Legal Answering Service: 7 Options for Law Firms (2026)
A potential client who calls your firm at 7pm after a car accident will call the next firm on the list if nobody picks up. That one missed call can be the biggest case of the quarter.
The quick answer: A legal answering service covers your firm’s phones when nobody at the office can: after hours, on weekends and while you’re in court. You can hire live receptionists (Smith.ai, Ruby, Posh, Answering Legal, LEX Reception) for roughly $900 to $1,700 a month at 100 calls, or use an AI receptionist for a fraction of that. Carly is the pick for firms that want intake done the same way on every call: it answers your firm’s number, asks your intake questions in order, books the consultation on the right attorney’s calendar and puts the summary in one team inbox before you’re back from court.
Legal answering service costs at 100 calls a month
US list prices from each vendor’s own pricing page, checked October 18, 2026. The right-hand column estimates a month for a small firm sending 100 calls to the service, about 4 minutes each (400 minutes).
| Option | Who answers | Entry price | Billing unit | At 100 calls (400 min) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | AI on your firm’s number, after your staff | Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/mo | Monthly plan | Setup: copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | AI, with live staff available | Free for 25 calls; Pro $150 for 75 | Per call | $212.50 ($150 + 25 calls at $2.50) |
| Smith.ai live receptionists | Humans | $300 for 30 calls | Per call | $915 ($810 for 90 + 10 at $10.50), before add-ons |
| Posh (Chic plan) | Humans, with AI options | $65 a month plus $2.30 a minute | Per minute | $985 |
| Ruby | Humans | $250 for 50 minutes | Per minute | $1,725 (500-minute plan) |
| Answering Legal | Humans, legal-only | Not published | Plans by form | Quote |
| LEX Reception | Humans, legal-only | Shown at sign-up | Plans at sign-up | Quote |
Add-ons move the human numbers. On Smith.ai’s live plans, conflict checks are $0.50 a call, booking appointments $1.50 a call, extended intake $1.50 and a dedicated Spanish line $1.00. For general answering outside the law, see AI answering service.
What each option does with a new-client call at 8pm
| Personal injury caller, accident today | Existing client in a panic | Opposing party calls | What you see at 8am | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voicemail | Hangs up, calls the next firm | Leaves a message | Leaves a message | A list of voicemails |
| Live legal receptionist | Intake taken per your script, sometimes booked | Message relayed or patched through | Depends on whether a conflict check is in the script | Messages by email or app |
| AI message-taker | Name, number and reason captured | Same | Same | Transcripts and a callback list |
| Carly | Your intake questions asked in order, consultation booked on the attorney’s calendar, confirmation texted | Rings the attorney on call, or texts them the summary | Parties’ names captured for your conflict check before anything is booked | Every call, text and booking summarized in one inbox |
Five jobs a legal answering service has to do
1. Run intake, not just take messages
Write the questions down: practice area, date of incident, where it happened, injuries, who the other party is, whether they’ve talked to another lawyer, and how they heard about you. A good service asks them in order and stops when the answer says the case isn’t yours.
2. Catch conflicts before the consultation
Capture the names of every party on the first call. A service that skips this books consultations you’ll have to cancel.
3. Book the consultation while the caller is still on the phone
The firm that books first usually gets the case. Look for booking on real attorney calendars, not a callback promise or a link texted for later.
4. Know what not to say
Receptionists can’t give legal advice, and an AI receptionist shouldn’t either. Script the boundary: what the firm handles, what a consultation costs, and “an attorney will need to answer that.”
5. Speak Spanish
For immigration, family and personal injury practices, a large share of callers prefer Spanish. Carly detects Spanish and answers in Spanish, with no “press 2.” See bilingual answering service.
1. Carly
Carly is reliable because it follows your rules exactly: write your intake script and routing rules once, in plain English, and Carly runs them the same way at 2pm and 2am.
- Answers when your staff can’t. Calls ring your team first; if nobody picks up, Carly answers. Or let it answer around the clock.
- Runs your intake. Practice area, incident date, every party’s name for your conflict check, injuries, prior counsel: in your order, with screening rules that end the call politely when it isn’t your kind of case.
- Books the consultation on the right attorney’s Google or Outlook calendar, round robin, with a confirmation text from your firm’s number.
- Routes the urgent ones. An existing client with a hearing tomorrow gets put through via ring groups or a phone menu, or the attorney on call gets a text summary the moment the call ends.
- Texts too. Two-way texts on your firm’s number, and every missed call gets a text back.
- One inbox for the morning. Calls, transcripts, voicemails and texts land on each contact’s timeline in one team inbox and CRM, or HubSpot, Salesforce or Dynamics 365.
- Fits your practice software. Carly connects to thousands of apps, including Clio, so a new intake becomes a contact and matter without retyping.
- Runs from ChatGPT or Claude. With the Carly connector, ask your AI chat to call a client back or build the intake agent for you (how it works).
A welcome email or a task for the paralegal runs as a free Zapier-style workflow.
- Best for: firms that want every new-client call answered, screened and booked by the same script.
- Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
- Setup: Copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number, and you’re live.
Carly business setup prompt
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It walks you through the rest.
Help me connect Carly Teams to this chat: read https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp.txt and follow it. If you can't open links, tell me how to add https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp to you as a custom MCP connector, then I'll sign in.
2. Smith.ai
Smith.ai sells both: live receptionists that do legal intake and an AI Receptionist, with a Clio integration and a long list of per-call add-ons. More in our Smith.ai review and Smith.ai alternatives.
- Best for: firms already on Clio that want humans or AI from one vendor.
- Pricing: AI free for 25 calls, Pro $150 for 75 calls ($2.50 per extra call). Live receptionists $300 for 30 calls, $810 for 90, $2,100 for 300.
- Limitations: per-call billing plus add-ons climbs fast on a busy line.
3. Ruby
Ruby is the best-known live virtual receptionist service, billed by the minute.
- Best for: firms that want a human voice on every call and have a predictable volume.
- Pricing: $250 for 50 minutes, $395 for 100, $720 for 200, $1,725 for 500.
- Limitations: the most expensive line on the page at 100 calls, and intake depth depends on the script you write.
4. Posh
Posh runs live virtual receptionists with AI options, billed by receptionist minute on month-to-month plans.
- Best for: low-volume firms that want a human answer without a big package.
- Pricing: the Chic plan is $65 a month plus $2.30 a minute; other plans include minutes. Free trial of 7 days or 250 minutes.
- Limitations: per-minute billing makes long intake calls expensive.
5. Answering Legal
Answering Legal answers only for law firms, 24/7/365, with US-based bilingual receptionists.
- Best for: firms that want legal-only staff answering.
- Pricing: plans are shown after a form; no long-term contracts or setup fees, and a free trial.
- Limitations: you can’t compare price without talking to sales.
6. LEX Reception
LEX Reception provides 24/7 legal reception and intake in English and Spanish, with practice-area scripts for personal injury, criminal defense, family and immigration.
- Best for: practice areas with heavy after-hours intake.
- Pricing: plans are listed in its sign-up flow.
- Limitations: you only see prices once you start signing up.
7. Your own staff and voicemail
Plenty of firms still rotate the after-hours phone or rely on voicemail. It’s free, and it loses the callers who won’t leave a message. For a first step, add after-hours answering or missed-call text-back before replacing anything.
How to pick a legal answering service
- You want every new-client call screened and booked the same way: go with Carly.
- You want a human on every call and budget isn’t the issue: Ruby or Smith.ai’s live receptionists.
- You’re on Clio and want one vendor for humans and AI: Smith.ai.
- Legal-only staff matters most: Answering Legal or LEX Reception.
Before you sign with anyone, call the service from your cell as a new personal injury client and read what lands in your inbox. Our AI receptionist guide covers disclosure and recording rules, and best AI receptionist for small business compares the field outside law.
FAQ
How much does a legal answering service cost?
At about 100 calls a month, live legal answering runs roughly $900 to $1,700 (Smith.ai’s live plans, Posh, Ruby), before add-ons like conflict checks. AI receptionists cost far less: Smith.ai’s AI is $212.50 at that volume. Carly: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
What is the best answering service for a small law firm?
Carly, for small firms that want intake, conflict screening and consultation booking done by the same script on every call. Firms that insist on a human voice should compare Ruby and Smith.ai’s live receptionists.
Can an AI receptionist do legal intake?
Yes. You give Carly your intake questions and screening rules, and it asks them in order, books qualified callers and hands off urgent ones to a person. Legal questions get the line you script, like “an attorney will need to answer that.”
Can an answering service book consultations on my calendar?
Carly books directly on your attorneys’ Google or Outlook calendars while the caller is on the line, and texts the confirmation from your firm’s number. Smith.ai charges $1.50 a call for booking on its live plans.
Does it work with Clio?
Smith.ai integrates with Clio, and Carly connects to Clio along with thousands of other apps, so new intakes can land in your practice software.
Is a legal answering service confidential?
Ask every vendor how calls are recorded, stored and who can hear them, and put it in your engagement terms. Carly keeps call transcripts in your team’s inbox, and its privacy notice says customer data isn’t used to train AI models. This isn’t legal or ethics advice; check your state bar’s guidance on outsourced reception.
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