Automating information intake through online forms is a transformative process for law firms, moving away from traditional paper-based forms or manual data entry. It streamlines your client interactions, making it more efficient for both the firm and the client.

The implementation process comes down to:

• Choosing the right software platform: you will have a choice of law-specific platforms (e.g., Lawmatics), and general form builders (e.g., Google Forms, Typeform, or JotForm) that may lack legal-specific features, but are more user-friendly … or your existing practice management system that may already have this functionality.

• Designing intelligent online forms: you can keep it simple by just laying out your questions in the online form, or get more advanced by including customizable fields, conditional logic (If/then statements), document upload capabilities, e-signature Integration and your company branding.

• Distributing your forms: you can embed more generic forms directly in your website for prospective clients to initiate contact, email (or SMS) direct links to the forms, host your form on your client portal to prompt your client to use the portal, or offer more fancy ways, like QR Codes.