Best Intake Forms for Personal-Injury Firms
Capture the right information on the first contact
The intake form is your first chance to qualify a lead and gather what you need to assess the case. Most PI firms still use forms that ask for irrelevant background or miss critical case details. The result: follow-up calls to get information you should have captured at intake.
Nimbus Marlowe is the AI operations layer for personal-injury law firms, starting with intake. A good form does three things: it qualifies (can we take this?), it closes gaps (what else do we need to know?), and it sets the frame (here's how we work).
What your intake form should ask
Start with the incident itself. Date, location, type of injury. For a car accident that means the date, intersection or highway, what happened. A slip-and-fall means the premises, the hazard, when it happened. Describe the injury in plain language. Don't force the intake caller to be medical — "I hurt my back" is enough at intake; your attorney asks for detail later.
Who were the witnesses. Get names and phone numbers if the caller has them, but don't hold up the intake if they don't.
Medical treatment. Has the caller been evaluated. Have they been admitted, treated in an ER, followed up with a doctor. Most personal-injury cases start with no ongoing medical treatment yet; that's normal. The point is to know the status.
Insurance information. Who's the at-fault party. Do they know the name of the other driver or business. Insurance company. Policy limits if the caller knows them. If the caller hit their head in the other vehicle, they might not know. That's okay; you dig deeper on the follow-up call.
How did the firm's number come up. Referral. Search. Ad. This tells you which of your marketing actually moves.
Financial situation matters for contingency. Is the caller working. How long has this injury affected their income. Do they have medical debt already. None of this is invasive; it's practical. You need to know if the case supports a contingency fee.
That's the core. Everything else is detail your attorney can gather on a deeper call.
The form should be fast
A PI intake form should take two to three minutes to complete. Callers are injured, sometimes scared, usually calling during business hours when they can slip away from work. Ask for the essentials, nothing more.
Long forms tank completion rates. If your form takes eight minutes to fill out, callers drop off. You miss the case.
What happens after the form
The form is the handoff point. Once the caller submits, your next step should be clear and fast. Do they get a confirmation and a time slot for a callback within 24 hours? Do they hear back the same day? The firms that move fastest win the lead.
An AI intake coordinator can handle this without your involvement. The form comes in; the coordinator reads the details; the coordinator either books a call with your attorney or sends an automated message with your next steps and a clear callback time.
The caller knows what's happening next. Your attorney only gets involved when there's a real opportunity, not to triage fifty unqualified forms.
Red flags to catch at intake
Some cases you won't take. Your form should surface deal-breakers so you can politely decline and move on. Expired statute of limitations. At-fault claimant (you don't represent them). Workers' comp injury (that's a comp claim, not a personal-injury case). Workers' comp is state-specific; know your state's rules, but flag it at intake so you're not wasting everyone's time.
Personal-injury firms with solid intake forms catch 80 percent of what kills a case during the first contact. The other 20 percent comes out in the attorney's deeper conversation. But you don't get to the attorney's conversation if the form doesn't capture the basic facts.
The form is also your CYA
A clean intake form with solid information protects you. When a case goes sideways and a caller says "I told you about my prior back injury," you have the form saying you asked and they said no. Your form documents what you knew at intake.
Most PI firms skip this step because they think intake is the attorney's job. It's not. Intake is triage. The attorney reviews and decides. The form is your triage gate.
Start with the incident, the injury, the status of treatment, insurance details, how they found you, and their financial situation. Everything else is follow-up.
Sign up now to use Nimbus Marlowe's intake coordinator. Book a call to see how it works on a real case.
Frequently asked questions
How long should the intake form be?
Two to three minutes maximum. The longer the form, the more callers bail before finishing. Capture the essentials: incident, injury, treatment status, insurance info, how they found you. Everything else is attorney follow-up.
Should intake forms ask about prior injuries?
Yes. It's a standard part of claim assessment. Ask plainly: "Have you had any prior injuries to the same area or body part?" Most callers are honest, and it surfaces issues early. It also protects you in documentation.
What if the caller doesn't know something?
Mark it optional. Some callers don't know the other driver's insurance or exact location. That's fine. Your attorney asks for details later. The intake form captures what's available right now, not a complete investigation.
Can an AI intake form capture enough detail?
An AI intake coordinator can handle the form and the follow-up call. The coordinator reads the initial form, asks clarifying questions if needed, and decides whether to book a call or send a polite decline. Your attorney only speaks to qualified leads.
Put your firm's operations on autopilot. Reviewed by you.
Nimbus Marlowe is the AI operations layer for personal-injury firms. The CRM is free, pricing is flat and per-unit, and every output is a draft your attorneys review and adopt.