The problem
A client who misses a hearing can face a warrant, a further charge for failing to surrender and a wasted day for the advocate, and many criminal clients lose their paperwork. If a firm phones 45 clients a month the day before their hearing and each call or failed attempt takes 6 minutes, that's 270 minutes, 4.5 hours a month.
What the AI does
Every hearing date is recorded first in the firm's case management diary, and a fee earner checks it against the court's notice. As a secondary prompt, when the date goes in, a member of staff schedules two texts in Firetext, one two days before and one on the morning, giving the date, time, court and the office number. The text gives no advice and doesn't mention the charge. The duty to attend stays with the client, and the firm's diary, not the text, is the record.
A worked example
A criminal defense firm in Swansea has about 45 client hearings a month. The case diary holds every date, checked by a fee earner; an assistant then schedules two Firetext reminders for each and checks each morning that the day's texts went out.
Before
Day-before phone calls to 45 clients: 270 minutes a month, many unanswered
After
About 2 minutes to schedule two texts per hearing: 90 minutes a month
What it's worth
About $120£90€107A$173C$169 a month of staff time, if it is worth $40£30€36A$58C$56 an hour: 4 minutes saved on each of 45 hearings is 180 minutes, 3 hours. Two texts per hearing use about 90 credits a month, about $5.99£4.50€5.36A$8.64C$8.46 at 5p a credit excluding VAT, bought as a 500-credit bundle for $33£25€30A$48C$47. Fewer missed hearings would be the bigger gain, but that isn't counted here.
How to set it up
- Record every hearing date in your case management diary first, with a fee earner checking it against the court's notice.
- Get each client's agreement to texts at the start of the matter, and check the mobile number at every contact.
- Write a short template with the date, time, court and office number, with no mention of the charge, and have a solicitor approve it.
- When a date goes into the diary, schedule two texts for that client in Firetext.
- Each morning, check Firetext's sent messages against the day's hearings in your diary, and phone any client whose text failed.
- Cancel and reschedule texts as soon as a hearing is moved or vacated.
What goes wrong
- A scheduled text can fail, or go to an old number, without anyone noticing. Check sends against the diary every day; the diary, not Firetext, is the record.
- A text left in place after a hearing moves sends the client to court on the wrong day. Make updating Firetext part of every diary change.
- Phones are shared and seen by others. Keep the charge and any detail of the case out of the message.
- A text is a prompt, not a substitute for explaining the hearing and any bail conditions to the client properly.