Outbound hearing reminders for law offices
Quick summary
- Outbound on this line is a hearing reminder, a first-meeting confirmation, or a document chase — not a second look at the file.
- Every call opens with the office name, the client's name, and the file number. If the person on the line does not recognise them, the call ends.
- The assistant does not ring the other side. Opposing parties, uncleared witnesses, and opposing counsel stay off the list.
- If the client asks what they should do, the assistant writes the question down and stops. A reminder that answers that question has become advice.
- It checks the diary before it speaks a hearing time. Last Friday's export is not Monday's list.
- SMS does the first reminder. Voice is for the paper that still has not arrived and the meeting nobody confirmed.
TL;DR
Tomorrow is on the court list. The signed power is still not in. Both lawyers are listed this morning, and the secretary is at the courthouse with the files. Nobody at the desk can ring the client. The assistant works a list you built — file number, name, number, one purpose — and stops the moment the person on the line asks what they should do. It reminds a client of a sitting, confirms a first meeting, or asks whether a named document has been sent. It does not counsel, quote a first-meeting fee, or dial the other side.
Key takeaways
- Build each list from your own files: file number, client name, number, one purpose, and the lawyer who owns the callback.
- Leave opposing parties, uncleared witnesses, and the other side's counsel off every list.
- Write the purpose as a reminder or a chase, not as a question about the merits.
- If the client asks what they should do, the assistant ends the call and flags a lawyer.
- Check the diary before speaking a hearing time or offering a first-meeting time.
- Keep first-meeting fees off the outbound script. They are determined at the meeting.
Why nobody can make the chase on a sitting morning
Tomorrow is on the court list. The signed power of attorney on file 2024-118 is still not in. Both lawyers are listed this morning. One is on their feet. The other is behind a closed door with a client who is already paying for that hour. The secretary went to the courthouse with the morning files. The client still needs to be told that the document is missing, that the hearing is at nine, or that tomorrow’s first meeting is still on. Nobody at the desk can make those calls.
Greek courts sit in the morning. On a Tuesday with three hearings, nobody works a chase list in the afternoon either. The secretary is still at court, or catching the inbound that piled up. The reminder that goes out after the sitting is a reminder of something that has already happened. The document chase that waits until Friday, when the hearing is Monday, arrives too late to change the file.
You already know who to ring. The client is on the file. The number is on the file. The purpose is already open: a sitting that is in the diary, a first meeting that was booked, a paper the office has already asked for. What the office does not have, on a sitting morning, is a person free to work that list.
The assistant works the list you give it. It does not find work. It does not invent people to ring. It closes loops the office has already opened.
Hearing, first meeting, or a named document
Three purposes belong on a list.
A hearing reminder says the time, the place, what to bring, and how to say if they cannot attend. It does not preview the list. It does not say it should be fine. It does not guess how long they will be there. If they cannot attend, that is a problem for the lawyer who owns the file, not a negotiation about whether the hearing matters. What to bring comes from what you wrote down — identity, the papers they were served with, any letter with a date on it — not from a guess about the file.
A first-meeting confirmation is a reminder the day before, a second call if they missed, and a new time only if the diary actually has one. First-meeting fees are determined at the meeting. The outbound script does not improve on that sentence to get them to attend. If they will not come without a figure, that is a callback, not a bargain on the line.
A document chase names the document and the file, asks whether it has been sent, and offers to note a problem. The signed power, identity papers, the documents they were served with, a signed engagement. Not a discussion of what the document does. Not pressure to sign. “We still need the signed power on file 2024-118” is reception. “You should sign it so we can act” is advice.
Everything else is a lawyer’s call. Settlement feelers. Whether they are still instructing you. Witness availability. The other side. Experts. The court clerk. Those are not a list you hand to an assistant.
Civil, family, criminal and employment can sit as labels on the row, so the right lawyer owns the callback when one is needed. They are not subjects for the assistant to discuss. A family-file document chase does not become a conversation about the children. A criminal-file hearing reminder does not become a conversation about what to say in court.
One purpose per call, and one file number. The same client can have two files. The assistant does not use a hearing reminder on 2024-118 as a chance to mention the other matter. If both files need a call, that is two rows.
File number first, or the call ends
The assistant names the office, the client’s name, and the file number, and it stops if the person on the line does not recognise them. That is how you avoid briefing a relative, a colleague, or a wrong number that happens to answer.
A name alone is not a file. The opposing party, a process server, and a relative who is not the client already use the inbound number. The same people can sit in an export if someone copied the wrong column. Opening with the file number is how you know who you are talking to. If they do not have it, and they are not clearly the client, the assistant ends the outbound and writes down what happened. It does not explain the file in order to prove the call was legitimate.
Do not put a second number on the row “just in case” unless that second number is also the client’s and you have said so. A spouse on a file that is not a joint instruction is not a fallback. A company director’s personal mobile is not a fallback if the client is the company and nobody told you to use that mobile.
The place and the time come from the diary and from what you entered. The assistant does not invent a courtroom or a sitting that is not on the row.
The other side is not on this list
The opposing party, their counsel, a witness you have not cleared, a journalist, a number that came off a pleading rather than off your own engagement — those are a human decision on a human phone, with a file note made on purpose. They do not belong on an outbound list. A voice that discusses a file with the opponent has spoken about the file to the other side.
The assistant will not contact the other side even if a number has found its way onto the export. You still should not put that number on the list. Outbound on this line is your clients and your own diary.
A conflict check is a lawyer’s job. The assistant does not search the case-management system and announce a match. It works the row you ticked. If the person who answers is not the client named on that row, the call ends.
If they ask what they should do
Clients ask. They ask on the outbound because that is when they finally have the office on the phone. “Should I sign the second page?” “What will the hearing be like?” “What should I say if the judge asks?”
An assistant that answers has given advice with no lawyer, no time entry, and no instruction to give it. An assistant that writes the question down, in the client’s words, and ends the purpose has done the job.
The same stop covers cost. What the matter would cost if they went to court is not a reception question. A first-meeting fee said on a chase is a number nobody meant to publish. Determined at the meeting. If they will not attend without a figure, flag a lawyer. Do not close the reminder by inventing one.
If, during a document chase, the client says they have been served with something new, or that someone is at a station, the outbound purpose ends. The call is treated as urgent: transfer, name, number. The assistant does not finish the chase first, and it does not tell them what to do with the new papers.
If they name a date and say they were served, or that a deadline is next week, they are asking you to calculate a limitation period. The assistant does not calculate dates. It flags the call and hands it to the lawyer who owns the file.
When the diary has moved
Hearings move. First meetings move. Friday’s export still says Thursday at 09:00. The diary now says Friday. An outbound that reads the export sends the client to the wrong morning. The office then looks as if it cannot run a file.
The assistant has to check the diary before it speaks a time, the same way it does when it books a first meeting inbound. If the diary cannot be reached at that moment, it does not guess. It takes a callback and says so. A hearing time the office has no record of is worse than no call.
Do not send a text and place a voice call in the same minute with two different times. The diary is the source. If you would not let the inbound assistant offer a time the diary cannot see, do not let the outbound assistant confirm one.
A family file, a criminal number, a company mobile
Some files should not be on a list at all. A client who has gone quiet on fees. A client who has fallen out with the lawyer. A family file where a relative might pick up. A criminal file where the number on record may not be private. Those require a judgement about whether to call, made before the batch, not on the call.
A company director’s personal mobile stays off if the client is the company and you have not been told to use that mobile. A spouse stays off on a file that is not a joint instruction.
Advocacy stays off. Offers. Threats. “We will see you on Thursday if we do not hear.” Timelines calculated from a limitation date. Those sentences belong to a lawyer, in a recorded, intentional call.
A transcript of what was not said
Keep the purpose narrow enough that the call does not wander into the merits. If it starts to, stop. Do not turn the recorder off because the file is sensitive. That is when you want a record of what was not said. If the file is too sensitive to ring at all, it does not belong on the list.
A hearing reminder that only confirms time and place is not advice. A document chase that only asks whether the power has been sent is not advice. The transcript of the refused signing question is useful. The lawyer who owns the callback sees what was asked, in the client’s words, not “they rang”.
SMS first, then the voice call
SMS should do the first reminder. It is cheaper, it is quieter, and it does not open a conversation. Outbound voice is for the second attempt, for the document that has still not arrived, and for the first meeting that SMS did not confirm. A first meeting that does not attend is an hour a lawyer cannot sell twice. The text is the cheapest way to find that out the day before. A foreign buyer who booked in English gets the reminder in English. Speaking the language does not mean the assistant may tell them what the meeting will decide.
What these calls sound like
The exchange in the panel above is the shape. The assistant names the office, the client and the file number, states that this is a document reminder only, and refuses the signing question. It records the question for a lawyer. It does not look at the second page to be helpful.
A hearing reminder is shorter. Identity, file number, time, place, what to bring, a path if they cannot attend. A first-meeting confirmation offers only times the diary currently has. It does not discount, does not quote, and does not explain what will happen in the meeting beyond what to bring.
If nobody answers, the assistant leaves the message you configured — office, file number, purpose, a number back — or it sends the SMS and stops. It does not leave a second, more detailed message that starts to describe the file.
What you configure first
- The list shape. File number, client name, number, purpose, lawyer who owns the callback. No second number unless that second number is also the client’s and you have said so.
- The exclusion rule. Opposing parties, counsel for the opponent, uncleared witnesses, journalists, and any number that came off a pleading rather than off your own engagement — not on the list.
- The three purposes, written as scripts that cannot drift into the merits.
- A diary check on any call that will speak a time.
- The stop-and-flag when the client asks what they should do, how to sign, what the hearing will be like, or what it will cost.
- The fee sentence, present even on outbound first-meeting reminders, so a pause is not filled with a number.
- What to bring, so a hearing reminder and a first-meeting confirmation can finish without guessing at the file.
Then run a short list. Ten hearing reminders. Ten document chases. Five first-meeting confirmations. Read every transcript before you add volume. You are reading for the extra sentence — the one that was not on the purpose line.
See pricing for how calls are charged.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hearing and first-meeting reminders | Yes, from your list | When someone has time | If you write a script |
| Document chase on an existing file | Yes — request only | Yes | Sometimes |
| Opens with file number and client name | Yes | Yes | If you insist |
| Dials the opposing party | No | Only on instruction | A risk if the list is dirty |
| Answers "what should I do?" | No — flags a lawyer | The lawyer does | Must not; sometimes does |
| Quotes a first-meeting fee on the chase | Never — determined at the meeting | Per the firm's rule | Often from a leftover script |
| Checks the diary before speaking a hearing time | Yes | If they look | Rarely sees the list |
What unchased documents cost one listed week
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two lawyers, 9 hearings in a week, each file waiting on at least one client document.
- This example treats 4 of those 9 as still missing the document two days before the list.
- A hearing that goes short, or is adjourned for paper, wastes about €280 of reserved time — replace this with your own figure before you trust the answer.
- A two-day outbound chase recovers half of those missing documents. Challenge this first; offices vary.
- 4 files still open on paper, two days out.
- Half recovered — 2 hearings that run on the papers they needed.
- 2 × €280 = €560 of reserved time protected, in one week.
- Hearing-heavy weeks, over 40 weeks — 40 × €560.
About €22,400 a year of listed time, from calls that only ask whether the document has been sent.
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 call the other side if I put the number on the list?
You should not put that number on the list, and the assistant is not a way around that judgement. Outbound here is your clients and your own diary. Opposing parties, uncleared witnesses and the other side's counsel are a human decision on a human phone, with a file note made on purpose. A dirty list is how a polite voice discusses a file with the opponent.
What if the client starts asking for advice on the reminder call?
The assistant does not answer. It says a lawyer will call back, takes the question in the client's words, and ends the outbound purpose. A reminder that becomes advice has no lawyer attached and no time recorded. The transcript still helps — the lawyer returns a real question rather than "they rang".
Can it offer a new first-meeting time if the client missed the last one?
Yes, if you allow that purpose and if it checks the diary before it offers a time. It still does not quote a first-meeting fee. Fees are determined at the meeting. A reactivation that starts bargaining has stopped being a reminder.
Does it need the file number on an outbound?
Yes. The call opens with the office name, the client's name, and the file number, and it stops if the person on the line does not recognise them. That is how you avoid briefing a relative, a colleague, or a wrong number that happens to answer.
Can it chase a signed power of attorney?
As a document chase, yes: do you have it, can you send it, here is how. Not as a lecture on what the power does, and not as pressure to sign. "We still need the signed power on file 2024-118" is reception. "You should sign it so we can act" is advice.
Who decides the list?
The office. The assistant does not invent people to ring. You export or tick the files that need a reminder or a chase, with one purpose each. A list that mixes "remind hearing" with "see if they want to settle" is two jobs, and only the first one belongs here.
