Client intake software for law firms

For business, estate planning, family and personal injury law firms

Know the case before the first call

When a client books, they get a link to short questions — most answers take one tap. Before your call, you read the brief: the issue to raise first, questions to ask, and documents to request, with a one-page call sheet to print for the call itself. You see only their names, email and the topic until you clear your conflict check. Decline, and their answers are deleted unread.

First three briefs free. No card. Nothing is billed until you tell us you’re keeping it.

Read a sample brief Request your link

Not sure where your intake leaks? Take the free 8-question intake check

Conflict check: names clearedMade-up example

Booked for: Retailer contract review

What the brief caught: an ownership question worth checking before the retailer contract is signed.

Who owns the recipe needs checking

“Our recipes were developed with a contract manufacturer in Ohio, and I’m not sure who owns them.”

Ask on the call · Documents to ask for · Possible work to discuss

Ask on the call

Did they develop the recipe before working with the manufacturer, or together?
What do the signed terms say about ownership, permitted use, confidentiality and rights after the relationship ends?
Can the manufacturer make the same product for anyone else, and what happens if the relationship ends?

Documents to ask for

The manufacturing, co-packing or supply agreement, and any NDA with the manufacturer.

Possible work to discuss

Review the development history and signed terms, then clarify ownership or licensing if the documents leave a gap.

Inspect the full fictional brief See three more examples

Sample briefs by practice — every client made up:Business Estate planning Family Personal injury

How it works

Keep your process and add one link

Send the link Add it to your booking confirmation. The questions take clients about 15 minutes, and most answers take one tap.
Run your conflict check first You see their names, email and the topic — never their answers — until you clear them. Decline, and their answers are deleted unread.
Read the brief before the call Save a PDF for your matter file if you need it.

No confirmation email yet? Start from our consultation email template.

Setup details · Common questions

What changes on the first call

With and without a brief

You start with context

Without a briefYou start with the backstory The first minutes go to names, goals and basic facts.

With TellbriefYou start with context Their goal, key answers and questions, before the call.

Names first, answers second

Without a briefYou hear details before checking names Early conversations with prospective clients can create duties under Rule 1.18 (opens in a new tab).

With TellbriefNames first, answers second Run your conflict check before opening their answers. Decline, and the answers are deleted unread.

You see what to explore

Without a briefForms collect answers They leave you to spot the related questions and issues.

With TellbriefYou see what to explore Issues tied to their answers, follow-up questions and potential work to discuss.

You can ask in advance

Without a briefDocuments arrive late Clients may not know which records will matter.

With TellbriefYou can ask in advance Get a document list and an editable request email.

You can follow up later

Without a briefPossible follow-up work gets missed Another issue may deserve a later conversation.

With TellbriefYou can follow up later Save a 60-day follow-up in your own calendar — the reminder is dated 60 days after the call — with an editable email to send when it comes up.

Why a brief, not a form

What the brief does with their answers

Every element below is in the demo briefs, word for word.

Conflict check: names clearedMade-up example

1What to raise on the first call — they want to move in two to six weeks.

The deadline is on page one

1The deadline is on page one

They want to move in two to six weeks, and the brief leads with that deadline. The ownership question is set out before the retailer agreement is signed, because the agreement asks them to promise they own the product.

The issue they didn’t book for comes first

2The issue they didn’t book for comes first

They booked a retailer contract review; the brief leads with who owns the recipe, in their own sentence.

The brief turns the story into questions

3The brief turns the story into questions

Developed before the manufacturer, or together? Can the manufacturer make the same product for anyone else?

The scope conversation is half-drafted

4The scope conversation is half-drafted

Tick the lines you want: they copy into a draft email or an engagement letter’s scope.

Work you could offer: review and negotiate the retailer’s vendor agreement

4Work you could offer

For what they asked

Review and negotiate the retailer’s vendor agreement.

Worth checking first

Confirm who owns the product and paper it with the manufacturer: ownership or license terms, and confidentiality.

Later, if they want

Move key assets and accounts into the company’s name.

“My co-founder and I never signed anything between us.”A form records: founder agreement, none.

The same client’s story ends: “My co-founder and I never signed anything between us.” A form records that in one field — founder agreement: none. The brief spells the questions out. What split did the founders agree to, and is it written anywhere? What stock or membership interests were actually issued, and do the records match the split and any vesting? And the one with a deadline: if founder stock was issued subject to vesting, was an 83(b) election filed within 30 days of the grant? An 83(b) election is a tax filing that has to be made within 30 days of receiving the stock. The brief names the documents to ask for, too: formation documents, any stock issuance or membership records, and anything showing the agreed split — “an agreement, a term sheet, even an email.”

What every brief puts in front of you

The issue to raise first, first The brief ranks what it finds in their answers and leads with it.
Questions to ask, chosen from their answers A question they left blank is never answered for them; on a business brief, the blanks that could change your advice are listed — as skipped, not guessed at.
Documents to ask for, named The records this brief turns on — not a generic request for paperwork.
Their story, in their words, in order Quoted in full at the top of the brief; every answer they gave sits below it, grouped in the order they gave them.

A form gives you answers. A brief gives you the matter.

Inspect the full sample brief See three more examples Open the demo dashboard

Why not just an intake form

Already have intake software? Keep it

Intake collects answers. Tellbrief prepares you to act on them.

No AI writes it — the brief comes from the client’s own answers

The brief is built from the client’s own answers, run through a fixed set of checks for your practice — the same checks, in the same order, for every client. They look for deadlines in the answers, places where two answers don’t sit together, and documents that would settle an open question. You decide what matters; Tellbrief doesn’t give legal advice. Whether to take the case is your call.

Keep your scheduling and case management systems; Tellbrief covers the pre-call questions and brief.

How it fits your workflow

Privacy, in numbers

Deletion dates, not adjectives

14 daysafter a brief reaches you, our copy is deleted. The PDF you saved is yours.
45 daysconflict-check names are kept, then deleted.
365 daysyour after-call notes on what helped, kept then deleted.

Full schedule: the Security page and Privacy.

Built for your practice

See how it works for your clients

Read the sample brief for your practice — every client in it is made up.

Business law
47 questions in the set · most people answer about 30
Forming a company, contracts, hiring, raising money. Later questions depend on earlier answers.
For business lawyers Read the business sample
Estate planning
28 questions in the set; most people answer 20 to 25.
Family, property and existing documents.
For estate lawyers Read the estate sample
Family law
26 questions in the set; most people answer 20 to 25.
Safety first, then family, any court case and property.
For family lawyers Read the family sample
Personal injury
22 questions in the set; most people answer about 20.
What happened, when, care so far and insurance. An older injury or government involvement is flagged first in the brief, and a settlement offer gets its own question for the call.
For injury lawyers Read the injury sample

Watch the walkthrough

See what you receive

See what you receive — with captions

Why it’s worth it

What $75 buys

For $75, you receive a brief assembled from the client’s answers: their account in order, the issue to raise first, questions drawn from their answers, and the documents to request — plus their story, in their words, and the full answer record.

The call starts on the work, not the backstory. And you can inspect the finished document before you pay anything: the sample briefs on this page are the brief itself, with made-up clients.

Pricing

Simple, capped pricing

Briefs from before the day you say you’re keeping it are never charged. From that day, per-brief billing starts. On the firm plan, the month you say yes is free, and billing starts the month after.

Start with three free briefs

No card. Start with your next prospective clients.

See how to get started

Pay per brief

$75 per brief

After the free three, $75 a brief, never more than $199 a month per lawyer, and only lawyers who got briefs count toward the cap.

At the monthly cap, a year for one lawyer costs at most $2,388.

Two briefs cost $150; a third reaches the $199 cap (adding $49), and further briefs that month add nothing.

For firms with up to five lawyers

$499 a month, at most

Pay whichever is less: $499, or what the month’s briefs cost brief by brief. A month with no briefs costs nothing.

Five lawyers at their own caps: $995. The firm cap holds it to $499.

You pay only for briefs that reach you

Names you decline are free, and so is any month with no briefs.

Tellbrief doesn’t take a share of legal fees and doesn’t pay or charge for referrals.

Full pricing details · For bar associations · For legal clinics

The cost of not having it

The cost of no brief

The first minutes of the call go to names, goals and basic facts. Documents arrive late, because the client didn’t know which records would matter. Follow-up work gets missed.

And the risk runs the other way: talking with a prospective client before a conflict check can create duties under Rule 1.18 (opens in a new tab).

See the difference in a sample brief

Questions about Tellbrief?

Answers before you start

See if it helps on your next call

Your booking process stays unchanged — one link in the confirmation you already send.

Request your link

Or read a sample brief first