The Criminal Defense Lead Intake Checklist

A first-call intake checklist should capture the caller's full name, best callback number, specific charge, upcoming court date, and any existing attorney. This is the list worth keeping next to the phone, because a conversation with someone who's stressed and talking quickly is exactly when small details get missed.

A first call with a new lead moves fast, and it's easy to hang up realizing you never actually got their callback number, or never confirmed which case they meant. A checklist fixes this — not because anyone on staff is careless, but because it removes the need to remember. What to say when a new lead calls covers the conversation itself.

What basics are easy to assume you got?

• Full name, spelled, not just heard.
• Best callback number — not the number they're calling from, if it's different (a lot of calls come from a family member's phone).
• The specific charge or case they're calling about. "I got arrested" isn't enough to act on; get the charge type and, if they have it, the case number or the court it's in.
• Whether there's an upcoming court date. An arraignment in three days changes the urgency of everything else on this list.
• Whether they've already spoken with another attorney or been assigned a public defender. This affects what you offer next, and asking directly is better than finding out later.

Who is actually on the phone?

Not every caller is the defendant. A parent, spouse, or sibling calling on someone else's behalf is common and entirely legitimate — but it's a different intake path. You're not gathering the same firsthand details, and you'll need to get the actual defendant on the phone (or get clear consent to work through the family member) before you can meaningfully schedule a consultation. Treating a third-party caller as if they were the defendant leads to confused, half-complete intake; treating them as an obstacle loses a lead who may be the one actually making the hiring decision. Ask directly, early: "And is this regarding your own case, or are you calling for someone else?"

Which urgency indicators should you flag on the spot?

Beyond an upcoming court date, a few things should move a lead to the top of the callback list rather than the bottom: an in-custody status, a protective order with an imminent hearing, or a caller who mentions a deadline they're clearly anxious about. None of these require a legal judgment on the intake call — they just need to be flagged so the attorney sees them before anything less urgent. Calls that arrive outside business hours need the same flags, which is why after-hours intake needs its own plan.

Why ask where the lead came from?

Asking how someone heard about the firm, or in this context, confirming which referral or source the lead came from, isn't just curiosity — it's the tag that makes tracking possible later. How that tracking works, and why it matters, is covered separately, but it starts with a habit of always logging the source on the very first call, not reconstructing it after the fact.

How long should the checklist take?

A checklist that takes ten minutes to work through defeats its own purpose on a call that should move quickly. The list above fits in under two minutes for a straightforward case, and the goal isn't a full case history — it's enough information for the next stage, scheduling a consultation, to happen without a callback just to ask what was missed the first time. A consistent follow-up routine picks up from there.

See the full intake system this checklist fits into — this is stage two, not the whole process.