Most enquiries to an Australian law firm arrive by phone or web form while the solicitor who could help is in court, in a meeting or already on another call. The caller rarely waits. They ring the next firm on the list. Outsourced legal intake puts trained legal intake specialists on that first conversation, so each new enquiry is taken down properly, qualified against your criteria and booked in with the right solicitor.
Most writing on outsourced intake assumes an American firm. This post covers what’s different when the firm is in Australia: the time zones, the practice areas, family law, and what the Privacy Act expects when intake sits offshore.
What an Intake Specialist Does on an Australian Call
An intake call follows the firm’s script, not the agent’s judgement. On each new enquiry, the intake specialist:
- answers in your firm’s name;
- takes down the matter in the caller’s own words;
- records the key dates, such as an incident, a separation, a death or a deadline;
- notes the names of everyone involved, so your team can run the conflict check;
- asks your qualifying questions for that practice area;
- books the first appointment with the right solicitor, or routes the caller as your rules say.
What intake doesn’t do matters as much. It gives no legal advice, quotes no fees beyond what your firm has scripted, and makes no decision about whether you act. Those stay with your solicitors. To check whether your current intake covers all of this, run it against our legal intake scorecard.
Time Zones: Why the Philippines Suits Australian Firms
Manila keeps Perth time. It runs two hours behind Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane, and three hours behind the south-eastern states during daylight saving.
That makes the Australian arrangement different from the American one. A US firm uses the Philippines mainly for overnight cover. For an Australian firm, the business day sits almost entirely inside Manila’s working hours. Enquiries that come in after your office closes land in the Philippine afternoon or early evening, not the middle of the night, so after-hours intake runs on the same day as everything else.
In practice:
- web form enquiries can be called back during your business day, while the prospective client is still deciding;
- evening calls get the same intake as daytime calls, not just a message;
- your solicitors see new enquiries and booked appointments the same day.
The Practice Areas Australian Firms Run Intake For
The questions change by practice area, so scripts are built around the matters you take. The most common:
- Family law: separation, parenting arrangements and property. See the next section.
- Wills and estates: executors and family members calling after a death, and enquiries about contesting a will.
- Conveyancing: buyers and sellers with a contract date, a settlement date or a cooling-off question for the solicitor.
- Personal injury and workers’ compensation: the date and place of the injury, the type of claim, and whether an insurer is already involved.
- Employment: dismissals and workplace disputes where dates matter from the first call.
- Criminal: callers, often family members, needing to reach someone urgently.
Each script captures the facts your solicitors need to assess the matter, and stops there.
Family Law Intake Needs More Care
Family law enquiries are often the hardest calls a firm takes. The caller may be separating, worried about their children, or unsure whether they’re safe. Good family law intake does three things differently.
It records the dates that matter. The date of separation, and of any divorce order, go on the record from the first call, because time limits for property matters run from them. Your solicitors assess what those dates mean; intake makes sure they’re captured.
It treats safety as urgent. A caller who mentions family violence, a protection order or a child being taken is escalated straight away, under rules your firm sets in advance, not placed in the queue for a callback.
It doesn’t advise. Callers often ask what they’re entitled to or what will happen with the children. The intake specialist listens, records the question in the caller’s words and books the appointment where a solicitor can answer it.
Privacy: What APP 8 Means When Intake Is Offshore
Intake calls are full of personal information, and in family, criminal and personal injury matters it is often sensitive. Under APP 8, a firm that sends personal information offshore stays accountable for how the recipient handles it, and section 16C of the Privacy Act 1988 treats a breach by the overseas recipient as a breach by the firm itself. A provider’s privacy policy doesn’t discharge that; the contract does. Ask any intake provider to show you how its contract deals with it.
At Magellan, every employee signs a confidentiality agreement, enforceable under Philippine law, before assignment, and access to your information is limited to the team working your account. Magellan holds ISO 27001, PCI-DSS and GDPR compliance (see our certifications).
Answering or Full Intake?
Not every firm needs full intake. If most of your callers only need to reach a person and leave an accurate message, an answering service is the lighter option. Our post on live answering services for law firms across Asia-Pacific covers that model, and our legal answering service sets out what it includes.
If you want every new enquiry qualified and booked in with a solicitor, see how our legal intake call center runs it, or talk to us about intake for your firm. We’ll start with when your enquiries arrive and how many reach a solicitor today.
