Legal intake is a good fit for automation and a bad fit for enthusiasm. The value is real; the ways to get it wrong are specific and worth naming.
What is safe
Practice areas. Whether you handle this kind of matter at all is the first question every enquirer has, and a large share of enquiries are for work you do not do.
Fee structure. Fixed fee, hourly, conditional. Published, explained consistently.
What a first consultation involves. Length, cost, what to bring, what happens next.
General timescales. "Conveyancing typically takes X weeks" where you have published it.
Capturing the enquiry. Matter type, the parties involved, the timescale, contact details.
What is not
Any advice on their situation. Not "do I have a claim", not "how long do I have", not "should I accept". Configure it to decline and route.
Anything implying a retainer. Nothing should suggest the firm is instructed or has accepted the matter.
Conflicts. It can collect the names for your team to check. It cannot run the check or hint at the outcome.
Limitation periods. Tempting, because a general answer exists. Dangerous, because the general answer is wrong often enough to matter.
The value: triage
A large proportion of legal enquiries are for work the firm does not do, or are outside jurisdiction. Every one costs someone's time to establish.
Automating that first filter — practice area, location, matter type — means the enquiries reaching a fee earner are ones worth reading.
The out-of-hours case
Legal problems are distressing and people research them in the evening. A firm that answers "yes we handle this, here is what a first consultation costs and involves" at 9pm is the firm they contact.
Not because it advised them, but because it was there.
Setting it up conservatively
Publish your practice areas, fees and process clearly. Instruct the agent explicitly that it does not advise and must route anything specific to a person. Then test it by asking it for advice, repeatedly, and check it holds the line.
That last step is the one people skip. Do it before you go live, not after.
Try it
Build one from your firm's website and try to get it to advise you. What it does then is the whole evaluation.
Related: the law firms guide.