Legal intake
Law firm client intake form: UK questions and free template
A good first-stage legal intake form gives a firm enough information to triage the enquiry and run an initial conflict check without asking a prospective client to disclose more confidential detail than is necessary.
Quick answer
Start with identity and contact details, matter type, the names of relevant opposing parties, a concise summary and urgent dates. Keep the first form deliberately narrow. The SRA advises firms to consider limiting confidential information collected before a conflict check has been carried out.
What should a law firm client intake form ask?
- Full name and reliable contact details
- Matter or practice area
- Names of the other parties for an initial conflict check
- A short summary of what happened
- Any urgent hearing, limitation or response date
- Only the supporting documents needed for an initial review
Why keep the first intake short?
A first-stage enquiry is not the same as a full matter-opening questionnaire. Asking for every document, financial detail or sensitive fact before the firm knows whether it can act adds friction and can result in the firm receiving information it did not yet need.
The ICO's data-minimisation principle says organisations should collect personal data that is adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the stated purpose. For a first enquiry, that purpose is usually triage, an initial conflict check and deciding what should happen next.
A practical two-stage intake workflow
Stage 1 — enquiry and initial conflict check: collect the prospective client's name, reliable contact details, broad matter type, the names of relevant other parties, a short summary and any urgent dates.
Stage 2 — fuller matter opening: once the firm has decided it may be able to act, move into the firm's own onboarding process for identity checks, engagement terms, source-of-funds information where relevant, fuller evidence and documents.
Separating those stages also makes the respondent experience clearer. A person making an initial enquiry can complete a short form quickly, while the firm preserves the option to request more detailed information later rather than forcing every prospective client through a long questionnaire.
What information helps with an initial conflict check?
For many matters, the most useful early information is not a long factual narrative but the identity of the prospective client and the names of people or organisations on the other side of the matter. The precise information a firm needs will vary by practice area and internal policy, so the form should be editable rather than hard-coded around one type of case.
A useful form can therefore ask for the opposing party, employer, company, landlord, insurer, family member or other relevant person only when that question applies. Conditional logic can keep irrelevant conflict-check questions hidden from other respondents.
Make urgent dates impossible to miss
A general free-text box is a poor place to hide a hearing date, response deadline or another time-sensitive event. Give urgent dates their own question and make the wording obvious. That allows staff reviewing new enquiries to triage the queue more safely instead of discovering a deadline halfway through a long narrative.
It can also help to ask whether the matter is urgent before asking for the date itself. If the answer is no, the form can skip the date question entirely.
Be selective with document uploads
Document uploads can be useful, but they should have a clear purpose. A first-stage form does not necessarily need every email, contract, medical record, bank statement or bundle connected with the matter. Asking only for documents required for an initial review keeps the form faster and avoids collecting large amounts of material before it is useful.
If the firm later decides to proceed, the second-stage onboarding workflow can request the complete evidence set using wording appropriate to that matter.
Tell the prospective client what happens next
The confirmation message should explain that submitting the form does not itself mean the firm has accepted instructions. It should also tell the person what the next step is — for example, conflict checking, an initial review or contact from the team — and avoid promising a response time the firm cannot consistently meet.
That small piece of copy reduces uncertainty and makes the form feel like part of a professional intake workflow rather than a generic contact form.
Review your form before publishing
Before publishing, check whether every question is genuinely needed at the first stage, whether urgent dates are prominent, whether conflict-check names are captured clearly and whether the confirmation message accurately describes what happens after submission.
Use the free 10-point intake checklistUse the free Formni solicitor intake template
The Formni template is intentionally built as an initial enquiry rather than a full legal onboarding pack. You can edit every question, add conditional logic, remove fields your firm does not need and change the wording before publishing.
This guide is general workflow information, not legal advice. Firms should adapt their intake process to their own regulatory, confidentiality and data-protection obligations.
Primary references: SRA confidentiality guidance and ICO data minimisation guidance.