For workers’ compensation firms and their intake staff
Workers’ compensation intake questions for the first call
The questions a workers’ compensation intake should ask a new caller, in the order our own intake agent asks them, with why they matter to the firm.
First: what happened, and whose names
Before any checklist, let the caller tell it. Then whether another attorney is already on it, and the names before the details, for the conflict check where the firm runs one.
- What happened?An open question first, in the caller’s own words. Anything on the list below they answer here is confirmed later, not asked again.
- Are you working with another attorney on this already?Asked of an injured caller, once the call is clearly about an injury and before any names. If the caller says, then or at any later point, that they already have an attorney on this matter, the intake ends there, politely: no more questions (and no conflict check, if it hasn’t run).
- What is your full name?Read back, and spelled where it could go several ways. With the other side, it is what the conflict check runs on, where the firm runs one.
- Who do you work for?Asked in place of the other side for an injury at work, and anyone else involved. It is the other half of the conflict check.
- What is the best number to reach you on?Read back as ten digits in three groups, so a misheard digit is caught. A number still wrong after two corrections is left out, never guessed: the office uses the number the call came from.
- What is the best email for you?Spelled back. No email is asked once the caller has said someone died or that they want a lawyer now; on a call that is urgent from the start, only if it is not put through to the firm.
Then: the injury and the treatment
One question at a time, hung off what the caller has already said.
- When did it happen?Taken as the caller gives it, never a date they didn’t give, and the caller is never told whether they are still in time. If what they say makes it clearly too late, the timing is flagged for the attorney and no consultation time is offered.
- Where, by city and state?Where it happened, for the attorney.
- Was anyone hurt, and who?Who the injured person is. The injury questions that follow are for a hurt adult; a child’s injuries are taken only as volunteered, with no follow-up.
- Have you seen a doctor: the ER, urgent care, your own?Asked on its own, like the treatment questions after it: two facts are two turns, even joined by “or”.
- Are you still being treated?Whether treatment is ongoing.
- Did you stay in the hospital?A hospital stay, asked on its own.
- Did you have surgery?Surgery, asked on its own.
- Are you missing work because of this?Acknowledged before anything else is asked: it is a check on how the caller is doing, not only a fact to log.
- Are you still in pain?Acknowledged too, then taken as fact; never a word about what it might be worth.
At work: the employer and the claim
The questions for an injury at work, after the injury questions.
- Did you report it to your employer, and when?Whether the caller reported the injury, and the date they did.
- Is a workers’ compensation claim open?Whether a claim already exists, as the caller understands it.
- Was anyone other than your employer involved?Another company, a contractor, a driver or someone else’s equipment.
On a work injury: where the claim stands
On a work injury only, the agent adds these once the firm switches workers’ compensation on. Each is its own turn.
- In which state do you work, or were you hurt?The state, in the caller’s words.
- On what date did you tell your employer?The date the employer was told.
- Was the claim denied?A denial is also one of the urgent signs below.
- Are benefits being paid?Whether the caller is receiving benefits now.
- Have you been on light duty?Whether the employer moved the caller to lighter work.
- Is there a return-to-work date?Any date the caller has been given to go back.
- Did the employer or insurer send you to a company doctor?Whether the caller was sent to a doctor the employer or insurer chose.
- Do you have a letter or a hearing notice?Whether the caller holds a letter or a notice of a hearing.
What makes a work injury urgent
These are signs the agent counts for a work injury, on top of the usual ones. An urgent case goes to the live-transfer step before any booking.
- A denial, or a letter or hearing notice with a date on itUrgent. The date is noted, and it is never spoken of as a deadline.
- Fired, demoted, threatened or punished after reporting it or claimingUrgent, as the caller describes it.
- Benefits just cut offUrgent, when the caller says benefits have just stopped.
- Not reported to the employer yetNoted in the summary. It never earns a transfer by itself.
What the intake never says
An intake takes facts down. It does not answer the legal questions a caller asks about a work injury.
- Whether the caller has a claim, whether it is covered, or what it is worth.
- Any deadline, including for a letter or a hearing notice. The date is taken down, not called one.
- A fee of its own, or a promise of representation.
- “We don’t handle that.” The intake cannot know what the firm takes; the office decides.
How Intake Gateway asks them
Intake Gateway is an AI intake agent for law firms. Workers’ compensation is off until you switch it on in your agent settings, and the agent asks these questions on a new work-injury call once you do.
- Off, an injury at work is one of the careful kinds: taken down, with no consultation booked.
- On, a work injury is decided like any other case and closed with a promised callback, or a booked or requested consultation if you connect a calendar.
- A denial, a dated letter or hearing notice, a firing after the claim, or benefits just cut off can be offered a live transfer, in the hours you allow.
- The conflict check against your Clio, if you connect it.
- The intake in your inbox after the call, with “Workers’ compensation” in the first line of its summary.
- In English, and in Spanish if you switch it on.
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