Skip to content
Arrange a meeting

Product reference

Intake: how it works

Start with the prospect’s account and documents. Follow conflicts and engagement into initial research, proposed claims and the evidence counsel still needs.

On this page

Return to intake

Availability

Available
Supported work
Turn the first account and supplied documents into a focused consultation, then carry accepted work into research and proposed claims.
Start with
The intake account, supplied documents and recorded identities support initial issue research and claim proposals. Research results are bounded starting material; an unknown forum catalog can leave a theory unresolved.
Key limit
Screening reaches the firm’s recorded relationships. A thin record gives a thin screen; counsel decides what a possible match means.

Some capabilities have their own availability or configuration requirements, shown below.

Before you start

  • The intake account, supplied documents and recorded identities support initial issue research and claim proposals. Research results are bounded starting material; an unknown forum catalog can leave a theory unresolved.
  • A licensed attorney at the firm. Accepting a matter from an inquiry is refused without one.
  • A firm record for the conflicts check to read: the firm's other matters, its contacts, its record of declined prospects and its members' prior affiliations. A thin record gives a thin screen.
  • Matters and contacts imported from a Clio or Filevine export give the check more to compare.

How it works

Bring the prospect’s account, supplied documents and unanswered facts into counsel’s review. Screen the firm’s recorded relationships before engagement. Once accepted, the inquiry carries into initial research and proposed claims, helping counsel review governing requirements and choose the next evidence request.

What do we have, what is still missing, and what should counsel investigate next?

From the account to the matter

  • Turn the account into questions to investigate

    North Harbor’s refused credit and the supplied agreement and defect report frame a notice question. In the accepted matter, initial research and proposed claims give counsel starting material to review governing law and claim requirements. The contract clause remains contractual text, not a researched holding.

  • Ask for the evidence that answers the question

    The inquiry’s documents move into the accepted matter as starting sources for factual comparison and chronology. To investigate when the supplier learned of the defect, ask for the original notice communication and attachment. Keep receipt and reading open until evidence addresses them.

Before you accept

  • Screen the firm's recorded relationships

    Available

    BRON compares the people and companies in the inquiry with your firm's recorded relationships, across every member's matters, not only the accepting attorney's. A match is for the attorney to assess. It is not a conflicts decision.

  • A flagged check holds the engagement

    A flagged check holds the engagement until an attorney records clear, waived or acknowledged. BRON keeps the word the attorney chose, because a waiver and a clearance are different findings.

  • A lateral's prior affiliations are screened

    Available

    A lateral attorney's prior firms, prior clients and personal conflicts are recorded and included in every screen. Whether a screen or consent cures a hit is the firm's call.

  • Ethical walls hold in the app and in the database

    Available

    A walled member is blocked in the application and again in the database. If the wall cannot be checked, access is denied.

  • Admission is recorded for each forum

    Available

    Admission is recorded for each forum, including pro hac vice, and checked before an attorney signs a filing there.

When an inquiry arrives

  • Explain the intake before gathering facts

    The firm's public intake page tells the prospect at the start that it gathers facts for an attorney's review, creates no attorney-client relationship and cannot give legal advice.

  • Gather names for the conflicts check

    The intake page asks for the full names of everyone involved, including employers, related companies, insurers and opposing lawyers. It ends with a recap and a list of what is still missing, for the prospect to correct.

  • Flag an inquiry left waiting

    An inquiry nobody has moved is flagged after 4 hours. The flag goes to the attorney who claimed it, or to the firm owner if no one has. Later stages are flagged after 24 or 72 hours.

  • An unknown sender is held

    Email from a sender the firm does not know is held until the sender proves the address with a one-time code or a licensed attorney confirms them.

Opening the engagement

  • An attorney decides the engagement

    Accepting a matter, declining a prospect and sending an engagement letter for signature need a licensed attorney at the firm. Staff can prepare a decline or a letter. A firm owner without a verified bar number can also act, and the log records it.

  • The prospect's documents move to the matter

    When an attorney accepts the matter, the documents the prospect sent are attached to it.

  • The attorney chooses when the client is invited

    On accepting, the attorney chooses whether the client's portal invitation goes now or once the engagement letter is signed. Waiting for the signed letter is the default, and the invitation also waits while a conflicts question is open.

What it reads from

  • The firm's public intake page
  • Email and calls, once the sender is confirmed
  • A client's request in the portal
  • Matters and contacts imported from a Clio or Filevine export

Who can do what

  • An attorney decides engagement and reviews the proposed legal theory. The accepted account and documents connect to matter intelligence and client evidence requests without becoming established findings. A supplied contract clause is not a researched holding.
  • A licensed attorney at the firm accepts a matter, declines a prospect or sends an engagement letter for signature. Staff can prepare a decline or a letter.
  • A firm owner without a verified bar number can also act, and the log records it.
  • An attorney releases the engagement hold by recording clear, waived or acknowledged. BRON keeps the word chosen, because a waiver and a clearance are different findings.
  • Whether a screen or consent cures a lateral attorney's prior-affiliation match is the firm's call.
  • On accepting, the attorney chooses whether the client's portal invitation goes now or once the engagement letter is signed. Waiting is the default.
  • Accepting an inquiry opens the matter and carries its documents into it. It does not itself record a signed engagement letter or settle the proposed claims and governing requirements.

What it produces

  • Matter intelligence, from the parties and documents
  • The conflicts record and the firm's ethical walls
  • The engagement letter and its signature
  • The client portal, once the engagement is open

Limits

  • A conflicts check compares what the firm has recorded. It is not a search of the world, and a thin record gives a thin screen.
  • Importing matters and contacts from a Clio or Filevine export gives the check more to compare.

What BRON will not do

  • Report a screen that failed as one that found nothing.

    A screen that read fewer of the firm's matters would look clean. BRON holds the engagement instead, and the client-portal invite waits.

  • Answer a prospect's question about their own case.

    The intake page gathers facts for an attorney's review. A reply that reads as legal advice is replaced with the fixed question for that step before the prospect sees it.

  • Put a limitations date on a prospect's account.

    A prospect's account cannot settle which law governs or when a claim accrued, so the consultation brief gives no date.

  • Open a matter to hold a request.

    A request from a prospect or a client stays a request until an attorney acts on it.

  • Release the engagement hold without an audit entry.

    If the release cannot be recorded in the audit trail, the hold stays in place and the attorney is asked to record the decision again.

When something goes wrong

  • No supplied document or initial research result establishes that every claim, controlling authority or required item of evidence has been found.
  • If part of the firm's record cannot be read, the check does not record a clear result. The engagement stays on hold, and the client-portal invite waits.
  • If an attorney's release cannot be written to the audit trail, the hold stays in place.
  • If an ethical wall cannot be checked, access is denied.
  • Email from a sender the firm does not know is held until the sender proves the address with a one-time code or a licensed attorney confirms them.
  • If a reply on the public intake page reads as legal advice, BRON replaces it with the fixed question for that step.
  • An inquiry nobody has moved is flagged after 4 hours to the attorney who claimed it, or to the firm owner if no one has.
  • The consultation brief gives no limitations date from a prospect's account.