Intake Checklist & Call Cheatsheet for Your Team

All personal-injury based businesses, whether medical funding or plaintiff funding, revolve around generating a steady supply of viable cases in which to invest. This means performing an intentional and efficient intake of plaintiffs’ applications and their respective claims is crucial.

And, as we always try to emphasize, having powerful systems in place at the frontend of the funding process makes your entire business run more smoothly and, in turn, helps increase your returns.

This post contains two free resources to help you build, or rebuild, a process-oriented intake process.

What is an Intake Call?

An intake call is a meeting or call with a legal intake specialist to discuss the requirements, details, services, and any information their potential client needs to know. It’s also where legal intake specialists set the expectation of services.

Intake Call Outline - The first resource is a cheat sheet outlining a typical intake phone call with a plaintiff, which lists some of the most important steps to take and the right questions to ask while on the phone.

It will help you organize your approach to all client intake calls. And although some of the conversations will overlap, you may need to have a similar conversation with the plaintiff’s attorney (where you should be more focused on gathering additional information).  

Intake Checklist - The second document is an accompanying intake checklist for your employees to use during every client intake call he or she makes.

The basic purpose of this checklist is to qualify the lead, organize any additional information, and learn about the plaintiff and his or her case, and set expectations for the potential funding. This document will be extremely helpful come time to submit a case to your underwriters.

It’s important to think about how your business might personalize these resources to suit its specific needs. With this in mind, we’ve provided a link below where you can download each and modify them for your business.

Plaintiff Intake Call Cheatsheet

Beginning - Introduction & Gather Plaintiff Contact Information

Introduce yourself to the plaintiff and briefly describe what your company does in plain English.  

Next, get right into the information gathering on the plaintiff themself; knowledge gained at this point will help confirm whether or not the plaintiff has an existing application in your system. At this juncture, you can also attempt to verify whether or not the case in question is within your funding parameters (and/or qualify for another round of funding if previously funded).

Be sure to gather the following info during the first minute or two of your call:

• Plaintiff’s full name
• Date of birth
• Phone
• Email
• Inquire about previous funding(s) on this claim from a legal funding company

Middle -  Gather case and attorney details & Set Expectations

Now is the time to inquire about the case—to get a general sense of the claim, the injury, timing, and whether or not the plaintiff is represented.

This is crucial information that you will eventually package for your underwriting team.

Spend 5-10 minute gathering case information:

• Case type
• Date of loss
• Treatment(s) information
• Timeline of accident → initial treatment → ongoing treatment
• Attorney name, phone, and email
• Ensure plaintiff’s expectations of the funding process and funding amount are realistic.

End - Next steps

This is the time to inform the plaintiff about the next steps in the intakeprocess.

Give him/her a realistic time frame for decision-making and ensure you have the appropriate (and preferred) means to stay in touch throughout the process.

You’ll want to discuss the following:

• Let the plaintiff know you will be contacting his/her lawyer immediately after you hang up with them.
• Verify that the phone number provided by the plaintiff can receive texts.
• Refer plaintiff to your online portal registration to check for updates.
• Advise plaintiff on the next steps and timeline of the intake process, especially when you will text/call them next.

Plaintiff Intake Checklist

Priorities:

• Gather basic personal and case information (qualify the lead).
• Educate the plaintiff client on the funding process and costs involved.
• Set expectations for timeline and communication
• Work to improve trust/credibility for plaintiffs and their attorneys.
• Prioritize your own time – disqualify bad leads and manage plaintiff expectations.

Client/Plaintiff Info:

• Name – Plaintiff’s full name (and aliases)
• Domicile – State of primary residence
• Address – Home/work address(es)
• Contact Info – Phone numbers, including a reliable mobile phone that can receive texts
• Contact Info – Email address

Case Info:

• Case Type – In what type of lawsuit are you involved?
• Date of Loss – What was the date of the incident?
• Damages – What injuries (hardship, physical, etc.) did you sustain as a result?
• Treatment – What sort of treatment have you received as a result of the injuries?
• Ask if the plaintiff had any surgery or injections (for which the plaintiff was put to sleep, i.e. epidural or trigger injections) after funding?
• Prior Funding – Have you received any prior funding on this case? If YES:
• Make a note to cross-reference with ALFA to get the name of the funder.
• Ask about the total funding amount and when it was taken.

Attorney Info:

• Attorney Name – What is your attorney’s full name?
• Attorney Firm – Do you know the name of your attorney’s law firm?
• Funding – Is the attorney aware that you are seeking funding?
• Point of Contact – Is there a paralegal with whom you usually speak?

Educate Client:

• Costs – Ensure the prospective client understands the funding process and that plaintiff financing is inherently expensive (i.e. it will reduce the amount of the settlement the plaintiff could receive).
• Client told to call attorney – Ask the prospective client to please notify his or her attorney  of an upcoming call from the funding company, which will speed up the process.

Set Expectations:

• Amount of funding – Ensure the new client is aware that we cannot guarantee the amount requested, but we can guarantee the amount for which the case eventually qualifies.
• Contact – Ensure the client is aware we won’t reach out to him/her for 24-48 hours as we will be working to gather paperwork from their attorney.
• Email/Text/Portal – Ensure the client is aware that email and text are the best ways to get in touch if he or she has a question
• Timeline – Ensure new client is aware that funding takes time and whether he or she is okay with waiting (and re-emphasize that the process will go faster if her or she calls their attorney!)

Internal Hand-Off:

• Prepare case file for submission to underwriting team