Key takeaways
- In a 2024 test of 1,377 U.S. law firms, 28% answered an online lead form within five minutes.
- The median reply took 13 minutes, down from 21 minutes in 2023.
- Martindale-Avvo research, as reported by Intaker, says 78.9% of people who hire a lawyer contact more than one firm first.
- Nearly all of these figures come from marketing vendors. Use them as ranges, and measure your own response time.
How fast do law firms actually respond to new leads?
The best-known data comes from Hennessey Digital. In early 2024 it submitted enquiries through the online lead forms of 1,377 U.S. law firms using a fictitious alias, between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. local time, and timed the first personal reply. The firms covered personal injury, criminal defense and other practice areas.
| Measure (Hennessey Digital, Q1 2024) | Result |
|---|---|
| Firms answering within 5 minutes | 28% |
| Median response time | 13 minutes (21 minutes in 2023) |
| Firms tested | 1,377 U.S. law firms |
| Counted as not responding | No reply within 7 days |
A later update, as reported by Webtonic, puts the share answering within five minutes at about 25%, with 56% answering within an hour and 39% taking more than two hours or never replying. We could not check Hennessey’s own 2025 report, so treat the newer numbers as secondary. The direction is consistent across years: most firms are slower than five minutes.
Why do the first minutes matter?
People who have just been hurt are often contacting several firms at once. Martindale-Avvo research, as reported by Intaker, found that 78.9% of people who eventually hire an attorney contact more than one firm first, and that about 80% of legal consumers move on if they do not hear back within 48 hours.
You will also see a claim that the odds of qualifying a lead fall by about 400% when the reply takes ten minutes instead of five. It is widely repeated and traces to a cross-industry lead-response study, not a law-specific one. Use it as a reminder that speed matters, not as a measured law firm figure.
What slows firms down?
- Nobody is free. Intake staff are on other calls when the form arrives.
- After-hours and weekends. Leads arrive in the evening, when the office is closed.
- No alert. The form goes to a shared inbox no one is watching.
- Callbacks left to voicemail. The lead never gets a reply they notice.
What can your firm do about it?
- Measure it. Log the time each lead arrives and the time of the first personal reply. Do this for a month.
- Set a target. Five minutes is a sensible aim, given the figures above.
- Route alerts. Make sure a new lead alerts a person or a system immediately, including after hours.
- Automate the first call, not the relationship. An AI voice assistant can make the first call within minutes and hand a summary to your intake team, who take the conversation from there.
- Check the rules. Calls to leads must follow federal and state rules on consent and contact. See our AI intake compliance guide.
What does a slow callback cost?
That depends on your volume, your signing rate and your average fee. Put your own numbers into the missed-lead calculator.
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