Intaker provides a chatbot with various customization options. It sends information directly to the MyCase legal case management platform, eliminating the need to hop back and forth between two software services.
How Much Are Chatbot Lawyers?
Chatbots for law firms can cost nothing or upward of thousands of dollars. It all depends on the build and sophistication of the bot. When comparing prices, remember that a well-designed chatbot’s value can outweigh the cost.
Paying for a custom chatbot or a chatbot software service may benefit your firm in the long run by helping your team secure more leads and freeing up more time for billable work. It can also allow your firm to be more responsive than competitors, which improves client satisfaction—for a greater chance of positive reviews and referrals.
Lastly, your firm can save money (and training time) by adopting a chatbot rather than hiring a staff member to handle initial communication and intake. Many services also offer free trials so you and your legal team can test all chatbot capabilities.
Are There Various Lawyer Bots?
Legal bots come in a wide variety of features and intelligence levels, and they are not the same as ChatGPT (read our ChatGPT guide for attorneys here.)
Some chatbots are limited to basic preset FAQ-type answers, while others learn about your potential clients as they go (via AI). For instance, Intaker’s chatbots feature a pre-recorded video greeting followed by chatbot assistance. This is designed to humanize your business so web visitors can learn a bit more about your company and its personality.
In summary, legal chatbots provide a varied level of customizations and features. They are designed as digital assistants to your site’s visitors. This frees up more time so attorneys can focus more on billable casework while ensuring that law firm website visitors receive immediate answers. In the long run, this can help generate a higher amount of new leads and conversions.
Maximize Productivity: Use MyCase With A Chatbot Lawyer
If you’re adopting a chatbot, consider MyCase legal case management software. MyCase is compatible with chatbots such as Intaker and features case management software tools that can enhance client communications, streamline client intake, manage prospective clients through a law firm CRM, and automate workflows.
Try MyCase today risk-free with a 10-day free trial. We offer affordable monthly and yearly subscriptions. Plus, there’s no commitment required, and you can cancel anytime.
