Overcoming Objections to Legal Intake & Triage

One of the most difficult and frustrating things for legal ops when trying to adopt new technology are objections they face from leadership or the business. 

Organizational leaders can often be concerned with budget and value, and how to implement legal technology without facing change management and adoption issues from the business, which can be difficult for legal ops to justify.

For intake and triage technology, often concerns include the risk of losing personal touch from legal or the heavy change management lift in changing business user behavior.

A way to combat these objections is to address each objection directly and provide clear solutions to secure the budget and support you need to implement legal intake and triage technology.

Here are some common objections to adopting intake and triage and what you can say, do, or demonstrate to the business to help resolve them and unlock more value and happiness.

Objection 1: “We don’t want to become a ticketing system like IT”

As legal, we value our relationships with the business. To overcome this objection, it is important to explain to leadership that legal intake and triage technology is much different to a ticketing system, as it can be customized and allow for a more tailored and personalized experience for business users, rather than being suited to fit the needs of the greater business.

If anything, the experience should strengthen the relationship. Instead of waiting for a response, the business will now instantly get a response with their request assigned, updates of the status provided more frequently. The relationship is in the service, not in getting to the service.

Objection 2: “Changing the behavior of how the business engages with legal is going to be too difficult”

With implementing any new improvement or solution to the business, change management is inevitable. The key is to highlight the benefits of this change to the larger business, not just the legal department. And one of the best ways to ease this concern is to show how business user behavior can evolve naturally through thoughtful UX, clear communication, and data-driven insights.

Yes, the business may want to just pick up the phone to legal. But the more non-urgent, standardized work that goes through an intake system, the more time legal can actually spend on requests that demand urgency and attention. Ultimately, positioning, storytelling and empathy is everything!

Additionally, with AI legal intake behavioral analytics now available in tools such as Checkbox, you can gain visibility into how business users engage with legal today and where friction exists. With that insight, you can proactively shape intake experiences to better align with user needs, encouraging adoption rather than forcing it.

Objection 3: “We already have intake in [insert existing technology]”

Intake (and even some workflow automation tools) is an included functionality for many existing technologies. However, despite the same label, it is limited to only that technology and type of use-cases. Explaining to leadership that the goal of legal intake and triage technology is to enhance, not replace, technology that already exists within the business can emphasize its universality and distinctness. 

A legal intake and triage platform sits in front of your existing technology stack and integrates in. This ensures full coverage of all types of requests coming into the legal department as well as providing the full picture on request data.

Objection 4: “We don’t have the confidence or resources to design and implement this”

There are some incredible consultancies in the market that live and breathe workflow design and implementation best practices. You don’t have to go at it alone. Speak with us and we can make some introductions.

🔍 Summary of Common Objections & How to Respond

Objection:

“We don’t want to become a ticketing system like IT.”

Response: Intake tech can be customized to deliver a tailored, high-touch experience, strengthening, the legal-business relationship.

Objection:

“Changing business behavior is too difficult.”

Response: AI legal intake behavioral analytics and thoughtful UX can guide adoption naturally and reduce resistance to new processes.

Objection:

“We already have intake in other tech.”

Response: Intake platforms like Checkbox sit in front of existing tools consolidating requests and enhancing current systems.

Objection:

“We don’t have the resources to implement this.”

Response: Many vendors offer implementation help and legal tech consultants to support design and rollout.

What Steps Can You Take Moving Forward?

Providing clear solutions to address the concerns for legal intake and triage directly can have a positive impact in procuring and implementing vital legal technology.  

By demonstrating the value of legal intake and triage technology (particularly those that leverage AI legal intake behavioral analytics) you can position legal as a smarter, more scalable function within the business and successfully overcome objections to improve your operations. 

Contact our team of legal technology experts to determine your current intake and triage needs, and help you visualize and implement what an optimized service request process can look like for your company.