A new case entering your firm should feel like the beginning of a process, not the beginning of a guessing game. Someone needs to capture the right information. Someone needs to know what happens next. Documents need to go where they belong, the right people need to be involved and everyone should have enough context to move the matter forward.
When those steps depend on memory, manual follow-up or information scattered across different places, even a straightforward intake can create work before the case has really begun.
intake is more than collecting information.
When a potential client becomes a new case, the firm is doing more than entering information into a system. The team is making decisions: Is the matter a fit for the firm? Has the necessary information been collected? What needs to happen before the case can move forward? Who needs to be involved, and what should happen next?
An article in the ABA’s Law Technology Today describes client intake as a critical point where firms collect client and case information and establish an important first touchpoint with the client. If intake is that first touchpoint, what happens right after it matters just as much.
so what should happen when a new case enters?
There isn’t one process that every firm should follow. Different practice areas have different requirements, and firms may have their own criteria for moving a matter forward. But a strong process should answer a few basic questions.
1. the information should have somewhere to go.
Information collected during intake shouldn’t need to be manually reconstructed across multiple systems. A new matter may involve contact information, documents, intake details, tasks and other information needed to evaluate and manage the case. Keeping that information connected gives the team a clearer starting point and reduces the need to search across emails, spreadsheets, notes and other disconnected sources.
Consider a personal injury intake where the client describes the accident over the phone, texts photos of the damage and emails a copy of their insurance card. If each piece lands in a different place, the team’s first task on the case is finding information instead of working with it.
2. the right people should know what happens next.
A new case shouldn’t sit in a queue waiting for someone to remember it. The next step might be reviewing information, requesting a document, scheduling a consultation, completing a conflict check or assigning the matter to the appropriate team. Whatever the next step is, someone should own it.
3. the process should account for different paths.
Not every new case follows the same journey. A matter may meet the firm’s criteria immediately, another may need additional information and another may require review before the firm can decide whether to move forward. A useful workflow should be able to account for those differences instead of forcing every case through the same sequence.
In a mass tort practice, for example, one potential plaintiff may meet the qualification criteria right away, while another still needs medical records before the firm can evaluate the claim. Both are new matters, but they shouldn’t be waiting in the same line.
4. the case should move forward without unnecessary rework.
Once a matter is accepted, the information already collected should continue with it. If the team has to recreate records, re-enter information or manually rebuild tasks just because a lead became a case, the process is creating work that doesn’t move the matter forward.
Imagine an immigration consultation where the team gathers family details, travel history and information about prior filings. When the client signs, that history should already be part of the case, not something the case team has to ask the client for again.
5. the team should be able to see where things stand.
A new case creates a series of actions. Without visibility, it can be difficult to know whether the matter is waiting for information, assigned to someone, ready for the next step or simply stalled. Visibility doesn’t mean everyone needs to see everything. It means the right people should be able to understand what has happened, what’s happening now and what needs to happen next.
a new case should create momentum.
The goal of a strong intake-to-case process isn’t to automate every decision or remove people from the process. It’s to give people a clear way to move the work forward.
Neostella’s Intake workspace centralizes information about potential matters, including contact details, documents, tasks and intake data. Qualified leads can then be converted into cases with mapped data and documents, reducing the need to recreate information manually. Its workflow automation can also route new leads, assign follow-up, request information, send communications, create standard work, assign owners and start the appropriate case process.
Because when a new case enters your firm, the most important question isn’t simply, “Did we capture it?” It’s, “What happens next?”
build a process that knows what happens next.
Give your team a clear path from new matter to active case, without relying on memory to keep the work moving.
See how Neostella helps firms build workflows around the way work actually happens.
