Law firm chatbot for client intake and FAQs

A law firm chatbot answers the questions prospective clients ask before they pick up the phone: Do you handle my kind of matter? How much does a consultation cost? How does billing work? What happens next? InstantKnowledgeBot builds it from your firm's own documents and keeps it on the right side of the line: it explains the firm and its process, and it doesn't give legal advice.

What do prospective clients ask a law firm website?

Intake calls repeat the same questions, and many arrive outside office hours. A chatbot can answer:

• Practice areas: which matters you take and which you don't.
• Consultations: free or paid, how long, in person or by video, how to book.
• Fees and billing: hourly, flat fee or contingency, retainers and payment options, as your firm describes them.
• Process: what happens after the first call, typical steps and what documents to prepare.
• Locations, hours and languages spoken at the firm.
• Who's who: attorneys, their focus areas and bar admissions, as published on your site.

How does the chatbot avoid giving legal advice?

The law firm template is written for this. It instructs the bot to:

• Answer only factual questions about the firm: practice areas, lawyers, fees, the consultation process, hours and locations, from your documents.
• Not give legal advice or assess anyone's case, chances, deadlines or rights. If asked, it says it can't give legal advice, that nothing in the chat creates a lawyer-client relationship, and that a lawyer can advise them in a consultation.
• Not ask for confidential details of the matter, and invite a brief, non-confidential description for a consultation instead.
• Point anyone in immediate danger to their local emergency number.

Every InstantKnowledgeBot bot is also told to answer only from your knowledge base and to admit when something isn't covered, rather than guess. Read more about that in why AI chatbots hallucinate.

Add your firm's standard website disclaimer to the knowledge base and the welcome message as well. Have your own counsel or ethics adviser approve the wording and check your jurisdiction's rules on advertising and solicitation.

What should a law firm upload?

Start with documents you already publish:

1. Practice area pages with what you handle and what you don't.
2. Consultation policy: cost, length, format and booking link.
3. Fee and billing overview, in the words you'd use with a client.
4. Process guides, such as "What to expect in a divorce" or "Steps after an accident".
5. Attorney bios as published.
6. Office locations, hours, phone and languages spoken.

You can upload PDF, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, CSV, HTML or JSON files, or paste text, and the law firm template includes a "what to upload" checklist and a starter FAQ. Structure tips: preparing documents for an AI chatbot.

How does legal intake through the chatbot work?

With lead capture (Pro and Agency, and during the free 14-day Pro trial), the bot notices when a visitor wants a consultation or to talk to an attorney and shows a short form in the chat. You decide whether it appears on intent, after a few messages, or before the chat starts, and which fields to collect: email always, plus name, phone and a message if you enable them.

Each request is emailed to your intake address with the last few messages of the conversation. In the dashboard, leads move through a simple pipeline (new, contacted, qualified, won, lost) with notes and CSV export, which you can import into your practice management software. See how to set up chatbot lead capture.

Is a chatbot appropriate for a law practice?

Used for intake and FAQs, it helps visitors find information quickly and keeps after-hours inquiries from slipping away. Keep these boundaries:

• No case evaluation in the chat.
• No confidential details: say so in the welcome message and lead form prompt.
• Conflict checks happen in your normal intake process, not the bot.
• Review conversations regularly in the Conversations tab to spot questions you should answer better.

Conversations are stored so you can review them and are deleted automatically after a retention window. Our privacy policy and AI chatbot privacy and security overview explain what's stored and where AI requests go.

What does a well-behaved intake conversation look like?

An example, with the firm's details coming from its own documents:

Visitor: My landlord kept my deposit. Can I sue?

Bot: I'm sorry you're dealing with that. I can't give legal advice or assess your case, and nothing in this chat creates a lawyer-client relationship. Our firm does handle landlord-tenant disputes, and a lawyer can advise you in a consultation. Initial consultations are 30 minutes. Would you like to request one?

The reply confirms the practice area from the firm's documents, declines the legal question, and moves to the next step. Consultation length and fees come from your knowledge base, so make sure they're in it.

How do you set it up?

1. Create a free account and start from the Law firm template.
2. Upload your practice area pages and intake documents.
3. Add your disclaimer to the welcome message.
4. Test with realistic questions, including "Do I have a case?", and confirm it recommends a consultation.
5. Copy the chat bubble snippet from Embed & share into your site, or embed the inline chat on your contact page.

The free plan includes one bot and 100 hosted AI messages a month. Lead capture is on Pro and Agency; see the pricing page. If your firm mainly needs an FAQ assistant, the FAQ chatbot page has more ideas, and the blog covers intake and website tips.