Playbook, law firm
Can I book an appointment with a solicitor this week
This looks like a diary question and is really three questions stacked on top of each other. Which department, whether the firm is free to act at all, and whether the named person is in the office or in a hearing that overruns. A firm that publishes the first and explains the second gets a usable enquiry. A firm that lets an assistant behave like a booking form gets somebody turning up expecting advice the firm may not be permitted to give them.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for appointment booking holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- Nobody at a firm can be committed to a meeting until a conflict check has cleared, and running one needs the names on both sides, which is exactly the detail the assistant should not be collecting in the open.
- A fee earner keeps two diaries in effect, the office one and the court list, and a hearing that runs long takes out an afternoon of appointments with no notice to anybody.
- Routing to the wrong department wastes the meeting rather than delaying it, because a first appointment about a boundary is not a first appointment about a divorce and the preparation is different.
- Clients frequently ask for the individual who acted for a relative years ago, and confirming whether that person still works there, or ever acted, is a confidentiality problem dressed up as a scheduling one.
How it arrives
- can i book an appointment with a solicitor this week
- which department do i need for a boundary dispute
- can i see the solicitor who did my mother's will
- do you do evening appointments for signing a will
- can we do the first meeting on video instead
- how soon can someone see me about a divorce
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Departments and what each one takes | Named in the words a member of the public would use, with the awkward cases resolved: which department handles a dispute with a neighbour, which handles a compromise agreement, which handles a deceased estate. Most misrouting comes from the labels, not from the enquiry. |
|---|---|
| How appointments are actually arranged in your firm | Whether reception books directly, whether an enquiry is triaged first, how long a first meeting runs and what typically has to happen before a date is offered. If a conflict check comes first in practice, say so, because it explains the delay a caller is about to experience. |
| Where meetings happen, and the formats you offer | In person at which office, by video, by telephone, and which of these you will not offer for signing or for taking instructions on particular work. This is a policy question with a legal edge and it should be written down, not decided per caller. |
| Typical lead times by department | Written as a range, with the honest caveat about court commitments. Somebody deciding whether to keep looking wants an order of magnitude, and a firm that gives one gets the enquiry even when the answer is a fortnight. |
The reply
Boundary questions go to our property litigation team rather than to conveyancing [1]. I cannot book a time, and no firm can commit to a meeting before running a conflict check, which needs the name of the other party and is done by our team rather than here [2]. First meetings run for about an hour and can be in person or by video. Leave me your name, an email and the type of matter, and someone will run the check and come back with a time.
It answers the routing question first, because that is the part it can genuinely settle and it is worth more than a date. Naming the conflict check as the reason a time cannot be promised turns an apparent refusal into an explanation of how the trade works. It asks for the type of matter and not the other side's name, so the check happens where it should rather than in a transcript.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor asks for a specific date or a named fee earner, or begins naming the people involved in their matter in order to get the appointment arranged.
I cannot put anything in a diary, and the other side's name should not go in this chat. Leave your name, an email and the type of matter and the team will run the conflict check and offer you a time.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never offer, hold or confirm a time, since nothing here reaches a diary and a client who arrives expecting a meeting has been badly served.
- Never confirm whether a named solicitor works at the firm, is available, or has ever acted for a particular person.
- Never invite the visitor to give the other party's name so a conflict check can be run, because that check belongs with the team and not in an open channel.
- Never tell somebody the firm can take their matter, which is a decision made after the check rather than before it.
Questions
- Could it book if we connected our calendar?
- No, and in this trade that is a feature rather than a limitation. It cannot write to any system, which means it cannot commit the firm to a meeting that a conflict check might make impossible. It captures a name, an email and the type of matter and sends that to your nominated address.
- What is the highest value thing it can do on this question?
- Routing. Getting somebody to the right department before the first call saves a meeting, and department labels are the one part of this that is entirely factual and entirely publishable.
- People ask for the solicitor who acted for a relative. What should it say?
- That the team will pass the request on, and nothing else. Confirming that a named person still works there is harmless, confirming that they acted for somebody is not, and the assistant is in no position to tell those two apart in a live message.
Keep reading
- Everything for a law firmFee structures, consultation terms and onboarding checks are answerable. Anything applied to a caller's own facts is legal advice.
- Handling appointment booking in generalIt cannot write into a calendar. The job is removing every reason not to book, then handing over with the details already gathered.
- Office hours are the easy half of this questionReception opens before fee earners are at their desks, court takes a solicitor out for a day, and completion day runs on a banking deadline.
- Getting to the right building on the right dayDepartments sit in different buildings, originals have to be produced in person, and half these messages are really about a hearing venue.
- Reasonable adjustments at a firm, and where they stop being administrativeInterpreters, home visits and large print are arrangements a firm can make. Whether somebody can give instructions is a legal question.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.