Missed calls at law firms
A missed call at a law firm is usually a new client calling the next firm on the list, or an existing client deciding the firm is hard to reach. This guide sets out the published figures, what the calls are worth, and three ways to take the day's calls without adding a person to the front desk.
The figures
The best data on unanswered calls at law firms comes from Clio's Legal Trends Reports. In the 2024 report, researchers secret-shopped 500 firms between 20 June and 5 July 2024. Only 40% answered the phone, 48% could not be reached by any channel, and 36% explained what the next step would be. The 2019 report found 39% of calls went to voicemail and over half of firms had not responded within 72 hours, while 79% of clients said they expected a reply within 24 hours.
Those are US figures used for context. The Australian picture on the phone specifically has not been published, which is why EzyBiz is running a one-month count with a firm in Victoria, and we will publish what we find.
What a missed call costs
The arithmetic is simple even if the inputs vary by practice area. A firm that takes twenty new enquiries a month and misses a third of them has lost six or seven potential matters. If one in three enquiries becomes a client, that is two matters a month, every month. Against that, the cost of answering every call is a fixed number.
There is a second cost that does not show up as lost revenue. A client who cannot reach the firm calls again, emails, and then calls the principal's mobile. The same enquiry is now three interruptions and none of them is on the file.
Why voicemail does not fix it
Voicemail asks the caller to do the work: state the matter, leave a number, and wait. New clients mostly do not, and the ones who do have to be called back before they have found another firm. An answering service, human or AI, reverses that. The caller is greeted in the firm's name, asked what the call is about, and told what happens next. The firm gets a written summary rather than a recording to listen to.
Three ways to take the day's calls
EzyBiz LEX lets you choose how the line is handled, and you can change it in the app between a hearing and a meeting.
- Available. Calls ring straight to you, and before you answer the screen shows who is calling, which matter they belong to and the last thing they said to you.
- Screen. The answering service greets every caller first. Genuine enquiries are put through with a one-line summary, and if you cannot take the call they are booked or their message is taken. Cold callers stop at the front desk.
- Unavailable. In court, in a meeting or finished for the day, the answering service takes every call, answers as your firm, and never gives advice.
Start without changing anything
You do not have to change your number to stop missing calls. Port the number you already have at no charge, and it keeps working with your current provider until the day it moves, or take a dedicated Australian business number for you or for the whole firm. In Available mode calls ring you first, and EzyBiz LEX answers only the ones nobody took.
The record
Every call that EzyBiz LEX answers becomes a summary, stored in Australia and searchable from the app. The summary and transcript file to the matter in Smokeball as a finished file note, or into your SharePoint library under the contact, with Clio filing in development. Nobody types up a phone call, and a missed call is no longer a missing file note.
Missed calls, the questions firms ask
In Clio's 2024 secret-shopper study of 500 firms, only 40% answered the phone and 48% could not be reached by any channel. In Clio's 2019 study, 39% of calls went to voicemail and over half of firms had not responded within 72 hours, while 79% of clients expected a reply within 24 hours.
No. Port your existing number to EzyBiz LEX at no charge, and it keeps working with your current provider until the day it moves. In Available mode calls ring you first, and the service answers only the ones you did not take.
Yes. Every call becomes a summary in the app, with a push notification and the transcript until it is filed, and it files to the matter in Smokeball or to SharePoint, with Clio filing in development. Bookings and call-back requests are in the message.
In Screen mode cold callers, wrong numbers and people selling lead lists stop at the front desk. They never ring your phone, and spam calls are not filed.
See one call go from ring to file note
Try it for yourself, setup in minutes.
EzyBiz LEX is the lawyer's phone system: a law firm phone system with a law firm answering service built in, which also works as a virtual receptionist for law firms and an AI receptionist for law firms. It answers when you can't, and files every call to the matter.