When a potential client rings and nobody's free to answer, two things matter. They need to know their enquiry has reached the firm. And you need enough to call them back: a name, a number, a line about the matter and any timing they mention. What they shouldn't hear is anything suggesting the firm has already taken the matter on.
Sayora is worth trying for that job: £49 a month for AI answering, unlimited minutes under fair use, and a summary for your team by text, email or both after the call. What Sayora can't do is put a caller through to a solicitor mid-call. If some of your calls need that, start with a service that can.
In this guide I'll show you what a useful enquiry looks like, what the human services add and what a month of calls would cost with each. Some providers call their service an answering service for lawyers, which is the same job. Everything here is for UK law firms, with British providers and prices in pounds.
Quick disclosure before we start: we make Sayora, so we're not neutral. Provider details come from their own websites, checked on 22 September 2026. This compares what each service says it does, not how well it handles a call, and the calls and bills below are examples.
Which legal answering service fits your firm's calls?
Here's the short version:
- Sayora, for enquiries your team will call back. One fixed monthly bill, and Sayora takes the details you've asked for. Advice, conflict checks and accepting the work all stay with your firm.
- Pocket Receptionist, for people answering at a published price. Its legal offer includes intake and priority transfers. The published plans cover extended hours, and 24/7 is a separate service.
- Answer4u, for a defined on-call escalation route. It describes putting urgent calls through to the right solicitor. Get the whole procedure priced and tested.
- Moneypenny, for a specialist legal reception team. Worth a look when sector experience and connections to your practice systems matter most. Its legal service is priced by quote.
The key is to decide what needs to happen on the call before you compare prices. Taking a message, putting someone through and booking an appointment are three different services, so compare like with like.
How Sayora handles a new enquiry
Sayora answers general questions using the information and instructions you provide, then captures the enquiry. So give Sayora the services your firm offers, your opening hours and the details you'd like each caller to leave. If you include published prices, keep what they cover and any conditions right alongside them.
Let's take an example. Say someone rings about a conveyancing matter. A useful handover tells your fee earner whether they're buying or selling, how to reach them and any timing they mentioned. Your fee earner then assesses it and follows your normal intake process.
Meanwhile, the caller should hear that someone will get back to them in line with your arrangements. They shouldn't hear a promise that you'll act for them, and they shouldn't get advice.
If the demo works for you, the early-access plan is £49 a month with no setup fee. Your seven-day trial starts when you claim your receptionist, and you can cancel at any time. Demo test calls are capped, so plan the calls you want to try. You keep your existing number, too: you forward calls to Sayora's dedicated UK number using your phone provider's diversion settings.
Now for the important limit. Sayora has no live transfer or staffed fallback, so if a duty or urgent-response line has to reach a solicitor immediately, don't divert it to Sayora. That goes for evenings as well. An after-hours call can be every bit as urgent as a daytime one, and the time on the clock doesn't make a callback good enough.
What the human services add
Pocket Receptionist: a visible price for human intake
Pocket Receptionist's legal service describes qualifying enquiries, booking appointments, priority transfers and connections to Clio, Rocket Matter and LEAP.
Its pricing page lists £75 for 30 calls and £145 for 60, with £2.99 for each extra call, on monthly terms. The plans cover 8am to 8pm. Before you sign, ask about VAT, any transfer charges and the price of the separate 24/7 service. And trial the exact practice-system action you want, rather than assuming the integration covers it.
Answer4u: a route to the on-call solicitor
Answer4u's legal service describes round-the-clock answering, call scripts and escalation to the right solicitor or on-call contact. It also lists messages by email or SMS and call patching. Pricing is by quote.
Here's a good test for the demonstration: ask what happens when the transfer fails. If the first contact doesn't pick up, who's tried next, and what's the caller told? You're paying for a complete escalation procedure, and dialling a second number is only the start of it.
Moneypenny: a specialist legal team
Moneypenny offers specialist legal receptionists and practice integrations, with standard weekday hours and extended or 24-hour options. You'll need a quote for the legal service, so tell them your hours and which calls need transferring.
One gotcha: its published terms change with the size of the scheme. Ask for the minimum commitment and notice period alongside the monthly estimate, and check that both your quiet month and your busiest month fit the proposal. For the bigger picture, the Moneypenny comparison explains how its service model differs from Sayora's.
What a month would cost
Let's put some numbers on it. Say your firm takes an illustrative 60 answered calls a month. On Pocket's plans, Growth covers that for £145. Starter looks cheaper at £75, but add 30 extra calls at £2.99 and it comes to £164.70. So the lowest starting fee would actually cost you more.
| Service | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Sayora | £49 |
| Pocket Growth | £145 |
| Answer4u | Quote required |
| Moneypenny | Quote required |
Sayora's £49 covers unlimited minutes under fair use. Pocket's pricing page doesn't state its VAT treatment explicitly, so check. For the two quoted services, give each the same call count, call length, hours and transfer needs so the quotes compare fairly. And ask your own phone provider whether forwarding calls costs anything.
The cost calculator will price selected published human plans at your own volume. Compare specialist legal quotes on the work they include, though, because a cheaper message-taking plan won't do the job of an urgent transfer.
Keep the intake brief small on purpose
If the SRA regulates your firm, you'll know this one already. Paragraph 6.3 of the SRA Code of Conduct requires client affairs to stay confidential unless disclosure is permitted or required. That responsibility doesn't go away when someone else answers your phone.
So ask each provider for its processing agreement, who can see messages and recordings, where they're stored and what happens when the relationship ends. Then keep the intake to what your firm needs to assess the enquiry and call back. Nobody should be encouraging a caller to dictate the full story of a dispute.
For Sayora, the data page sets out the recording position. Every call opens with a recording disclosure, and callers can't switch recording off. Recordings are removed from the account automatically after 90 days. Transcripts and summaries follow your account's retention, and backup copies expire separately. Automatic redaction is a safeguard, not a guarantee that nothing sensitive is kept.
Test the easy call and the awkward one
Once you've got a shortlist, give each finalist the same four calls: a new enquiry, an existing client chasing an update, someone asking for advice right now and a question about work you don't do. Pay as much attention to what the caller is told as to the message you receive. No service should turn “please ask someone to call” into a deadline or promise nobody agreed to.
If you need an urgent-response route, test that on-call procedure separately, including a transfer nobody answers. The trial sheet is a handy way to record what happened and who owns the next step.