The call comes in at 11pm. The other firm's does too.
Someone who was in a wreck this afternoon is working down a list of firms. The one that answers gets the case. Wide Awake AI answers, asks your intake questions, and puts the consultation on an attorney's calendar.
Part of our AI solutions for law firms, and of AI for law firms, next to the AI paralegal.
Pretend you were just in an accident.
A missed call is a case that signed somewhere else
Firms do not lose cases on the merits at this stage. They lose them to a phone nobody could reach on the afternoon the caller decided to hire somebody.
Legal intake industry studies, 2026. Sources on request.
It asks what your intake specialist would ask
You write the questions. It never gives legal advice and never evaluates a claim. It gets the facts, screens against your criteria, and books.
Every firm has its own version of the first five questions. What happened, when, are you being treated, has anyone else been retained, and has an adjuster made contact. Ava asks yours in your words, in English or Spanish, on the first ring and on the fourth simultaneous call.
A caller outside your practice areas is politely declined and logged, so your attorneys never spend a morning on a case you were never going to take. A caller inside them is on the calendar before they hang up.
You get the full transcript and a plain lead summary, and existing clients are routed to the person who handles them rather than dropped into intake.
The work after that call, inside the firm's systems, is AI employees for law firms.
See it on your own numberType of matter
Motor vehicle collisionDate of incident
Tuesday, within statuteCurrently treating
Seen at urgent careRepresented already
No other firm engagedInsurance contact
Adjuster left a voicemailThe rest of the business, once the phone is handled
Most people start with the phone because it is the one that visibly loses money. These three are what they ask for next.
Chases the retainer that never came back
The packet went out on Monday and it is Thursday. An AI employee follows up on the ones still unsigned, on a schedule you set, and stops the moment somebody signs.
Intake to matter to engagement letter
The details captured on the call become the matter record and the engagement letter without anyone retyping a date of loss into three systems.
The AI Paralegal
Your whole case library answerable in plain English, with a citation back to the document. Deposition testimony, demands, engagement terms, across every matter at once.
Wide Awake AI, Smith.ai, CaseGen, and a DIY voice tool
Each cell is a public fact about that company, or a fact this site already states about Wide Awake AI.
Swipe sideways to read every column.
| Smith.ai | CaseGen | DIY tool (Retell) | Wide Awake AI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI receptionists and live human agents in one virtual receptionist service, for law firms and other businesses. | AI intake and receptionist built for law firms. | Self-serve voice agent platform. You build the agent. | We build the receptionist on the firm's own questions and then run it. Based in San Diego. |
| Who maintains it | Smith.ai runs the AI and the live agents. You supply the playbook. | CaseGen's pages describe a service they implement and operate, not a builder the firm maintains. | You configure and maintain the agent. Retell provides the platform. | We do. The person who builds it stays on it. |
| Setup | The pricing page says the published plans include no setup fee. That page has an AI-first view and a human-first view. | An implementation fee, quoted with the plan. The pricing guide does not publish a dollar amount. | Self-serve signup. Retell's site describes building the agent in its dashboard. | Flat setup fee, quoted after a scope call. You approve every word before it takes a call. A receptionist can be live 72 hours from kickoff. |
| Pricing model | Published monthly call plans, plus per-call add-ons. Dollar amounts are not copied here, because the pricing page has more than one plan view. | Custom quote, billed per call, month to month. The pricing guide does not publish a dollar amount. | Pay as you go. Retell publishes $0.07 to $0.31 per minute, depending on model, voice, and telephony. | Flat monthly management. No per minute billing. This site does not publish a dollar amount. |
| Intake customization | Public pages say the AI follows your playbook and custom prompts. The pricing page lists included intake questions, with further questions as add-ons. | The legal answering page says intake scripts are customized for the firm's practice areas. | You write the agent. It is not a managed legal intake service. | The firm writes the questions. It never gives legal advice. |
| Languages | English and Spanish. The bilingual page says the AI can detect Spanish and continue in Spanish, and that live Spanish-speaking agents are available. | English and Spanish. Some CaseGen pages list more languages, and those lists do not match, so they are not repeated here. | Multiple languages, including English and Spanish. You choose which ones the agent uses. | English and Spanish. |
As of October 2026, based on public information. Sources: Smith.ai, Smith.ai pricing, Smith.ai hybrid receptionists, Smith.ai bilingual answering, CaseGen, CaseGen legal answering, CaseGen pricing guide, Retell, Retell pricing. Wide Awake AI cells repeat only what this site already says.
What gets asked before the phone is handed over
If yours is not here, ask it on the walkthrough. You will get a straight answer, including when the answer is that we are not the right fit.
Does it give legal advice?
Never. It is intake only. It qualifies, books and takes messages, and anything substantive is deferred to your attorneys, by design and by hard rule.
What about call recording consent?
Configured for your state's consent rules before launch, including the greeting disclosure. You approve the exact wording.
Can it run a conflicts check?
It captures the names of every party the caller mentions and flags them for your check. It does not clear conflicts itself, and it does not tell a caller you can represent them.
What happens to existing clients?
They are recognised and routed to the person who handles their matter, with urgent flags where you want them, rather than being run through new client intake.
How fast can it be answering?
72 hours from kickoff. You approve every word of the script before it takes a single call.
What is an AI receptionist employee for law firms?
Wide Awake AI, based in San Diego, builds an AI receptionist employee for law firms: software that answers calls, asks the firm's own intake questions, books the consultation on the attorney's calendar, and sends a transcript. The firm chooses after hours, overflow, or every call, and a receptionist can be live 72 hours from kickoff.
What is the best AI receptionist for a law firm in San Diego?
There is not a single best product. Smith.ai's public site describes AI receptionists and live human agents in one service, for law firms and other businesses, in English and Spanish. CaseGen's public site describes an AI intake service built for law firms, billed per call, with an implementation fee. A DIY platform such as Retell is software you configure and maintain, and its pricing page publishes a per-minute range. Wide Awake AI, based in San Diego, builds the receptionist on the firm's own questions and then runs it: a flat setup fee, a flat monthly fee, English and Spanish, and a receptionist can be live 72 hours from kickoff. The comparison on this page is limited to those public facts.
How much does an AI receptionist employee for a law firm cost?
Wide Awake AI quotes a flat setup fee plus flat monthly management after a scope call. There is no per minute billing, and this site does not publish a dollar amount.
Is it bilingual?
Yes. It asks the firm's questions in English or Spanish.
Does it work with Clio or MyCase?
This site does not name Clio or MyCase. It says intake details can become the matter record and the engagement letter without retyping, and that AI employees work in the practice management system the firm already uses. If a system has no way in, you hear that on the scope call before you spend anything.
Is call recording legal in California?
California is an all-party consent state for recording a confidential phone call, which means everyone on the call has to know and agree. Wide Awake AI configures the greeting disclosure for the firm's state consent rules before launch, and you approve the exact wording. That is a description of the setup, not legal advice.
The AI Paralegal, your case files answerable in plain English
Ask what the expert said in a deposition three years ago, which matters have an open settlement demand, or what your engagement letter says about costs. It answers with a citation back to the document it read, across every matter at once.
- Answers across every matter at once, not only inside one file
- Reads scans with no text layer, and 20 other file formats
- Loads from a network folder, or syncs from the systems you use
- Access granted per person, separate collections stay separate
- Sits alongside your practice management system, which does not change
One question, answered across fourteen client matters, with the source document cited for every figure.
The library it reads from. Pleadings, depositions, expert reports, demands, engagement letters.
Run it on a machine in your own office, where the documents, the index and the model never leave the building and it keeps working with the internet unplugged. Or take it as your own private hosted instance, with no hardware to buy.
Nothing in your library is used to train anyone's model, under either deployment.
The rest of what we have written for firms
Guides, comparisons and a calculator, all written for law firms rather than for search engines.
AI receptionist employees by industry
This is one AI receptionist employee build, tuned to each trade. Here is how it works in other industries, including the AI receptionist employee for insurance.
Tell us what your phone is doing
How many calls a day, who picks up now, and what happens to the ones that arrive after you close. That is enough for us to tell you whether this is worth doing.
If it is, you get a flat number on the call. If it is not, you will hear that instead of a proposal.
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- San Diego, CA