Employment law intake software: AI intake that screens discrimination and wrongful termination matters and books the consult

A plaintiff-side employment practice gets a lot of inquiries, and a large share of them are not cases the firm can take. Someone was fired and feels it was unfair, but at-will employment means unfair is not always unlawful. The intake has to be patient with an upset caller while quickly establishing whether there is a protected characteristic, a protected activity, an unpaid-wage issue, or a contract at play, because that is what separates a matter worth a consult from one that is not. Doing that by hand on every call is expensive, and doing it slowly loses the real cases to the firm that called back first.

Employment claims also run against some of the shortest deadlines in civil practice. A federal discrimination charge generally has to be filed with the EEOC within 180 or 300 days of the adverse action depending on the state, and wage and other claims have their own limits. A matter that sits in a voicemail queue for a week can lose its window before anyone reviews it. Consultations answers instantly, asks when the action happened and whether a charge has been filed, and surfaces the deadline in the brief, so the clock is visible at intake instead of discovered late.

An employment intake has to establish what the adverse action was (termination, demotion, harassment, retaliation, denied pay or overtime), when it happened, whether the caller was an employee or an independent contractor, roughly how large the employer is, and whether a protected characteristic (race, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin, and others) or a protected activity (complaining about discrimination, taking leave, reporting a violation) was involved. It also needs to know whether the person still works there, whether they have already filed an EEOC or state agency charge, and what documents they have.

Consultations gathers these as a conversation, following what the caller describes. If they mention they reported harassment before being fired, it captures the retaliation angle. If they say they were paid a salary but worked sixty-hour weeks, it flags the wage-and-hour question. What the attorney receives is a brief that already lays out the action, the timeline, the protected-status facts, and the deadline, with documents attached, so the consult starts on the merits instead of on fact-gathering.

Employment callers almost always ask the two questions an intake tool must not answer: do I have a case, and how much is it worth. Consultations never answers them. It does not opine on whether conduct was unlawful, does not estimate damages, does not advise whether to sign a severance agreement or file a charge, and does not predict an outcome. It gathers the facts, flags the deadlines, collects documents, and books the consult with the attorney.

Every legal judgment, including whether the matter is viable and what it is worth, belongs to the attorney after a full review. The conflict-relevant questions the firm defines are asked and surfaced, which matters because a firm may already represent the employer or a related party, but the determination is the firm's. Every detail the caller shares is consented, private, and owned by your firm.