AI intake for law firms: What happens after the call?
See how a Vapi and n8n intake workflow captures after-hours calls and routes them to people, with sample handoff triggers and acceptance tests.
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An after-hours caller leaves a name but the line cuts out before they finish giving a number. Does your team get a callback task, a partial record, or nothing at all? That edge case tells you more about an intake workflow than a polished demo.
For a legal-tech company serving law firms, we built a Vapi agent that answers around the clock and collects required information. n8n records the outcome and routes it for follow-up. People handle requests outside the agent’s scope.
Key takeaways
- Vapi handles the first call; n8n records and routes the outcome.
- Test incomplete intake and failed transfers before launch.
Define the handoff before writing the voice script
Start with the information the receiving team needs to act: a callback channel, a short reason for the call and a clear outcome. Let the firm decide which fields the agent should request and which belong in a conversation with staff. Confirm critical contact details aloud where practical.
Keep the voice agent on administrative intake. When a caller asks what to do about a legal matter, route the request to staff instead of generating advice. A request to speak to a person should have a route even when the caller has not answered every question.
| Call outcome | Recommended next action |
|---|---|
| New enquiry, callback confirmed | Create a follow-up with the details the caller confirmed |
| Caller requests a person | Transfer if staffed; offer a callback if nobody answers |
| Call ended before required details | Record partial intake and flag what is missing |
| Existing client or out-of-scope request | Route to the appropriate staff queue |
Treat a missed transfer as an outcome
A transfer attempt does not mean a person picked up. If you enable Vapi’s call transfer tool, test the destination, after-hours behavior and what the caller hears if the transfer cannot complete. Only say a callback is arranged when a task has actually been recorded.
Keep one intake record per call ID so a repeated event does not send the same task twice. Give the receiving team a concise summary and route it to a named queue. An inbox alert that nobody owns is easy to miss.
Rehearse the awkward calls before launch
Test a wrong phone number corrected mid-call, a caller asking for staff, a disconnect and an unavailable destination. For each one, check what the caller hears and what arrives for staff. Include a failed workflow write so the team knows how to recover an intake.
Review the first batch with the people who return calls. Ask which fields they used and which they had to ask for again. For a broader view of handoffs, read our client onboarding automation guide.
The takeaway
Design the voice workflow around the record and next action that staff receive, including when the call does not go to plan.
The cover is an illustration. The example records and test scenarios are illustrative. How we write these guides.