Calling clients

Members can call clients from your firm's phone line, right from a matter, a lead, a contact, or the Communications page. Esqase rings your own mobile first, and when you press 1 it calls the client and joins you, so you talk on your phone while the client sees your firm's number. Clients who call the phone line reach the member responsible for their matter, and unanswered calls go to voicemail.

Every call is saved to its matter or lead as a Phone log with its length. When your firm turns recording on, the recording, a transcript, and a short summary are saved with it.

This page explains how to place a call, what happens when a client calls you, how recording, transcripts, summaries, voicemail, legal hold, and retention work, and what calls cost. To set up the number itself, see Your firm's phone line.

Before you begin

• Your firm needs a phone line. Calls go out from, and come in to, the phone line number. See Get a number.
• Add your mobile number. Esqase rings the mobile number in your Account settings (or your other phone number, when you have saved no mobile). Calls to the phone line ring you on the same number.
• Calling must be available to your firm. If it is not yet, the Call dialog says "Calling isn't available yet".
• US and Canadian numbers only. You can call US and Canadian numbers.
• Your role decides what you can do. Placing a call needs Create access for communications. Filing a call, saving call notes, and turning legal hold on or off need Update access. Owners can do all of it. See Roles and permissions.

Call a client

1. Open the place you want to call from:
   • a matter's Communications tab,
   • the Communications section on a lead's page,
   • the Communications tab on a contact's page, or
   • the Communications page in the sidebar.
2. Click New, then choose Call. The Call dialog opens: "Call a client from your firm phone line."
3. In Number, pick a contact's number from the list or type a number. When the record has only one number, it is picked for you.
4. Check the line under it: "We will ring your mobile ending in 1234 first, then connect the call." The dialog also says whether your firm records calls.
5. Click Call.
6. Your mobile rings, showing your firm's phone line number. Answer it and you hear "Press 1 to call" and the client's name or number. Press 1.
7. Esqase calls the client and joins you. Talk on your mobile as usual.

While the call is going, the dialog follows it:

If you press any other key, or do not answer, nothing is placed and the client is never called.

A call placed from a matter or lead is saved there. A call placed from a contact page or the Communications page is not filed to a matter or lead: it shows Not filed on the Calls tab until someone files it (see File a call), and its log appears on the contact's Communications tab.

Calls to your phone line

When a client calls the phone line, Esqase decides who to ring from your Who answers setting (see Who answers):

• A caller whose number belongs to a contact with exactly one open matter rings that matter's responsible attorney, and the call is filed to that matter.
• Every other caller, including unknown numbers, rings the fallback member (the firm owner until you choose). With One member routing, every call rings that member.
• One member rings at a time, for about 20 seconds, on the mobile number in their account settings.
• When you answer, you hear "Call from" the caller's name or number, "for" your firm's name, then "Press 1 to accept." Press 1 to take the call. This way you know it is a firm call before the client hears you.
• If you do not answer, or press nothing, the caller goes to voicemail. When voicemail is off, the caller hears "Sorry, no one can take your call right now. Please call back later." and you get a Missed call notification.

Voicemail

Unanswered calls go to voicemail unless your firm turns it off. An owner or administrator changes it in the Voicemail section under Settings > Firm > Communications > Calls: turn the Send unanswered calls to voicemail switch on or off, then click Save changes. The section's ? opens How voicemail works. With voicemail off, the caller hears a goodbye instead (see Calls to your phone line).

• The caller hears your greeting, or the standard one: "You've reached" your firm's name, "Please leave a message after the tone and we'll call you back." Set your own in the Voicemail greeting section: type it in Greeting, up to 400 characters, and click Save changes ("Greeting saved"). Leave the field empty to use the standard wording.
• A message can be up to about 2 minutes long.
• The voicemail is saved as a recording on the matter or lead (or in the firm's Calls folder when the caller is not linked to one), its log is named "Voicemail from" and the caller's name or number, and it is transcribed when transcripts are on.
• The member gets a New voicemail notification, also sent by email by default.

Recording

Recording is off unless your firm turns it on. An owner or administrator turns it on in the Call recording section under Settings > Firm > Communications > Calls: turn on the Record calls switch, then click Save changes. While HIPAA mode is on, the row reads "Off while HIPAA mode is on." and recording cannot be turned on.

When recording is on:

• Clients hear an announcement before anything is recorded, on calls your team places and calls it receives. On calls a client places, they hear it before the call rings through. On calls you place, they hear it when they answer, before you are connected. See Announcement.
• All-party consent states. When your firm's state or the client's state requires every party's consent, the announcement adds "By staying on the line you agree to the recording." The Call recording section lists these states under All-party consent states.
• Recordings are saved as documents on the matter or lead the call belongs to, or in a firm Calls folder when the caller is not linked to one, and deleted from the phone carrier once Esqase has its copy.
• The Call dialog tells you before you call: "Your firm records calls. The client hears that the call is recorded before you are connected."

Recording stays off while HIPAA mode is on.

Announcement

The Announcement section sets what clients hear before recording starts. With the field empty, clients hear the standard wording:

• "This call is recorded and transcribed so the firm can keep an accurate record." when transcripts are on, or
• "This call is recorded so the firm can keep an accurate record." when they are off.

To use your own wording, type it in Your wording and click Save changes ("Announcement saved"). Your wording must say the call is recorded, and that it is transcribed when transcripts are on, and it can be up to 600 characters. In an all-party consent state, clients hear "By staying on the line you agree to the recording." after your wording as well.

Transcripts and summaries

When a recorded call ends, Esqase writes a transcript a few minutes later, with what the member said and what the client said on separate lines ("Member:" and "Client:"; a voicemail reads "Caller:"). The transcript is saved as a document next to the recording, and the member gets a Call transcript ready notification.

With Summaries on, Esqase also writes a short summary of the call from the transcript and adds it to the call's log. The summary is written by your firm's AI model, or by Esqase's model when your firm has not set one up.

The Transcripts and summaries section under Settings > Firm > Communications > Calls is one card with two switches, Transcripts and Summaries. Each saves as soon as you change it ("Transcripts turned on", "Summaries turned off", and so on). Summaries stays off while Transcripts is off, because a summary is written from the transcript. Voicemails are transcribed too.

Transcribed minutes cost 1 Esqase credit a minute of recording. Transcripts and summaries are off while HIPAA mode is on.

The call view

Open a call from the Calls tab of the Communications page, from a call notification, or with View on its Phone log. The call view shows:

• Member, When, and Duration, with the call's status.
• Filed to: the matter or lead, or Not filed with a File button. See File a call.
• Recording, on recorded calls: click Play recording to listen in the page. While it is being saved, this reads "The recording is being saved."
• Summary: the call summary, once it is written, a few minutes after a recorded call ends.
• Transcript: click Show transcript to read it, speaker by speaker. Until it is ready this reads "The transcript is being prepared.", and if it could not be made, "The transcript couldn't be made." A very long transcript shows the start and points you to the document for the rest.
• Notes: type notes about the call and click Save notes ("Notes saved"). Saved notes are also added to the call's log. Notes can be up to 20,000 characters.
• Legal hold: see Legal hold.

Members whose role cannot edit communications can read the notes but cannot change them or the legal hold.

File a call

A call that is not filed to a matter or lead (for example a call from an unknown number) can be filed once.

1. Open the call and click File next to Filed to.
2. In the File call dialog, pick the Matter or lead.
3. Click File call. A confirmation reads "Call filed."

The call's log moves to the record you picked, and so do its recording and transcript, into that matter's or lead's documents (when the record has no documents folder, they stay in the firm's Calls folder). A call that is already filed cannot be moved.

Calls on the Communications page

The Calls tab on the Communications page lists your firm's calls, newest first. Each row shows whether it was an incoming call, an outgoing call, a missed call, or a voicemail, the client's name and number, the matter or lead (or Not filed), whether it was recorded, its length and status, and when it happened and with which member.

• Use the filters at the top: All, Mine, Missed, and Voicemail.
• Type in Search calls to find a call by the client, the lead, the member, the matter, or part of the number.
• Click Load more at the bottom to see older calls.
• Click a row to open the call view.

Until your firm has made or taken a call, the tab reads "No calls yet." When your firm has no phone line yet, members who can open the communications settings also see Set up the phone line.

Call logs on the record

Each call is saved to its matter or lead as one Phone log, with its direction and duration:

• The subject reads "Call with" and the client's name or number for calls you place, "Call from" for calls you receive, or "Voicemail from" for a voicemail.
• The log is read-only, because Esqase recorded it. Members can add notes to it. See Logs Esqase records for you.
• View on the log opens the call view under the log's details.

Legal hold

Recordings and transcripts are deleted after your firm's retention period. A call on legal hold keeps them until you turn the hold off.

1. Open the call.
2. Turn on the Legal hold switch: "Keeps the recording and transcript past retention."

A confirmation reads "Legal hold on." Turn the switch off to let retention apply again ("Legal hold off"). The call log stays either way.

Retention

The Retention section under Settings > Firm > Communications > Calls sets how long recordings and transcripts are kept.

1. Type the number of Days to keep, from 1 to 3,650. The default is 365 days.
2. Click Save changes. A confirmation reads "Retention saved."

Every day, Esqase deletes recordings and transcripts older than that. Calls on legal hold are kept until the hold ends, and the call logs themselves always stay.

HIPAA mode

Turn on HIPAA mode when your firm's calls may include protected health information: in the HIPAA mode section under Settings > Firm > Communications > Calls, turn on the Use HIPAA mode switch and click Save changes. Turning it on also turns recording off.

• No call is recorded or transcribed while HIPAA mode is on, and no summary is written.
• Call logs keep the time, length, and people on the call.
• When your concierge is in HIPAA mode, team calls follow it, and the row reads "On because your concierge is in HIPAA mode."

To record calls again, turn HIPAA mode off first. Turning recording on while it is on shows "Turn off HIPAA mode before you turn on recording".

Calls settings

Settings > Firm > Communications > Calls holds every calling setting, in this order:

• Call recording, with the Record calls switch, off by default. See Recording.
• Announcement, with Your wording. See Announcement.
• Transcripts and summaries, a card with the Transcripts and Summaries switches. See Transcripts and summaries.
• Voicemail, with the Send unanswered calls to voicemail switch, and Voicemail greeting. See Voicemail.
• HIPAA mode, with the Use HIPAA mode switch. See HIPAA mode.
• Retention. See Retention.

The Transcripts and Summaries switches save as soon as you change them. Every other section has its own Save changes button, which turns on once you change something. Your role needs the Communications settings permission to open the page, and Update to change it.

Notifications

• Missed call ("Missed call from" and the caller's name or number): a client called and nobody answered, and they left no voicemail.
• New voicemail ("New voicemail from" and the caller): a client left a voicemail. Sent by email as well, by default.
• Call transcript ready ("Call transcript ready:" and the client): the transcript of a recorded call is saved.

They go to the member the call rang, or the fallback member. Each opens the call on its matter, lead, or the Calls tab. Members choose how each one reaches them under Settings > Notifications. See Notifications.

Credits

Calls use Esqase credits from your firm's balance:

• Calls: 4 credits a minute of the client's talk time, rounded up. For a call you place, that is the time after the client answers; for a call to the phone line, the length of the call.
• Transcribed minutes: 1 credit a minute of recording, when the transcript is written.
• Unanswered and cancelled calls cost nothing. A voicemail costs at least one minute.

You need at least 4 credits to start a call. Calls to the phone line and voicemails always come through, even when the balance is low. See Usage.

If a call won't start

Common questions

• Can I call from my computer? Not yet. Esqase calls your mobile and connects you; there is no calling in the browser.
• Does the client see my mobile number? No. They see your firm's phone line number.
• Can I turn recording on for one call only? No. Recording is one setting for the whole firm.
• Why does a call show Not filed? It came from a number Esqase does not know, from a contact with several open matters or none, or you placed it from a contact page or the Communications page. Open it and click File.
• Where is the recording? In the matter's or lead's documents, next to the transcript, or in the firm's Calls folder while the call is not filed. Filing the call moves both files to the record. Play recording in the call view plays it too.
• Who sees recordings and transcripts? Everyone who can see the matter's or lead's documents and communications.
• What happens to calls when a matter is deleted? The calls stay on the Calls tab, unfiled, so they can be filed again; the matter's call logs go with the matter. Archiving a matter leaves its calls as they are.

Related

• Your firm's phone line
• Texting clients
• The Communications page
• Logging communications
• The documents workspace
• Notifications