Book first meetings and file appointments
Quick summary
- On an existing file the assistant asks for the file number first. No number, no change to the diary.
- A first meeting and a file appointment have different lengths and go to different lawyers.
- It checks the diary before it offers a time, so a hearing already listed is never offered.
- First-meeting fees are determined at the meeting. The booking does not include a price.
- If the diary cannot be reached, it takes a callback. It does not guess that a time is free.
- Strategy calls and anything already listed stay a callback. The assistant takes the request.
TL;DR
Both lawyers are listed this morning. A client rings to move Thursday on file 2024-118. The assistant asks for the file number first, reads it back, finds that appointment, and offers a time that is actually free. It moves the meeting as one change and texts the confirmation. A new matter is a first meeting, booked with the lawyer who takes that area, not dropped into a gap reserved for a signature. A hearing already on the list is not offered. First-meeting fees are determined at the meeting. If someone is at a station, or was served today, the assistant puts them through to a lawyer. That call is not a search for the next free first meeting.
Key takeaways
- Give the assistant the appointment types and their real durations before it books anything — first meeting, file appointment, signing, conference.
- Block hearing days and filing mornings so they cannot be offered as client time.
- Test a reschedule on an existing file, with a file number, before you test a new matter.
- Turn on the SMS confirmation immediately and the reminder within the first week.
- Decide what happens when the diary cannot be reached, and make sure the answer is a callback.
- Check the first fifty bookings by hand. That is when you find the lawyer who sits only on Tuesdays.
Someone wants Thursday moved
The phone rings while both lawyers are listed. The secretary is at the courthouse with a file. The caller says they are a client and they need Thursday moved. They give a surname. They do not give a file number.
Two files can share a surname. A first meeting is not a file appointment. A hearing already on the court list is not a free hour. If the assistant starts from the name and the next free time, it will move the wrong matter, or offer 10:00 on a morning the lawyer is on their feet, or invent a first-meeting fee to close the call.
You configure it so the existing-file path starts with the file number. No number, no change. The assistant takes enough to let a person match the file — name, the other side if offered, approximate year — and promises a callback. It does not pick the first Anna Christou in the system.
A new matter is a different call. There is no file number yet. The assistant collects the area the caller named, in their words, and books a first meeting with the lawyer who actually takes that work. It tells them that first-meeting fees are determined at the meeting, and what to bring. It does not drop a new matter into a thirty-minute gap reserved for a signature.
Two files can share a surname
A person who arrives at 17:30 for a first meeting nobody has, holding the papers they were told to bring, will not book a second time.
Offering a client the hour a lawyer is listed means someone then has to leave the hearing or leave the client. The assistant cannot see the court list unless you put the list in the same diary it reads.
“It’s € something, I think” said to win the time is a fee the firm then owns, whether anyone meant it or not. The sentence reception already uses is the one to give the assistant: first-meeting fees are determined at the meeting. If that sentence loses the booking, take a callback.
An existing client who asks to “move Thursday” without a file number is not a reschedule yet. The assistant that picks the first match has moved the other Anna Christou.
File number first, then the diary
On any call that claims to be an existing client, the assistant starts with the file number. It reads the number back. Then it either moves an appointment, cancels one, records a document that has arrived, or flags a request for the lawyer who owns the file.
It does not narrate the case back to the caller. It does not confirm facts the caller did not just give. “I have you on Thursday at 14:00 for a file appointment” is reception. “Yes, that’s the employment matter against X, and the next step is…” is advice, and it stays off the line.
If the caller cannot find the file number, the assistant does not guess. It takes a name, the other side if offered, an approximate year, and a callback number, and a person matches it. A name alone is not a file.
The move itself is one change, in that order: take the file number, find the existing appointment, release it, place the new one. Reversed, or split into two independent operations, the client’s own booking blocks the hour they are trying to move into — and the assistant, being literal, tells them the time is taken.
Same person, same file, two different jobs. “I’m an existing client, file 2024-118, I need to move Thursday” is a diary change. “I’m an existing client, what should I do about the letter?” is a request for advice. Only the first one is finished on the phone.
A first meeting is not a file appointment
A first meeting, a file appointment, a signing and a conference are not interchangeable hours. The assistant has to know which is which before it is allowed to place anything. A new matter squeezed into a gap reserved for a signature will start late and finish unfinished.
Two lawyers are not one resource. A booking has to land against a person as well as a time, or the office discovers on the morning that both principals are supposed to be in the same room, or that the employment matter has been given to the person who does not take employment. Civil, family, criminal and employment are facts that decide who owns the hour. They are not a menu of advice the assistant offers while it books.
“Do you take family matters?” is a fact about the office. The assistant can answer it from the material you supplied. “Should I file for divorce?” is advice. The assistant books a first meeting or takes a callback. It does not choose a remedy.
A strategy conversation on an existing file is not a first meeting and it is not a file appointment. Most offices keep it as a callback at the start. The assistant takes the request against the file number and hands it over. It does not invent an hour for it unless you have explicitly allowed that type.
A turned-away area is a polite close and, if you want, a referral name. It does not become a first meeting you will later cancel.
A hearing is not free time
Greek courts sit in the morning. A Tuesday with three hearings is not a diary of open hours with a few marks on it. The marks are the morning. If a hearing is in the calendar as a coloured block the assistant cannot read, it will offer 10:00 on a morning the lawyer is on their feet.
Mark the list in the same diary the assistant reads. Filing mornings belong there too. If the list lives on paper at the courthouse, the assistant cannot respect it. It will book the next free time against a morning that was never free.
The assistant checks the diary before it offers a time. It never offers a time that collides with a hearing you marked. If the diary cannot be reached, it says so and takes a callback. It does not tell the caller the meeting is probably booked.
Sitting days belong in the material you give it, in the words you actually say on the phone. The assistant does not invent a translation of “we do not take first meetings on Wednesday mornings”.
First-meeting fees stay off the booking
Callers ask for a figure before they will take a time. Put the fee sentence in the first-meeting path, not only in a note: first-meeting fees are determined at the meeting; the assistant can book the time and send the SMS; a lawyer will explain the basis once they have heard the facts. Say it before the caller has to ask. If the assistant waits, it will fill the pause with a number.
If the caller will not book without a figure, that is a callback, not a negotiation on the line. Retainers, success estimates, and “roughly what would this cost if we went to court” belong in the meeting. A number said to win the booking is a number the firm now owns.
What to bring is part of the booking
A first meeting that starts with “I left the papers in the car / I thought you had them” is a first meeting that will be booked again. The assistant should say what to bring at the moment it confirms the time, and the SMS should repeat it.
The list is short. Identity. The papers they were served with, if any. Any letter with a date on it. A file number, if they already have one and this is somehow still a first meeting with a second lawyer. Not a list of remedies. Not a request that they write out “their side of the story” as if that were a pleading.
For an existing-file appointment the list is different. The file number is already the key. What to bring is whatever the lawyer asked for on the last call — a signed power of attorney, a document from the other side, a passport. If the assistant does not know, it should not invent a homework list. Confirm the time, confirm the file number, and stop.
A criminal first meeting may need the charge sheet. A family first meeting may need the children’s papers. Put those on the type if they are real. A caller who is asked for six documents they do not have will cancel.
Detention and papers served today are not a booking
A caller at a police station, a caller who was served this morning, a caller with a hearing this afternoon — that is a transfer, not a search for the next free first-meeting time next Wednesday. Give the assistant a short list of phrases that stop the intake and reach a lawyer’s phone at once. It collects a name and a number while it is connecting. It does not advise the caller what to say or sign, and it does not put them in a first meeting as if that were the urgent step.
If the only same-day capacity is a callback from a lawyer, say that. Do not invent a 17:00 that does not exist.
A caller who names a date and says they were served, or that a deadline is next week, is asking you to calculate a limitation period. The assistant does not calculate dates. It flags the call and either transfers or books the earliest first meeting the diary actually has.
If they already have a file number, the note goes on that file. If they do not, it is a new-matter first meeting, and the papers in their hand go on what to bring.
The opposing party uses the same number. The assistant asks for a file number. If the caller cannot give it and is not clearly the client, it takes a message. It does not offer them a first meeting on the other party’s file, and it does not book two sides of the same matter into adjacent hours because both times were free. A conflict check is a lawyer’s job.
When the diary cannot be reached
Anything the diary cannot confirm becomes a callback. The assistant says so. It takes a name, a number, the file number if there is one, and the time the caller wanted. It does not say the meeting is booked.
A first meeting the office has no record of is worse than no meeting. The person turns up with the papers. Nobody is free. The hour was never reserved.
The same rule applies in the evening, at the weekend, and in August. The assistant can still take the request. It cannot invent a confirmation. See pricing for how answered-by-you versus answered-by-the-assistant is treated.
Every line is answered at once, so a burst of first-meeting requests during a hearing is a burst of conversations, not a queue of busy tones and three people who then ring the next name on the bar list. The diary still has to say the time is free.
What the reminder is for
Turn on the SMS at the moment of booking, and the reminder a day or two ahead, in the language of the conversation. A first meeting that does not attend is an hour a lawyer cannot sell twice. A file appointment that does not attend is usually recoverable. Do not treat them as the same reminder problem.
Do not put advice, a fee, or a case update in the reminder. The text says the time, the office, what to bring — identity, the papers they were given, any letter with a date on it — and how to change the appointment.
If a caller replies to the SMS with a legal question, that reply is a callback for a lawyer, not a second conversation for the assistant. Configure the path so those land on a person.
Let people cancel through it, especially on first meetings. A cancellation the office hears about the day before is an hour that can be refilled. On an existing file the assistant still asks for the file number first, then writes the cancellation back to the diary the same way it writes a booking.
What you configure first
- Appointment types and real durations. First meeting, file appointment, signing, conference — and anything you do not want booked at all. This is the part offices leave until later and then regret.
- Which lawyer takes which call reasons. Civil, family, criminal, employment, and the ones you turn away. A turned-away area is a polite close, not a first meeting you will cancel on Thursday.
- Hearing and filing blocks in the same diary the assistant reads. If the list lives on paper, the assistant cannot respect it.
- The file-number step as mandatory on any change or cancellation that claims to be an existing client. No number, no change.
- The fee sentence, verbatim, in the first-meeting path: determined at the meeting.
- What to bring, so the lawyer starts the first meeting with papers on the table rather than with a second appointment.
- The unreachable-diary behaviour: take a callback, never a hopeful yes.
- The urgent-transfer list, short, to a phone. Detention, service this morning, hearing today: not a first-meeting search.
Write those down the way you would brief a new receptionist on their first sitting Monday. The assistant keeps the order when both lawyers are on the list and nobody is at the desk.
The first fifty bookings
Look at the first fifty by hand — the diary entry, the type, the lawyer, the duration, whether a hearing was already in that hour, whether a file number was taken on changes. You are looking for the lawyer who sits only on Tuesdays, the first meeting that needs ninety minutes rather than forty-five, the employment matter that landed on the civil diary because nobody said otherwise.
Listen, in those fifty, for the fee. If the assistant has named a number, that is a configuration failure, not a successful booking.
Listen for the file number. If an existing-file change went through on a surname alone, that is the same class of failure as a fee. Read the transcript. The SMS will not show a missing file number.
After that, spot-check weekly for a month. Keep strategy calls and anything already in court as callbacks until you have a reason not to. The assistant still takes those requests against the file number and hands over a complete note.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checks the diary before offering | Yes, the same diary the lawyers use | Yes | Usually not — takes a message |
| Books outside sitting hours | Yes | No | Sometimes |
| Treats a hearing as blocked | If you marked it | Yes | Rarely sees the list |
| Starts an existing-file change with the file number | Yes — no number, no change | Yes | A name, usually |
| Quotes a first-meeting fee | Never — determined at the meeting | Per the firm's rule | Often guesses from a script |
| Sends the confirmation | Automatically, by SMS | If they remember | Sometimes |
What a month of unattended first meetings costs
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two lawyers, about 36 first meetings a month.
- An unattended first meeting is not recovered the same day.
- A no-show rate of 12% — put your own figure here; offices vary.
- Opening-matter value of a first meeting that would have converted, €350. Use your own figure.
- SMS reminders reduce no-shows by a third. This is the assumption to challenge first — it varies with how far ahead the reminder goes out.
- 36 first meetings × 12% = about 4 unattended meetings a month.
- 4 × €350 = €1,400 of opening-matter value sitting empty.
- A third avoided returns about €470 a month.
- Over 11 working months — 11 × €470.
Roughly €5,200 a year, from a text on the first-meeting diary.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Can it book someone over a hearing?
It reads the same diary the lawyers work from and checks the time before offering it, so a hearing you marked is never offered. If the diary cannot be reached at that moment it does not guess. It takes the request as a callback and says so. A first meeting the office has no record of is worse than no meeting, because the person turns up believing in it.
What if someone wants to move an existing file appointment?
The assistant asks for the file number first. No number, no change. It reads the number back, finds that appointment, and treats the move as one change. If it cancels and then tries to book, the client's own appointment is still holding the hour, and they are told their preferred time is unavailable — by a system looking at their own booking.
Will it say what the first meeting costs?
No. First-meeting fees are determined at the meeting. The assistant can book the time, say what to bring, and send the SMS. If the caller will not book without a figure, that is a callback, not a negotiation on the line. A number said to win the booking is a number the firm now owns.
Should it book a strategy call on an existing file?
That is your decision, and most offices say no at the start. A strategy conversation usually needs a judgement about how much time and which lawyer. The assistant takes the request against the file number and hands it over. It does not invent an hour for it.
Who sends the confirmation?
The assistant, by SMS, in the language of the conversation, at the moment of booking. The reminder goes out ahead of the meeting on the schedule you set. Neither requires anyone at the desk to type a number.
Can clients cancel through it too?
Yes, and you should let them, especially on first meetings. A cancellation the office hears about the day before is an hour that can be refilled. The same cancellation arriving as a no-show is billed time gone. On an existing file the assistant still asks for the file number first, then writes the cancellation back to the diary.
