Multilingual phone reception for law offices

When the caller does not speak Greek

Both lawyers are listed this morning. One is on their feet. The phone rings and the caller opens in English.

The person at the desk can take a Greek file number. They cannot take a new employment matter in a language they do not speak. The associate who can is in court. The secretary may be at the courthouse with a file. Nobody who can finish this call is sitting at the desk.

The caller hears a pause and a request to wait. A person who was just served, or just dismissed, does not wait. They hang up and dial the next name on the bar list. You never learn they called.

This is ordinary in Athens and Thessaloniki. A dismissed employee whose contract was in English, a parent abroad in a family matter, a director who lives in London and was served at a Greek address, a relative ringing because someone is being held at a station in Piraeus — these arrive in the same week as the Greek file work. German, Albanian and Russian turn up as well. Greek courts sit in the morning. Those callers arrive in that window, when both lawyers are on the list.

August is quieter in court and quieter in the building. A tourist held at a station, a foreign buyer served at a property, an expat whose spouse left with the children — those calls still come, and the principal is often away. The assistant answers then the same way it answers in March.

The assistant answers the number on the letterhead, in the language it hears — 70+ languages. Then it does something with the result: books a first meeting, attaches a note to a file number, sends the SMS, or writes down what was said and puts it in front of a lawyer.

What goes wrong on this line

Three things go wrong here, and they are specific to a law-office number.

The first is the hold. The desk hunts for the person who speaks English. The third caller still hears a busy tone. The new matter is already gone. An existing client with a file number will often wait. The person who has not yet instructed you will not.

The second is the explanation. Someone stays on the line. They cannot read the papers in their hand. They ask what the document is. A person at the office, trying to be useful, starts to translate. They say this part wants a hearing. They say this is only a first letter. They say you probably have time. Each of those sentences is easier to say when the caller is grateful and does not speak Greek. Each of them is legal advice.

Recording that they were served this morning, that they want a first meeting about a dismissal, that the letter is in Greek — that is reception. Telling them what the paper means, whether to sign, or whether a judge will grant the application is not. The assistant does not do that. A person at the desk must not do it either, in any language.

The third is the file number. In Greek, the desk might recognise a voice. In a language the desk does not speak, that recognition is gone. If the assistant skips the file-number step because the call is hard, it will attach a note to the wrong matter, or discuss a file with someone who should only have been allowed to leave a message. A name alone is not a file. The other side uses the same number. An English answer that confirms a file exists is still a confirmation.

Two quieter errors follow. The SMS goes out in Greek because that is the office default. The English-speaking new matter misses the first meeting and decides the firm cannot handle them. And the assistant recasts the story. Civil, family, criminal and employment are areas the caller may name. They are not labels the assistant assigns after hearing a story in a second language. If the caller says labour problem, the note says labour problem. If they say my husband took the children, the note says that.

The papers they cannot read

The caller has a Greek document. They do not read Greek well. They ask the assistant to look at it, or to tell them what it says, or whether they have to go to court. An assistant that summarises the paper has given a legal characterisation — service, claim, order, invitation — which is what the first meeting is for.

The line it is given is short. I cannot interpret the document on this call. A lawyer has to read what you were given. Please bring the papers. I can book a first meeting, or put you through if this is urgent.

It records that the caller has a document. It does not sight-translate. It does not say what the document is called in English. That naming is already a characterisation.

What to bring belongs on this call. Identity, the papers they were given, any letter with a date on it. The first meeting then starts with the papers on the table, not with a second appointment to fetch them.

Detention, a station, papers today

A tourist or a foreign seafarer held at a station in Piraeus or Athens often calls in English, German, or another language the duty lawyer does not speak well. Relatives ring in the evening. Foreign directors ring from another time zone. A Saturday call about detention is the same job at 22:00.

Write a short urgent list: someone is at a police station or being held; papers were served today; there is a hearing today or tomorrow; a child has not been returned; a limitation date is being named in the next few days. The escalation goes to a phone, not to an email that will be read after the last conference. The assistant keeps collecting a name and a number while it connects.

It answers in the caller’s language — 70+ languages — and puts the call through. Speaking the language does not mean it may tell them what to say to the officer. Tell them not to sign is advice. I am putting you through now is reception. If nobody can take the transfer, the honest sentence is that a lawyer will call back. It is not a set of instructions, and it is not a consultation in English at 22:00.

What stays the same in every language

New matter or existing file, first. The language does not change the split.

A new matter is a first meeting. The assistant collects a name, a number, the area the caller named, a short description in their words, and whether anyone else at the firm has already spoken to them. It offers a first-meeting time that is free in the diary, or takes a callback. It tells them that first-meeting fees are determined at the meeting, and what to bring.

On an existing file it starts with the file number. No file number, no lookup. A German-speaking director who says file 2024-118, I need to move Thursday gets a diary change. The same director who says file 2024-118, what does the other side’s letter mean gets a callback, not a paraphrase. If they cannot find the number, it takes enough for a person to match it and promises a callback, not a diagnosis.

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. It books a first meeting or takes a callback. It does not choose a remedy.

Callers ask for a figure in every language. Give it the line in the greeting: first-meeting fees are determined at the meeting. If they will not book without a number, that is a callback, not a negotiation on the line. Do not ask it to tell them in English what you usually tell Greek clients about fees. If that usual answer is a number, it should not be on this line either.

A caller who names a date on a Greek paper they cannot read is asking you to calculate a limitation period. The assistant does not calculate dates. It flags the call and transfers or books the earliest first meeting the diary actually has. It does not say you still have a few weeks. It does not say you are probably too late.

The opposing party, a process server, and a journalist use the number on the letterhead. They also use English. The assistant takes a message without confirming that a file exists. A conflict check is a lawyer’s job. It will not contact the other side.

The meeting language is not the call language

Reception in 70+ languages is not interpretation of evidence, not interpretation at a hearing, and not a substitute for the interpreter you would book for a conference. It gets the caller to a first meeting, in a language they can book in. The meeting is still the lawyer’s.

Which lawyers can take a meeting in which languages is configuration. If only one person can run an English first meeting, the diary it offers has to be that person’s diary. If nobody can, the assistant books a time and notes the request. It does not promise. It does not speak as if the meeting will be in English when nobody in the room can take it that way.

Do not ask it to choose a lawyer based on an accent. Matching language ability you actually have is a fact you wrote down. Guessing from the way someone speaks is how a family matter lands in the wrong room.

Employment and family callers mix. They start in English, drop a file number in Greek, then go back. The assistant can switch mid-call. The file-number question and the two refusals stay in force in both languages. A mixed call is not a reason to drop the file number or to start explaining the papers.

The material you give it stays in the language you wrote. Areas you take, sitting days, what to bring, the fee sentence, the urgent list — write those in the words you actually say on the phone. The assistant does not invent a translation of we do not take criminal work this month.

The rule the assistant must obey

Same rules as the Greek call, spoken in the language it heard.

• New matter or existing file, first.
• File number before any lookup or change.
• No legal advice, including no explanation of what a document means.
• First-meeting fees are determined at the meeting — say it before they ask, because they will ask in every language.
• Urgent (station, papers today, hearing today) is a transfer, not a longer explanation.
• Civil, family, criminal, employment: recorded as the caller named them, not recast.
• SMS in the language of the conversation.
• It checks the diary before it offers a time, and never offers a time that collides with a hearing.

What you add for language is only this: detection from the first sentence, a clean mid-call switch when the caller mixes, a note of the language on the transcript so the lawyer walks into the meeting prepared, and a flag if the caller asked for the meeting itself to be in a language other than Greek.

Answering in the caller’s language does not let it advise them. If the meeting needs an interpreter, a person books one. The assistant can record that the caller asked.

Every line is answered at once. A burst of callers is a burst of conversations, not a queue of busy tones while a hearing runs on and the one English speaker is in court. Your number stays yours. You add a forwarding rule at the provider. If someone at the desk picks up, the call stays there. See pricing for how answered-by-you versus answered-by-the-assistant is treated.

What these calls sound like

On a call like the one above, the assistant will not say what the letter means. It will not quote a first-meeting fee. It will not promise that the meeting itself will be in English unless you have configured a lawyer who can take it. It books the first meeting, notes the language, texts the confirmation in English, and tells them to bring the papers.

File 2024-118, move Thursday is a diary change. File 2024-118, what does this letter mean is a callback.

Turn on SMS reminders first, in the language of the conversation. Then listen to the first fifty transcripts that were not in Greek. You are listening for the moment it almost explained a paper, almost quoted a fee, almost confirmed a file to someone who did not have the number, or almost promised a meeting language the diary cannot staff. Those failures show up in the first week if you read the record.

What you configure first

1. Do not pin the line to Greek. Detection is the default. Turning it off to keep things simple is how the employment call at 09:40 never reaches a lawyer.
2. The two refusals in the form you actually want said — no advice, fees determined at the meeting — so they are available in whatever language arrived.
3. The file-number step, mandatory, including when the caller is struggling.
4. What to bring, so a first meeting with a caller who does not speak Greek starts with the papers on the table.
5. Which lawyers can take a meeting in which languages. If only one person can run an English first meeting, the diary it offers has to be that person’s diary. If nobody can, the assistant books a time and notes the request. It does not promise.
6. The urgent-transfer list, short, to a phone. Detention, papers today, hearing today.
7. Which times are first meetings and which are already reserved for hearings, filings and conferences that must not be offered out.
8. SMS language = conversation language. Test it. Do not assume it.
9. The names that must not be confirmed. It only treats a file as real when the caller can give the number.
10. Areas you actually take, in the words callers use — civil, family, criminal, employment, and the ones you turn away.

Write those down the way you would brief a new receptionist on their first sitting Monday, including the languages that actually arrive. The assistant keeps the order when both lawyers are on the list and nobody who speaks the caller’s language is at the desk.