24/7 answering service for lawyers: nights, weekends and holidays
Della takes the overnight calls. Your team takes the morning. Every after-hours caller is answered in your firm's name, qualified and on your desk by dawn.
Built for legal intake from the first call. Never gives legal advice. Month-to-month.
Last updated
Neck and back pain, ER visit the same night. Other driver at fault, police report filed. Other driver’s insurer named. Callback number captured.
What is a 24/7 answering service for lawyers?
A 24/7 answering service for lawyers answers a firm's phone in the hours nobody is in the office. A firm open nine to five on weekdays staffs 40 of the 168 hours in a week, under a quarter. The other 128 hours are nights, weekends and holidays, and that is when a 24-hour legal answering service earns its fee.
Where do your calls go when the office is closed?
- To voicemail, where the caller hangs up and tries the next firm.
- To a message service that passes on a name and a number, but nothing about the matter.
- To your own cell phone, at dinner, at 11pm and at weekends, for as long as you can keep it up.
What does an after-hours call cost if nobody takes it?
An ABA Law Practice Division study, with calls placed during and after business hours, found fewer than 10% of callers reached a lawyer and 32% went straight to voicemail. In 42% of cases the lawyer took three or more days to reply. (Lawyers Mutual NC, 2019) A caller with an arrest, a crash or a deadline rarely waits three days.
What are missed calls costing your firm?
Start with your after-hours calls: count the ones that reach voicemail between closing and opening. The cost of a missed call is the fee from the case that caller would have signed. Work it out for your own firm: missed calls a month × share that are new matters × your sign rate × your average fee. The sliders start on example figures. Move them to your own numbers.
For the method and what to count as a missed call, see the full missed-call cost calculator on calldella.com.
What would full coverage be worth to you?
- If every call from last weekend was qualified and on your desk on Monday at 7am, how many would you sign?
- Whose evenings come back, yours or your team's?
- How much sooner would you reach the urgent matters if you heard about them the same night?
How does a 24 hour legal answering service handle urgent calls?
A 24 hour legal answering service handles urgent calls by deciding, on the call, which ones can't wait, and getting those to a lawyer that night. That is harder than it sounds. A message-taking service treats every call the same, so a family calling about an arrest sits in the same pile as a billing question. Della scores every caller for urgency from one to five as the intake runs. A call that scores as urgent goes to the attorney on call by email straight away, with the summary attached, so they can judge it in a minute rather than call back blind. The rest wait in the morning brief, sorted with the strongest cases first. You tell us who is on call during setup. Della never tells a caller the firm has taken the case, and she never gives advice. She takes the facts and makes sure the right person sees them.
After hours legal answering service: what should you compare?
An after hours legal answering service should be compared on what reaches you, not on the hours it claims. Almost every service says 24/7. The useful questions are who answers at 2am, what they ask, and what you find in the morning. Ask whether the service answers in your firm's name, whether it takes a full intake for your practice area or a message, how an urgent call reaches the attorney on call, and whether every call opens with a recording disclosure for your state. Then ask about price: per minute, per call or flat, and what happens in a month with more calls than usual. Finally, ask to hear it take a live call before you sign. For a side-by-side of published facts on five services, including the best after hours answering service for lawyers by your own criteria, see the disclosed comparison.
How Della covers the 128 hours
| If this is happening | What Della does |
|---|---|
| Calls go to voicemail at night | Answers in your firm's name, every night, weekend and holiday |
| Messages arrive with no case detail | Takes the full intake for your practice area, with the best callback number and window |
| The urgent call waits with the rest | Scores every caller for urgency and alerts the attorney on call by email straight away |
| Mornings start with callbacks in the dark | Delivers every call as a dossier by dawn: summary, urgency, recording and transcript |
| You carry the phone home | Takes the overnight shift, so your days start with a sorted list |
| Hours | Who answers |
|---|---|
| Office hours, weekdays | Your team, as now |
| Weekday nights | Della |
| Weekends and holidays | Della |
| Daytime calls nobody picks up | Della, if you forward on no-answer |
See also the legal answering service page for the types of service, and legal intake services for what a full intake contains. The home page covers why Della takes the intake rather than a message.
Hear Della take a call
Book a 30-minute demo and we'll run a live after-hours call for your practice area while you listen, then walk you through the dossier she files. Below is a sample brief from a test caller.
Neck and back pain, ER visit the same night. Other driver at fault, police report filed. Other driver’s insurer named. Callback number captured.
Questions about 24/7 answering
Does Della cover the daytime too?
Della is an overnight specialist. She takes the calls your firm can't: nights, weekends, holidays, and any call you forward when nobody answers. Your team keeps the daytime phone. If you forward on no-answer, Della also catches the calls that ring out at lunch or while every line is busy, so nothing reaches voicemail.
How does an urgent call reach the attorney on call?
Della scores every caller for urgency as the call ends. When a call is urgent, the attorney on call gets an email alert straight away with the summary, so they can decide whether to call back that night. Everything else waits in the morning brief, sorted so the strongest cases sit at the top.
What does Della cost?
Solo is $329 a month with 300 minutes, built for solo lawyers. Practice is $598 a month with 600 minutes. Both include the Call Della dashboard, urgent-call email alerts and a morning brief by 7am. Group is priced to your volume. Extra minutes are $0.50 each. Month-to-month, no setup fee.
Will callers mind speaking to an AI?
Della introduces herself by name, speaks calmly and asks one question at a time. If a caller asks whether she's an AI, she tells them. Every call is recorded, so you can hear exactly how each caller was treated. Book a demo and judge the conversation for yourself.
Is this allowed under bar rules?
Della never gives legal advice, never quotes fees and never implies the firm has taken the case. She collects facts, and you decide what happens next. Every call opens with a recording disclosure set for your state. Call Della's compliance guides on calldella.com cover the detail, including ABA Formal Opinion 512 on lawyers' use of AI.
How do calls reach Della?
You forward your office line to Della after hours, when nobody answers, or both. Your number doesn't change. Setup is short: answer a few questions about your practice, get your own Della number, make a test call, then switch on forwarding when you are ready to go live.
Hire Della
| Solo | Practice | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $329 a month | $598 a month |
| Minutes included | 300 | 600 |
| Built for | Solo lawyers | Small and growing firms |
| Della answering in your firm's name, nights, weekends and holidays | Yes | Yes |
| The Call Della dashboard: every call as a dossier with summary, urgency score, recording and transcript | Yes | Yes |
| Urgent-call email alerts to the attorney on call | Yes | Yes |
| A morning brief by 7am in your time zone | Yes | Yes |
| Recording disclosure set for your state | Yes | Yes |
| Your own Della number, with forwarding and a test call before you go live | Yes | Yes |
| Extra minutes | $0.50 each | $0.50 each |
Group: custom minutes, priced to your volume, more than one practice area, crm webhook. Every plan is month-to-month with no setup fee.