Legal-only floor
Every agent is trained on U.S. legal intake — conflict checks, statute-of-limitations triggers, jail calls, ICE detentions, opposing counsel. No HVAC overflow on the same queue.
Legal Answering Service
A legal answering service built only for law firms.
Sempull is the legal-only answering service U.S. firms switch to when generic receptionists and templated scripts start losing them paying clients. Live agents 24/7, custom intake written with your firm, CRM-native data flow, month-to-month pricing. If Spanish-speaking callers are your priority, see our dedicated bilingual legal answering service.
- Live answer 24 / 7 / 365
- Native English + Spanish on every agent
- Per-firm qualification scripts
- Structured push to Clio, Lawmatics, Filevine, MyCase
- Conflict checks + TCPA-aware messaging
- Month-to-month, no setup fees
Bilingual on every ring
Native English + Spanish on every agent, every shift. Spanish callers never get a transfer or a Language Line bridge.
TCPA + HIPAA aware
Recorded calls, encrypted lead delivery, TCPA-aware messaging, HIPAA-aware handling for medical intake. Reviewed by U.S. counsel.
Built to convert
Custom qualification scripts written with your firm, real-time CRM push with structured fields, and weekly scorecards on answer time, qualification rate, and signed-retainer rate.
What a legal answering service actually does
A legal answering service is the team that picks up your firm's phone when your in-house staff can't — or, increasingly, the team that picks up every call so your attorneys never touch the phone. The bar is no longer just "someone answers." A modern legal answering service runs your full intake workflow: greets the caller in their language, identifies whether they're a new prospect or existing client, qualifies the matter to your criteria, runs a conflict check, books the consult on your attorney's actual calendar, and pushes a structured record into your CRM before the call ends.
That distinction matters because the math on missed legal calls is brutal. Industry studies consistently show that 60–70% of inbound legal calls happen outside 9-to-5, and roughly 80% of callers who reach voicemail never leave a message. For a personal injury, immigration, or family-law firm, a single missed call can be a four- or five-figure retainer walking to the next firm on Google.
Spanish-speaking callers: covered on a dedicated page
Over 42 million U.S. residents speak Spanish at home, and in Texas, California, Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada that's a double-digit share of every PI, immigration, family-law, and workers' comp matter. Every Sempull agent is native English + Spanish, so the first person who answers can run the whole intake in either language.
We cover how that works in depth — scripts, conflict checks, and conversion parity between English and Spanish callers — on our bilingual legal answering service page.
What to look for when choosing a legal answering service
- Legal-only training. Generic receptionists who take HVAC and dental calls between yours cannot reliably navigate SOL windows, conflict checks, or jail calls.
- Bilingual on every agent. Not "available on premium tier" — every agent, every shift.
- Custom qualification. Templates can't capture your fit/no-fit criteria. Look for per-firm scripts that evolve based on what your attorneys actually accept.
- Native CRM push. Structured fields into Clio Grow, Lawmatics, Filevine, MyCase — not a paragraph emailed to your intake address.
- Transparent pricing. Month-to-month, no setup fees, no surprise overage charges. You should be able to cancel for any reason.
Side-by-side
Sempull vs Smith.ai vs Answering Legal
How a bilingual, legal-only intake service compares to the two services law firms shop against most often. Pricing reflects publicly listed plans and may vary by call volume and add-ons.
| Feature | Sempull Bilingual · Legal-only | Smith.ai General receptionist | Answering Legal Legal answering |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From ~$1.20 / qualified minute | From $325 / mo (50 calls) | From $179 / mo (entry tier) |
| Setup fees | $0 | Varies by plan | Varies by plan |
| Contract length | Month-to-month | Month-to-month available | Plan terms vary |
| Bilingual on first ring | Every agent, English + Spanish | Bilingual receptionists on certain plans | Often via Spanish-line transfer |
| Legal-only training | 100% legal intake | Multi-industry; legal vertical | Yes — legal-focused |
| 24 / 7 / 365 live coverage | Yes | Yes on most plans | Yes |
| Custom qualification script | Per-firm, version-controlled | Custom intake forms; deeper on higher tiers | Standard scripts; custom at higher tiers |
| Native CRM push (Clio, Lawmatics, Filevine, MyCase) | Structured fields, real-time | Broad integration catalog | Varies by plan |
| Founder-led onboarding | Yes — script co-authoring | Self-serve playbook | Account-managed |
Pricing reflects publicly listed plans at time of writing. Smith.ai and Answering Legal are trademarks of their respective companies; this comparison is for informational purposes.
Common questions about legal answering services
What is a legal answering service?+
A legal answering service is a third-party team of trained agents who answer a law firm's inbound calls live — handling new prospects, existing clients, opposing counsel, and after-hours calls — instead of routing callers to voicemail. A legal-specialized service like Sempull runs your firm's full intake script (qualification, conflict checks, calendar booking) rather than just taking messages.
How much does a legal answering service cost?+
Most U.S. legal answering services run between roughly $180 and $1,500 per month depending on call volume, hours covered, and whether qualification is included. Sempull's plans start in the same range and are quoted on a 30-minute discovery call so the plan reflects your actual call volume and practice area.
How is Sempull different from Smith.ai or Answering Legal?+
Sempull is bilingual-first (every agent is native English + Spanish, not just a Spanish-line transfer) and legal-only (no HVAC or medical accounts on the same floor). Pricing is month-to-month with no setup fees and qualification scripts are written per-firm rather than selected from a template library. See the side-by-side comparison on this page.
Do legal answering services replace my in-house intake team?+
They can — but most growing firms use both. In-house staff handle business-hours calls and complex matters; Sempull handles overflow, lunch hours, evenings, weekends, holidays, and the entire Spanish-speaking caller base. Many firms move to Sempull full-time once they see the conversion lift.
How fast can my firm be live?+
Typical onboarding is 5–7 business days: script co-authoring, CRM integration setup (Clio, Lawmatics, Filevine, MyCase, etc.), and a parallel-run period before you flip call-forwarding. No phone-number porting required.
Ready to stop sending paying clients to voicemail?
Book a 30-minute discovery call. We'll map your current intake flow, find the leaks, and show you exactly how our bilingual legal answering service would plug them.