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 creates unnecessary friction and can create confidentiality and data-protection problems.
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, conflict checking and deciding the next step.
A simple two-stage intake works better
Stage 1 — enquiry and conflict check: name, contact details, matter type, other parties, short summary and urgent dates.
Stage 2 — matter opening: after the firm decides it may be able to act, collect the deeper information, identity documents and supporting evidence required by the firm's own process.
Use 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 and change the wording before publishing.
Open solicitor intake templateThis 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.