Bilingual Answering Service for Law Firms. English & Spanish. 24/7.

Spanish-Speaking Answering Service — Not a Translation Layer

Here's what most "bilingual" services actually do: they run your English script through Google Translate, slap "para español, oprima dos" on the front, and call it a day. The result sounds robotic at best, offensive at worst. Legal Spanish isn't just translated English—it's different sentence structures, different terminology, different cultural expectations around formality and trust.

Claire doesn't translate. She speaks. Our Spanish intake flows were built from scratch by bilingual legal professionals who understand that "statute of limitations" becomes "plazo de prescripción" in some contexts and "término de caducidad" in others, depending on the jurisdiction and case type. The questions flow naturally. The follow-ups make sense. Callers don't feel like they're talking to a robot reading from a bad phrasebook.

And the language detection? Under two seconds. No phone tree. No "press 2 for Spanish." The caller starts speaking, Claire identifies the language, and the entire intake—every question, every clarification, every empathetic response—happens in their native tongue.

Why Law Firms Need Bilingual Call Answering

Let me give you some numbers that should make you uncomfortable. There are 41 million native Spanish speakers in the United States. In Texas, 30% of the population speaks Spanish at home. In California, it's 29%. Florida? 21%. These aren't immigrants who "should learn English"—these are your neighbors, your potential clients, and increasingly, the majority in many zip codes.

Personal injury and family law see the highest concentration of Spanish-speaking callers. Why? Because car accidents, workplace injuries, and custody disputes don't discriminate by language. A construction worker falls off scaffolding and needs a lawyer. A mother fleeing domestic violence needs help at 2 AM. They're not going to call a firm that can't understand them.

We tracked one PI firm in Houston that added Spanish intake. Their lead volume increased 34% in the first quarter. Not because they did more marketing—just because they stopped hanging up (effectively) on a third of their market.

How Bilingual AI Intake Works

The technical flow is simpler than you'd expect, and that's by design. Caller dials your number. Claire picks up instantly—no hold music, no phone tree. The caller says "Hola, necesito un abogado" or "Hi, I need a lawyer." Within 1.5 seconds, Claire has identified the language and switched the entire conversation track.

From there, everything proceeds in the caller's language. If it's a personal injury case, Claire asks about the accident in Spanish: ¿Cuándo ocurrió el accidente? ¿Está recibiendo tratamiento médico? ¿Tiene información del seguro de la otra persona? The questions are calibrated for natural conversation, not awkward translation.

Here's the part your attorneys will appreciate: the case notes that sync to your CRM (Clio, Filevine, MyCase—we support all of them) are always in English. The intake happens in Spanish, but the summary your team reviews is in English with all the key details extracted and organized. No one has to translate anything manually.

Bilingual Virtual Receptionist vs. Hiring a Spanish-Speaking Receptionist

You could hire a bilingual receptionist. Let's do the math.

I'm not saying human receptionists are worthless—far from it. But the economics of 24/7 bilingual coverage with humans are brutal. You'd need at least three full-time employees to cover nights, weekends, and PTO. That's $150,000+ annually before you've answered a single call.

Bilingual Call Center Services for Every Practice Area

The Spanish-speaking community doesn't just need one type of legal help. Here's how bilingual intake works across practice areas:

Personal Injury: MVA terminology, medical Spanish (lesión cerebral traumática, hernia discal), insurance questions, treatment status. Our PI script captures 23 specific data points in either language.

Criminal Defense: Arrest circumstances, bond questions, court dates, detention facility information. These calls often come from scared family members at 2 AM—they need someone who understands, not someone fumbling with a translation app.

Family Law: Custody disputes, divorce filings, domestic violence situations. These are emotionally charged calls in any language. In Spanish, the cultural context matters even more—Claire is trained to handle sensitive topics with appropriate formality and empathy.

Immigration: Visa categories, USCIS terminology, deportation defense. This is where bilingual intake becomes non-negotiable—many immigration clients are more comfortable in Spanish, and the technical vocabulary requires native fluency.