Bilingual answering service for law firms: intake in Spanish, on the first call

Someone describing an accident, a detention, a custody situation or an eviction is under stress and working from memory. Ask them to do that in a second language and the account gets shorter, vaguer and less useful — assuming they stay on the line at all.

The usual arrangement makes it worse: an English recording, an instruction to press two, a hold, and outside business hours often nothing at all. A significant part of the caller’s decision about your firm happens in those fifteen seconds.

The receptionist opens with your firm’s greeting. If the caller answers in Spanish, the intake continues in Spanish — same person, same call, no transfer. The questions are your questions, written in Spanish with you rather than translated from the English script.

The intake summary reaches your firm in English, with the caller’s own words quoted where the phrasing carries meaning, which in legal intake it frequently does.

Immigration. Where Spanish-language intake isn’t a feature, it’s the practice. Callers often have documents in front of them and no idea which ones matter; the questions have to be specific.

Personal injury. The call usually comes hours after the incident, often from a family member rather than the injured person. Getting the sequence, the location and the other parties right is worth more than speed.

Family law. Custody and domestic matters where the caller may not be able to speak freely, and where a receptionist has to notice that and adapt.

Employment and workers’ comp. Callers describing a workplace injury or a wage dispute, often worried about their job while they do it.

No legal advice. No opinion on the merits. No fee quotes beyond what your firm publishes. No promise that the firm will take the matter. The never-say list exists in Spanish word for word, because that’s exactly where a well-meaning receptionist improvises.

The names of the other parties, the employer, the insurer, the opposing counsel if the caller knows it — collected on the first call in either language, so your conflict check runs before a callback, not after. Full legal intake process.

No bilingual surcharge and no separate Spanish plan: one answered call = one billable call, whatever we do on it, whichever language it was in. Plans from $119; firms with long intake forms are Custom Operations. Full pricing.