For Canadian Law Firms

AI Legal Answering Service — Captures Every New Client Call

Built for solo practitioners, paralegals, and small firms (2-15 lawyers) across Canada and the US

Aria is a 24/7 AI legal answering service built for Canadian and US law firms: family, immigration, criminal, real estate, corporate, personal injury, and employment practices. Every intake call is answered live in English or French, conflict-of-interest screening happens on the first call, and consultations get booked straight into your calendar — all with privilege-aware data handling and configurable retention. Starts at $59 CAD/month.

No setup feeLive in 48 hoursFrom $59 CAD/month
01 · The reality

Why law firms lose new clients before they ever sign a retainer

A senior legal receptionist costs $50,000-$65,000/year
Trained legal reception in Ontario or Quebec runs $50k-65k base plus CPP/QPP, EI, benefits, and paid vacation — and that buys you 40 hours of coverage Monday to Friday. Family law, criminal, and immigration callers don't keep office hours. Aria covers 168 hours/week starting at $59/mo, 90%+ cheaper than full-time staff and live around the clock.
You bill $300/hour — you can't afford to answer intake calls
Every minute spent on a cold intake call is a minute not billed to an existing matter. Worse, you're context-switching off real legal work to do administrative screening that a structured AI does better. Aria runs the intake, captures the matter type and opposing party for conflict screening, and only escalates the ones that genuinely need you.
Voicemail kills new client conversion
Someone calling a family lawyer at 9pm, a criminal defence lawyer at 2am, or an immigration lawyer about a removal order is not leaving a voicemail — they're calling the next firm on Google. Industry research pegs voicemail-to-callback conversion at under 20%. Aria answers live, captures full intake details, and books the consultation before they hang up.
Court days, depositions, and client meetings leave the phone dark
When you're in court, on a discovery, or in a privileged client meeting, nobody is answering. A missed family law intake is a $5,000-$15,000 retainer walking to a competitor. A missed personal injury call is a contingency case worth $30,000-$100,000+. Aria covers every one of those calls while you're heads-down on existing matters.
02 · How Aria helps

What Aria does for your firm

Answers like a trained legal receptionist
Professional tone calibrated for legal practice — no chirpy small-business script. Aria identifies your firm by name, asks structured intake questions (matter type, jurisdiction, urgency, opposing party), and handles callers in distress with the composure your reputation requires.
Books consultations live into your calendar
Aria books initial 30-minute consultations directly into your Google, Outlook, or practice-management calendar — respecting your court schedule, blocked focus time, and consultation-fee preferences. The caller leaves the call with a confirmed slot and an email confirmation, not a promise that someone will get back to them.
Captures matter details and screens conflicts
Every call generates a structured intake record: matter type, jurisdiction, opposing party (for conflict screening), key dates, urgency, and full caller details. The record lands in your dashboard and inbox before the caller has stepped out of their car — so the lawyer running point can clear conflicts and confirm representation that same day.
Scales from solo practice to 15-lawyer firm
Whether you're a solo family lawyer in Trois-Rivières or a 15-attorney corporate firm in Toronto, Aria runs on the same flat monthly pricing — $59 Starter, $159 Pro, $389 Premium. No per-call charges, no per-seat fees, no annual contract. Add practice areas or lawyers without re-quoting.
Books consultations live into your calendar
“What is a legal answering service?”“How does Aria handle attorney-client privilege?”“Can it screen for conflicts of interest?”“Does it integrate with Clio, MyCase, or PracticePanther?”“How fast can we go live?”
EN · FR
Bilingual EN + FR — required, not an upsell
Aria detects English or French on the first syllable and runs the entire intake in the caller's language. Critical for Quebec firms operating under Bill 96 and the Quebec Code of Civil Procedure, and a real advantage for Ontario and New Brunswick firms serving francophone clients. No language fee, no separate line.
“I'm in court three or four days a week. Before Aria, every court day meant a stack of missed calls and a paralegal scrambling to call people back — half of whom had already retained someone else. Aria handles the intake, screens the matter type, and books the consultation while I'm at the courthouse. We signed three new family law files our first month that we would have lost.”
— Caroline T., Family Lawyer, Montreal
04 · The math

The ROI math for law firms

Average new-client lifetime value for a small Canadian law firm runs $3,000-$50,000+ depending on practice area (family retainers $5k-15k, personal injury contingency $20k-100k+, corporate clients ongoing). Capturing even one extra new client per month with Aria pays for the service many times over.

$5,000+/mo
in recovered new-client revenue
Typical small firm
05 · How fast

How it works

01
1. We build your firm's intake script
You tell us your practice areas, consultation fee policy, conflict-screening questions, and after-hours emergency routing. We configure Aria with your firm name, lawyers, jurisdictions, and intake fields — typically a 30-minute kickoff call.
02
2. We forward your line to Aria
Point your existing business number to Aria (or use a new Aria-provisioned number with your existing line as fallback). No phone-system replacement, no hardware. Your callers see no difference — they just stop hitting voicemail.
03
3. Aria takes calls 24/7
Within 48 hours of kickoff, Aria is answering every call, booking consultations into your calendar, capturing intake details for conflict review, and escalating genuine emergencies to your on-call lawyer per your routing rules.
06 · Common questions

Frequently asked questions

A legal answering service handles incoming calls for a law firm — answering FAQs, running structured intake (matter type, jurisdiction, opposing party, urgency), booking consultations, and escalating genuine emergencies to the on-call lawyer. Unlike a generic answering service, a legal one understands conflict screening, privilege expectations, and the structured information a lawyer needs before agreeing to represent. Aria is an AI legal answering service that runs 24/7 in English and French starting at $59 CAD/month.
Aria handles initial intake calls — by definition, those callers are not yet your clients, so privilege has not attached. That said, Aria is built for legal-grade data handling: full call transcripts are stored only as long as your firm configures (default 30 days, can be reduced to 24 hours), conversation summaries are encrypted at rest, and your firm controls who on your team can access call records. Aria does not train on your call data and does not share intake records with other firms or third parties.
Yes. The intake script captures opposing party names, related parties, prior counsel where disclosed, and matter type — exactly the inputs your conflict-check process needs. The structured record lands in your dashboard and inbox the moment the call ends, so your firm's designated conflict reviewer can clear or flag the file before you commit to a consultation. Aria does not run the conflict check itself (your case management system or manual review does that), but it captures every input the check requires.
Aria integrates with Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, and CosmoLex via direct API where available, plus Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, and Calendly for booking. New intake records can be posted to your practice management as new matters or leads, and consultations get written to the assigned lawyer's calendar with the full intake summary in the event description. We also support Zapier for everything else.
Aria detects English or French on the first words spoken and runs the entire call in the caller's language — required practice for any firm operating in Quebec under the Charter of the French Language as amended by Bill 96. Both languages are native, not translated; the legal terminology (mise en demeure, droit familial, divorce sans contestation) is correct in Quebec French. There is no separate bilingual line or upcharge.
Yes. You configure emergency routing rules per practice area and time of day. Examples: criminal/DUI calls between 6pm and 8am ring the on-call defence lawyer's mobile after Aria captures the booking station and charges; family law calls about safety or child apprehension trigger an immediate SMS to the partner on rotation. Non-emergency callers get booked into the next available consultation slot.
Aria runs flat-rate: $59 CAD/mo Starter (150 minutes), $159 Pro (500 minutes), $389 Premium (1500 minutes) — no per-call surcharges, no setup fee, no annual contract. Smith.ai Legal plans start around $293 USD/mo (roughly $400 CAD) and Ruby Legal typically runs $400-700+ CAD/mo depending on call volume, with per-call overage fees on top. For most solo and small firms, Aria is 70-85% cheaper while covering 24/7 instead of business hours only.
Most firms are live within 48 hours of the kickoff call. Day 1: 30-minute call to capture your firm name, lawyers, practice areas, intake fields, consultation policy, and emergency routing rules. Day 2: we deliver a tested intake script, you place a test call, and once you approve, you forward your business line. There is no phone system to swap, no hardware, and no IT lift on your end.

Stop losing retainers to voicemail

Most law firms that try Aria capture at least one extra new client in the first month — easily 10× the monthly fee. Start your 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

07 · Keep exploring

Related services

01
24/7 Answering Service
Round-the-clock call coverage for any business — same Aria platform, broader use case.
02
Bilingual Answering Service
Native English + French intake in a single agent — critical for Quebec firms under Bill 96.
03
After-Hours Answering Service
Evenings, weekends, holidays, court-day coverage — when your office is dark, Aria is still answering.