Free tool for law firms

Law Firm Client Intake Form Template

Build a law firm intake form template for your practice area in under a minute. Choose personal injury, family, criminal defense, estate planning, immigration and more, add your own questions, then print it, save it as a PDF or download it for Word.

  • Free, no signup
  • 10 practice areas
  • Print, PDF or Word
  • Nothing is stored

Build your intake form

Pick a practice area. The form on the right updates as you go.

Your intake form

A general template, not legal advice. Review the questions and the acknowledgment with your own rules and conflicts process before you use it. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

How to use it

Step 1

Pick your practice area

Each area has its own questions – accident details for injury cases, children and orders for family law, charges and court dates for criminal defense.

Step 2

Choose the sections

Keep or drop the contact details, conflict check, referral source, document list and acknowledgment, and add questions of your own.

Step 3

Print, download or copy

Print it or save a PDF for the front desk, download a Word file to edit, or copy the questions into your intake software or online form builder.

What a law firm intake form is for

A client intake form collects the facts you need to answer three questions before the first consultation: can we take this matter, is there a conflict of interest, and what does the prospective client need to bring. A good law firm intake form template saves the attorney from spending the first twenty minutes of a consultation on names, dates and case numbers, and it gives staff a consistent script so nothing important is missed.

It is not the same thing as the short contact form on your website. The web form should stay short so people finish it – name, phone, email and a sentence about their issue. The full intake questionnaire comes next: by email after the first call, on a tablet in the waiting room, or read aloud by your intake team.

What every intake form should include

Contact and identity details

Full legal name, any other names used, date of birth, address, phone and email. Ask how and when the client prefers to be contacted, and whether it is safe to leave a voicemail or send mail. That last question matters in family law and domestic violence matters, where a letter or voicemail can put someone at risk.

A conflict check

List every other person and company involved, and their lawyers or insurers if the client knows them. Run those names through your conflicts system before the consultation, not after. A conflict discovered once the client has told you everything is much harder to unwind.

Practice-specific facts

This is where templates differ most. A personal injury intake needs the date and place of the accident, injuries, treatment, insurance and whether the client has given a recorded statement. A criminal defense intake needs the charges, the arresting agency and the next court date. An estate planning intake needs family members, fiduciaries and a rough picture of assets. The generator above loads a different question set for each of ten practice areas.

Deadlines

Always ask about upcoming court dates, response deadlines, closing dates and letters the client has received. Deadlines are the facts most likely to change what you do in the first week, so put them where staff cannot skip them.

An acknowledgment

Make it clear that filling in the form does not create an attorney-client relationship until you have run conflicts and both signed an engagement agreement. Under ABA Model Rule 1.18, lawyers owe duties to prospective clients – including confidentiality – even when no engagement follows, which is one more reason to collect only what you need at this stage. Check your own state’s version of the rule and ask your ethics counsel about the exact wording.

Paper, PDF or online intake form?

Use the format your clients will actually complete. A printed form still works well for in-person consultations. A fillable PDF or Word document suits clients who prefer to prepare at home. An online form inside your practice management or intake software is fastest to process, because answers land in the matter file without retyping. Use Copy questions to move this template into whichever tool you use.

If the form lives on your website, keep the version people see before they speak to you short, and put a confidentiality notice by the submit button – our disclaimer generator drafts that line for you. Then measure how many forms turn into consultations; our guide to law firm website conversion tracking shows how.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. There is no signup and no limit. The form is built in your browser, so nothing you type is sent to us or stored.

Personal injury, family law, criminal defense, estate planning, immigration, bankruptcy, employment law, real estate, business law and a general practice version. You can add your own questions to any of them.

Yes. Download Word gives you an editable document. You can also copy the questions as plain text and paste them into an online form builder or your intake software.

It should say clearly that it does not. The template includes an acknowledgment stating that the firm does not represent the person until it has checked for conflicts and both sides have signed an engagement agreement. Have your own wording reviewed against your state’s rules.

A website contact form is short – usually name, phone, email and a brief description – so that more people complete it. The client intake form is the detailed questionnaire used before or during the first consultation.

Collect only what you need to check conflicts and evaluate the matter. Prospective clients are owed confidentiality, but asking for less until you are engaged keeps both sides safer.

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Free Website Scan

Check your site for advertising-rule red flags and AI visibility.

Is your website sending you the right cases?

An intake form only helps if people reach out. Our free scan checks your contact form, your pages and your advertising-rule risks in about 30 seconds.

Run the free website scan
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Legal Web Agency is a marketing agency, not a law firm. Our free tools produce general drafts and are not legal advice.