Personal Injury Intake Script (With Examples): The 4-Minute Framework That Converts

A converting personal injury intake script does four things, in this order, in under four minutes: (1) establishes language preference and empathy in the first ten seconds, (2) qualifies the matter against the firm's case criteria, (3) runs a conflict and statute check, (4) books the consult on a live attorney calendar before the caller hangs up. Below is the exact framework Sempull agents run for PI firms, with sample phrasing in English and Spanish.

Step 1 — Opening (0:00–0:15)

English: 'Thank you for calling [Firm]. This is Maria — I can help you with your accident right now. Are you or a family member injured?' Spanish: '[Firm], le habla María. Estoy aquí para ayudarle con su accidente. ¿Está usted o un familiar lesionado?' Never open with 'How can I direct your call?' — it signals switchboard, not a lawyer's office, and Spanish-dominant callers hang up.

Step 2 — Triage the emergency (0:15–0:45)

'Are you safe right now? Do you need medical attention?' If yes, warm-transfer to on-call counsel or 911 protocol; do not proceed with qualification while the client is in an ER or on the scene. Document time and location, then schedule a callback for after treatment. This single move — refusing to intake an actively-injured client — massively improves NPS and retention.

Step 3 — The 8 qualification questions (0:45–2:30)

(1) When did the accident happen? (statute trigger) (2) Where did it happen? (jurisdiction, venue) (3) What type of accident — car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, slip-and-fall, workplace? (4) Were you at fault, partly at fault, or not at fault? (5) Were you treated by a doctor? Are you still treating? (6) Did a police report get filed? (7) Do you have auto insurance? Does the at-fault party? (8) Have you spoken to any other attorney or the insurance company already? Any 'yes' on question 8 changes the script — that lead is time-critical.

Step 4 — Conflict check (2:30–3:00)

'Before I book you with the attorney, I need to make sure we don't have a conflict. Can you give me the full name of the other driver or the business where you were injured?' Run the name against Clio Grow / Lawmatics / Filevine / CASEpeer in real time. A conflict-check failure at consult is a preventable reputational hit — always do it at intake.

Step 5 — Book the consult live (3:00–3:45)

'The attorney has openings tomorrow at 10 or 2, or Thursday at 11 — which works?' Always offer two or three specific slots, not 'when are you free.' Book on the attorney's actual calendar in the same conversation. Any script that ends in 'someone will call you back to schedule' loses 40–60% of qualified leads.

Step 6 — Confirm and close (3:45–4:00)

'You're confirmed with Attorney [Name] on [Day] at [Time]. You'll get a text and email confirmation in the next two minutes. Please bring your police report, insurance card, and any medical records. If anything changes before then, call me back at this number. Thank you for trusting us with this.' Send the confirmation while the caller is still on the line — most CRMs support one-click SMS + email.

What to remove from your current script

(a) 'How did you hear about us?' — ask on the confirmation SMS, not at intake. (b) 'Can I put you on a brief hold?' — Spanish-dominant callers interpret hold as dismissal. (c) 'We'll have someone call you back.' — the single most retainer-destroying sentence in a legal intake. (d) Long firm-history monologues. (e) Anything that sounds like legal advice — that's UPL exposure and unnecessary.

The bilingual dimension

Every element above works in Spanish, but literal translation does not. 'Slip and fall' is not 'resbalar y caer' — clients say 'me caí en el trabajo' or 'me caí en la tienda.' Build the Spanish script with a native-speaker paralegal or attorney who practices in the area, not a translation service. Sempull's bilingual scripts are co-authored by the firm and a Spanish-native intake lead, then QA'd weekly.

How to measure the script is working

Track four weekly numbers: (1) percent of calls qualified in under 4 minutes (target 80%+), (2) percent of qualified calls that book a live consult (target 85%+), (3) show-rate on booked consults (target 75%+), (4) signed-retainer rate on shown consults (target 55%+ for MVAs). If any number breaks, the script needs a specific tweak — not a full rewrite.

Download and next step

The full PI intake script, including the Spanish version and the CRM field mapping, is in our /resources hub. If you want us to run this script on your firm's inbound calls 24/7, book a discovery call and we'll pilot it against your last-30-day call log.