24 7 Law Firm Answering Service

Law firm calls don't follow office hours. A potential client with a personal injury question may call at 9 p.m. on a Friday. A current client may call on a Sunday worried about a hearing. With full-time coverage, those calls get answered by a receptionist that knows your practice areas, your hours, and the information you want shared.

AllDayDesk answers calls using the business information you save. When a caller asks something the service doesn't know — like a specific legal fee or the status of a case — it takes a message instead of guessing. That matters in legal work, where a wrong answer can create real problems. Existing appointment changes are passed to you as requests, not confirmed changes, so you stay in control of your schedule.

Everything the service handles is visible in your dashboard: calls, transcripts, summaries, and any bookings. You can review what was said and follow up the next business day.

• Calls answered around the clock using your firm's saved information
• Messages taken when an answer, price, or appointment isn't known
• New consultations booked into the built-in AllDayDesk calendar once you've set up services and availability
• Optional Google Calendar connection available in Settings after you connect and authorize your account
• Call transcripts and summaries stored in your dashboard for review

Not every firm needs 24 7 coverage, and it's worth thinking through your call patterns before committing. Full-time coverage fits certain situations better than others.

If you run a solo practice, you are usually the one answering your own phone. When you're in court, meeting a client, or simply off duty, calls pile up. An always-on service catches those calls so a caller with an urgent matter doesn't hit voicemail at midnight. If your practice depends on fast intake — personal injury, criminal defense, family law — a caller who reaches voicemail may simply move on to the next firm on their list, so being reachable in the evening can matter.

If your firm already has staff covering business hours and your after-hours volume is light, a narrower option may be enough. Evenings and weekends only might fit better, and you can always expand later.

• Solo and small firms where the attorney answers their own phone
• Practice areas where a caller who reaches voicemail may move on to the next firm on their list
• Firms that currently lose after-hours calls to voicemail
• Firms with steady daytime coverage may prefer evenings-and-weekends coverage instead

Setup starts by choosing your law firm from a business listing or entering your firm's website. AllDayDesk pulls in your public details — practice areas, hours, location — and you check that everything is accurate before going further. You then hear a personalized sample of how your receptionist will sound and what it will say. The sample is a preview only; it doesn't create a real booking or handle a real caller.

Next you choose your phone setup. Owners typically keep their public number and forward calls to AllDayDesk. The forwarding steps depend on your phone service, so check which product you actually have before using any instructions — a Verizon mobile line, a Verizon business landline, and AT&T Collaborate all use different steps.

For example, on Verizon mobile you activate all-call forwarding by dialing *72 plus the 10-digit destination from the phone itself, and *73 turns it off. On T-Mobile, **21*1 followed by the destination and # enables unconditional forwarding, and ##21# disables it. Comcast Business features are managed through My Account or the Comcast Business App, and the exact steps depend on whether you have Voice Mobility, Business Voice, or VoiceEdge. Spectrum Business Voice forwarding is set in the SpectrumBusiness.net portal under Voice Settings or Forwarding Manager, where you can choose all calls or busy/no-answer forwarding.

• Choose your business or enter your website so details can be pulled in
• Review and correct the information before activation
• Listen to a personalized sample — it creates no real booking
• Choose phone setup and forward your existing number using your carrier's steps
• Identify your exact phone product first; codes differ between wireless, landline, and hosted services

Some calls genuinely need you — a longtime client with an emergency, or a caller who insists on speaking with the attorney. AllDayDesk supports transfers, but you configure the destination and the rules for when transfers happen. A transfer is not guaranteed to be picked up or answered immediately, so treat transfers as one tool among several rather than a promise of instant contact.

When the service doesn't know an answer — a fee question, a case status, a conflict check — it takes a message for you. That's the right behavior for a law firm: no invented legal advice, no guessed prices. You review the message in your dashboard and respond on your schedule.

Note that AllDayDesk does not connect to case management software, CRM systems, or legal intake platforms. Bookings go to the built-in dashboard calendar by default, or to Google Calendar if you connect and authorize it in Settings. Intake details collected on calls stay in your dashboard rather than flowing into other systems.

• Transfers require you to configure a destination and rules first
• Neither pickup nor immediate response is guaranteed on a transfer
• Unknown answers, prices, or appointments become messages, not guesses
• No connections to CRM, case management, or legal intake software
• Google Calendar is an optional connection you authorize in Settings

Pricing for AllDayDesk plans is displayed separately on this page, so check the plan details shown below for included minutes and rates. Costs vary with call volume, so a firm with heavy intake traffic will use more minutes than one with occasional calls.

Human-staffed services are the main alternative. Ruby, a live virtual receptionist company, advertises plans starting at $245 per month as of October 2026. Smith.ai offers both human per-call receptionist pricing and a separate AI receptionist product with escalation to live agents. AnswerConnect provides 24/7 live answering by people. These starting prices are not complete comparisons — included minutes, overage rates, hours, and contract terms all differ, so verify current quotes directly.

An in-house receptionist is another option, but the role covers more than phones: the Bureau of Labor Statistics describes receptionists as also greeting visitors and handling office tasks. A phone service replaces the call-answering part of that job, not the whole role. Also compare scope honestly: human services offer judgment and empathy on nuanced calls, while an AI service offers consistent around-the-clock availability. The right choice depends on your call types and budget.

• AllDayDesk plan pricing is shown separately below — check included minutes and overage rates
• Ruby live receptionists: plans advertised from $245/month (October 2026); verify full terms on a current quote
• Smith.ai: per-call human pricing plus a separate AI receptionist product
• AnswerConnect: 24/7 live answering by people; confirm plan details on their site
• In-house receptionists cover front-desk tasks beyond phones, per BLS role descriptions

Before committing to any provider, work through a short checklist. First, decide the coverage window you actually need: full-time, or evenings and weekends only. Second, list the information callers ask for most — practice areas, consultation scheduling, directions — and confirm the service can use it. Third, decide what should never be answered automatically, such as fee quotes or case advice, and make sure the service takes messages for those instead.

Fourth, check whether your phone service supports forwarding to an outside number. The steps vary by carrier and product, and some services like Google Voice explicitly do not support forwarding calls to an automated system. Fifth, decide where bookings should land: the built-in dashboard calendar, or Google Calendar once you've connected it in Settings.

With AllDayDesk, you can test the fit before changing anything: enter your firm's website, review the details it found, and hear a personalized sample of your receptionist. If it sounds right for your practice, choose your phone setup and start forwarding.

• Decide coverage window: full-time vs evenings and weekends
• List the information callers ask for and confirm it's saved accurately
• Identify questions that should always become messages, like fees and case advice
• Verify your phone product supports forwarding and find its exact steps
• Choose your calendar: built-in dashboard calendar or authorized Google Calendar