Free Legal Client Intake Form Templates: Personal Injury and Family Law
A good intake form is the least glamorous document in your firm and one of the most consequential. It is the difference between a first consultation that starts with facts and one that starts with twenty minutes of collecting them; between catching a conflict before the consultation and discovering it after; between spotting the court date eleven days out and hearing about it at the hearing.
Below are two intake form templates you can download and make your own — one for personal injury matters, one for family law. I drafted them as an attorney, in plain English, around the questions that actually change what a firm does next. They are free, they are yours to edit, and no email address is required to download them.
What makes a legal client intake form good
Three things, in order. First, it captures the other party’s full name early — because the conflict check comes before everything, and an intake form that forgets to ask is a malpractice trap wearing a friendly font. Second, it separates the overview from the detail: the form should collect the general shape of the situation and leave narratives, medical records, and evidence for the attorney — both because that is where they belong professionally and because a stressed person facing a four-page interrogation gives up. Third, it surfaces urgency explicitly: deadlines, scheduled hearings, pressure to sign, safety concerns. Everything else on a form is convenience; those three are protection.
The personal injury intake form template
Six sections: the potential client’s contact details; the incident (date, county, and type — the date matters because time limits do); other parties, structured for your conflict check, including the other side’s insurer and counsel if known; an injuries-and-treatment overview that deliberately stays general — detailed medical history belongs in the attorney-client relationship, not on a first-contact form; insurance contacts and communications, including whether a recorded statement has been given or anything offered or signed; and urgency. There is an office-use conflict-check line at the bottom, because a checkbox that exists gets checked.
The family law intake form template
Eight sections, and two design choices worth explaining. The contact section asks not just how to reach the person but whether it is safe to — whether messages can be left, whether email is private — because in family matters the other party often shares the home, the phone plan, or the inbox. And there is a dedicated, deliberately brief safety section: any history or fear of violence, any protection orders, immediate concerns — yes-or-no only, with no narrative asked for, plus the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) printed where a person in trouble will see it. The rest covers the matter type, the other party (structured for conflict screening), marriage dates, children, a finances overview, and urgency including hearings within thirty days.
How to customize these client intake form templates
Replace the header with your letterhead, add your state-specific language, and prune anything your practice does not need — a shorter form that gets completed beats a thorough one that gets abandoned. Keep the confidentiality note and the no-attorney-client-relationship disclaimer at the top; adapt them to your Bar’s requirements. And keep the office-use conflict line. These are general templates, not legal advice — review them against your jurisdiction’s rules before use.
Download the templates — free, no email required
Frequently asked questions
What should a legal client intake form include?
At minimum: how to reach the potential client, the full name of the other party involved (so the conflict check can run before the consultation), the general kind of matter, the county, and anything urgent - deadlines, scheduled hearings, pressure to sign, or safety concerns. The overview belongs on the form; the narrative belongs with the attorney.
Should an intake form ask for medical details?
No. A first-contact form should confirm whether someone was injured and whether treatment is ongoing - yes or no - and stop there. Diagnoses, medications, and records belong inside the attorney-client relationship, collected through proper channels after engagement. Both templates here are built around that line.
Are these templates legal advice?
No - they are general starting points drafted in plain English. Every state and every Bar has its own requirements, so review and adapt them to your jurisdiction and your practice before use.
The quiet limitation of every intake form
A form only works on the people who fill it out. The visitor on your website at midnight — the one who just typed “do I need a lawyer” into a search engine — rarely downloads a PDF and returns it. That gap between forms and reality is why we built Alex, an AI receptionist for law firms that has this same intake conversation with your website visitors naturally, one question at a time, and delivers the completed intake to your inbox the moment the conversation ends. You can try it on our homepage: https://lexarai.com/#demo. But whether or not an AI receptionist is in your future, take the templates — they are the same intake thinking, on paper.
Related: Legal Intake, Explained — our complete guide to the whole intake process · all guides.