A law firm answering service that files every call
LEX Phone is a phone answering service for Australian lawyers.
- 24/7: answers in your firm's name day and night, on weekends and public holidays, with no after hours surcharge.
- A legal intake, not a message: the caller's details, the other party's name for the conflict check, any close date and what they want next.
- Filed to the matter: a file note and transcript in Smokeball or SharePoint, with Clio filing in development.
- One price: A$79.99 a month per lawyer, GST included, with no per-call fee and no contract.
- Automated, and says so: it never gives legal advice and never pretends to be a person.
Most answering services were built for trades and clinics, and a legal line is a different thing. The caller may be a new client with a court date on Thursday, an existing client who wants to know where their matter is up to, the other party's solicitor, or a lead-list seller who has rung every firm in the suburb. A service that treats those four calls the same way is a liability on a legal line, and a message left in an inbox is not a file note. A legal answering service has to sort the four, take the intake a firm can act on, and leave a record where the firm keeps records. This page sets out what an answering service for lawyers has to do differently, and how LEX Phone does it.
Phone answering service for lawyers: four kinds of caller, each needing something different
A receptionist who has worked at a firm for a year sorts these in the first ten seconds. An answering service has to do the same thing on every call, without the year.
A new client
Someone ringing around for a lawyer wants two things: to be taken seriously, and a time. The service asks what the matter is about, collects the details a firm needs to open a file, and books a consult or a call back before the caller hangs up. That is the call that stops them ringing the next firm on the list. In Smokeball the caller becomes a contact and a lead matter with the call already on it.
An existing client
A client who rings about their own matter should be greeted by name and asked what they need, and nothing about the matter should be discussed until identity has been verified. A number match is enough for the greeting. It is not enough for the file. With verified matter conversations turned on, a client who proves they hold the mobile on the contact record with a one-time code can hear where the matter is up to and the next date; otherwise the service takes the message and files it to the matter.
The other side, the court and everyone acting for them
The other party, their solicitor, a barrister's clerk, a process server, the registry. The service confirms nothing, not even whether the firm acts, because the answer to that question has to be the same whether it does or not. It takes a message with the caller's name, who they act for and what they need, and files it. What is said back to them is the lawyer's decision, made from the file.
Everyone else
Cold callers, lead sellers, wrong numbers and withheld numbers. In Screen mode these stop at the front desk and never ring your phone. They do not become leads, they do not become tasks, and they are not filed to a matter, because a record of a marketing call is noise on the file.
What a legal intake call has to capture
A trade answering service takes a name, a number and a one-line reason. A law firm needs six things, and a service that collects five of them has created a call back to collect the sixth.
The caller's full name and the number to reach them on
The name as they say it, and the number they want called back, which is not always the one they rang from. A caller ringing from a work phone about a family matter will say so if asked.
The other party's full name
A law firm cannot open a file without a conflict check, and the check needs the other side's name. The service collects it and files it. The check itself is done at the firm, by a person, before anyone is engaged.
The kind of matter, in the caller's words
Not a practice area code. What the caller says the problem is, kept as they said it, so the lawyer reads the enquiry rather than a label. The summary adds the practice area on top, it does not replace the words.
Any date that is close
A hearing on Thursday, a settlement next week, a letter that gives fourteen days to respond, a limitation period the caller is worried about. The service asks, and a close date is the first line of the summary so nobody has to read to the bottom to find it.
What they want to happen next
A consult, a call back at a time that suits them, or a message passed on. The service books the consult if you allow bookings, and otherwise takes a call back time, so the caller leaves the call with something in the diary.
How they found the firm
A referral from a client, a Google search, a sign at the local court. One question, asked every time, is the only way a small firm ever learns which of these is worth the money.
Put together, the six answers are the file note. Here is the summary LEX Phone wrote for a new enquiry on a demo firm's line, as it landed on the lead in Smokeball, before anyone at the firm had read it.
Daniel Okafor called about a dispute with his landlord over a bond claim of $3,200 after moving out of a rental in Cranbourne. The other party is Westgate Property Management as agent for the owner M. Halloran and he received a letter on Monday giving him fourteen days to respond. He wants a consult this week and is available Wednesday afternoon on his mobile. Found the firm through a Google search. No advice was given.
The names on the other side are there for the conflict check, which the firm does before the consult. The fourteen days is the first thing the lawyer needs to know and the first thing in the note. The consult request is already a booking in the Smokeball calendar if you allow bookings, and a task on the lead if you do not. Nothing in the note was typed by anyone at the firm.
Outsourced reception for law firms: the ring, not the relationship
Firms hesitate over an outsourced reception service for a fair reason: the person who answers the phone is the firm, to the caller. Here is what leaves the building and what does not.
Answering when you cannot. Sorting the four kinds of caller. Asking the intake questions the same way every time. Writing the note and filing it. Booking the consult or the call back into the diary. Keeping the cold callers off your line. Doing all of that at 7pm and on Saturday morning at the same standard as 10am on a Tuesday.
Every decision about a matter. Every word that goes to a client: text replies are drafted by the service, and you read them, change them and send them, so nothing reaches a client without a person. The conflict check. The advice. The call back, made by the lawyer who knows the file, with the summary on screen. And the choice, changed with one tap, of whether the service greets first or you do.
The other thing that stays is honesty with the caller.
Law firm answering service options compared
Three ways a law firm's unanswered calls are handled today, side by side.
| Voicemail | Answering service staffed by people | LEX Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who answers | Nobody | A receptionist answering for many businesses, from a script | |
| Hours | Always on | By plan, with after hours calls often surcharged: $0.60 or $1.00 a call on Virtual Reception's terms | Every hour, no surcharge |
| Putting the call through to you | No | On receptionist plans, usually for a fee per transfer | Yes, in Screen mode, with a one-line summary |
| Several calls at once | Each caller leaves a message | Limited by the operators on the roster | Each call answered as it arrives |
| What you have afterwards | A recording to listen to | A message by email or text | A file note and transcript on the matter |
| Price at 80 calls a month | Nothing | About $189 to $305 before GST | A$79.99 per lawyer, GST included |
Answering service figures are from the published rate cards worked through in our answering service cost guide, reviewed 3 October 2026.
The named services are compared one by one in the best answering services for law firms in Australia, and the case for and against an automated service is set out in AI receptionist or answering service.
Set up for the work your firm does
After hours legal answering, weekends and court days: one line, three settings
There is no separate after hours or 24 hour answering service to buy.
During the day
Leave the line in Screen. The service greets every caller, puts existing clients and genuine new enquiries through to you with a one-line summary of what they want, and takes the message itself if you do not pick up. Cold callers never reach you.
After hours
Switch to Unavailable when you leave, or leave Screen on if you want the option of taking an urgent call. Either way, every call that arrives at 6pm, 11pm or 6am is answered in your firm's name and is on the matter by morning, with a push notification when it lands.
Weekends and court days
The mode is per lawyer and changes with one tap from the Home tab, so a lawyer in a hearing is Unavailable while a colleague at their desk is Available, and the firm's main number still gets answered. Nothing is rostered and nobody is on call.
The detail of what an after hours caller needs and what the service must never do at night is in the after hours answering guide. The modes themselves are explained in the three call modes, and covering only the calls your reception cannot take is set out in overflow call answering for law firms.
One price, no per-call fee, and the number you already have
LEX Phone is A$79.99 a month per lawyer, billed through the App Store or Google Play, with the number, transcripts, and filing to Smokeball and SharePoint included, and Clio filing included when it launches.
You do not have to change your number. Port the one you have at no charge, and it keeps working with your current provider until the day it moves, or take a dedicated Australian number per lawyer in the app. Setup is a two-minute phone call with the assistant rather than a form: see numbers and porting.
It answers for law firms anywhere in Australia, from Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sydney to Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin, in each firm's own time zone. If you are weighing it against a virtual receptionist for law firms or an AI receptionist for law firms, they are the same
Answering service questions firms ask
Automated.
It takes a message. It does not confirm whether the firm acts for anyone, it does not pass on anything about the matter, and it does not give the caller a lawyer's mobile. The message is filed to the matter the lawyer nominates, and the lawyer decides what happens next.
A file note. Every call becomes a summary and a transcript, filed to the matter in Smokeball as a completed task, or into your SharePoint library under the contact, with Clio filing in development. A new enquiry from an unknown caller opens a lead in Smokeball with the call already on it. A message from a human service is an email someone has to read and copy in; this is the record itself.
Yes. Each lawyer has their own number and line, with their own mode, and the firm's main number can be ported in and directed to whoever you nominate. A call back the service takes becomes a task for the lawyer responsible for the matter, not for whoever is free.
No. The plan is A$79.99 a month per lawyer, with
Yes.
Each call is answered as it arrives.
Neither. It collects the caller's details, the names on the other side and the kind of matter, so that the conflict check can be done at the firm before the first appointment, and it tells a caller plainly when a question is one for the lawyer.
Hear QRYSTEL intelligence
Our demo law firm's line is answered by