ClaimVela
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Free response-SLA playbook
Turn every PI inquiry into owned, measurable response work—with a precise clock, a named person, an escalation path, and a recorded next action.
Updated August 21, 2026 · Set targets that fit your staffing, operating hours, jurisdictions, consent rules, and supervision. This playbook is not legal advice and does not calculate deadlines.
Define the clock first
The earliest timestamp when a firm-controlled channel accepts the inquiry—not when a team member later opens an email, listens to a voicemail, or creates a record.
A safe confirmation that the inquiry reached the firm and what the prospective client should expect next. An automated acknowledgement alone is not a meaningful response.
A named person is accountable for the next action and can see the response target. A department, inbox, or shift is not a sufficient owner.
Two-way contact with an authorized team member who can understand the request, explain the next intake step, and own follow-up. A voicemail or one-way message does not count by itself.
The required response event happened before the firm's configured target for that channel, operating period, and urgency path.
Operating workflow
Capture the earliest reliable receipt time and create one prospective-client record regardless of source.
Owner · Channel owner
Complete when: Source, campaign, channel, contact path, consent signals, receipt time, and any delivery delay are recorded.
Confirm receipt without creating an attorney-client relationship, promising an outcome, or giving legal advice.
Owner · Intake operations
Complete when: The acknowledgement is delivered or its failed-delivery result is visible and the next expected step is clear.
Identify facts that require the firm's urgent, conflict, safety, consent, or exception process and place the ordinary path with one person.
Owner · Designated triage reviewer
Complete when: A permitted next path, named owner, response target, and escalation time are attached to the record.
Reach the prospective client through an approved channel, understand the immediate request, and establish the next intake action.
Owner · Named relationship owner
Complete when: The contact result, facts supplied, promises made, questions outstanding, and next action are timestamped.
Keep every open inquiry on an approved cadence until contact, transfer, do-not-contact, decline, referral, or another authorized disposition.
Owner · Relationship owner with supervisor backup
Complete when: No open inquiry lacks a current owner, due time, attempt result, or authorized closure path.
Minimum record
Response states
New
Received, but opening controls and assignment are not complete.
Acknowledged
Receipt confirmed; meaningful human response is still outstanding.
Owned
A named person and response target are attached to the next action.
Contacted
Meaningful two-way contact occurred and the next step is recorded.
Waiting
The firm is waiting on a defined client or third-party action with a follow-up time.
Escalated
A supervisor or authorized reviewer must intervene under firm policy.
Closed
An authorized outcome and communication record complete this response path.
Firm-configured scorecard
A market benchmark can reveal that response performance varies, but it cannot choose your service standard. Define the eligible population and exclusions for each measure, then compare your own shifts, sources, and periods consistently.
Acknowledgement time − earliest channel receipt time
Detect delivery, routing, and automation failures before they become invisible backlog.
First meaningful response time − earliest channel receipt time
Measure the client experience instead of counting an automated message as human contact.
Inquiries meeting the configured target ÷ eligible inquiries
Compare teams, shifts, channels, and periods against the firm's own service standard.
Open inquiries past target with no named owner
Surface the highest-control failure: work that is late and belongs to nobody.
Inquiries with meaningful contact ÷ eligible inquiries
Separate activity volume from actual connection with prospective clients.
Promised actions completed on time ÷ promised actions due
Measure whether the firm does what it told the prospective client it would do.
Failure-mode review
Control: Preserve the earliest firm-controlled receipt timestamp and separately record any channel-delivery delay.
Control: Assign one person and one backup with a visible escalation time for every open record.
Control: Track acknowledgement and meaningful human response as different events with different timestamps.
Control: Require an attempt result and a new owner and due time until an authorized response path closes.
Control: Define what is monitored, what is urgent, who receives exceptions, and who owns the first opening review.
Control: Use approved acknowledgement language and keep conflicts, legal advice, deadlines, and representation decisions with authorized reviewers.
After-hours worksheet
Professional boundary
Intake staff and software should not clear conflicts, calculate legal deadlines, give legal advice, determine case value, promise an outcome, or accept representation. Route those decisions through the firm's authorized process.
Put the SLA inside the intake record