A preliminary information form is the intake document a law firm or legal aid office asks you to complete before your first consultation. It collects your biographical details, the names of other parties, key dates, and a short summary of your situation so the attorney can run a conflict-of-interest check, evaluate your matter, and come to the meeting prepared. The form is not standardized across the profession — every office designs its own — but the categories of information it asks for are consistent whether your matter is a divorce, an injury claim, or a probate.
What to Gather Before You Start
Most intake forms follow a predictable structure. Pulling the right information together before you sit down with the form saves time and prevents the follow-up calls that stall a case before it starts.
- Your full legal name as it appears on government-issued identification, your home address, phone numbers, and email. You will also need the same details for any opposing party — a spouse, an at-fault driver, an executor — to the extent you know them.
- Date of birth and Social Security number. Many firms ask for these primarily to run the conflict-of-interest screening that professional conduct rules require.
- Key dates: the marriage, the separation, the accident, the death, the contract signing. If a statute of limitations or court deadline is approaching, note that too.
- Financial details for matters involving property division, debt, child support, or damages: bank accounts, real estate, retirement accounts, income, and outstanding loans. Approximate values are fine on the form; documentation comes later.
- Insurance information: the name of your insurer, the policy number, and the type of coverage. Both personal injury and family law matters often turn on what insurance is in play.
- A short, factual description of what happened and what outcome you want. A few clear sentences work better than several vague paragraphs.
Documents to Have Ready
The form captures the basics. The documents you bring to your first meeting, or upload alongside the form, give your attorney the evidence behind those basics. What you need depends on the case.
Family Law Matters
Divorce and custody cases are document-heavy from day one. Gather the last three years of federal and state tax returns with all schedules, W-2s, and 1099s. Pull 90 days of pay stubs or direct deposit records; if you are self-employed, prepare profit-and-loss statements and business tax returns. Collect six months of statements for every checking, savings, and joint account. Bring current mortgage statements, property deeds, and any recent appraisals. Add the most recent statements for retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, and pension plans, along with declarations pages from active health, life, and auto insurance policies.
Personal Injury Claims
Start with a copy of the police or incident report and any citations issued at the scene. Collect every medical record generated by the injury: emergency room records, discharge summaries, follow-up and specialist visit notes, imaging results, prescribed medications, and physical therapy records. Gather every medical bill, co-pay receipt, and out-of-pocket expense record. If you missed work, bring documentation of lost wages. Have all relevant insurance policies and coverage details available.
Neither list is exhaustive. Your attorney will likely request additional records as the case develops, but arriving with these documents prevents the most common early delays.
How to Fill It Out
Use clear printed text on a paper form. If the form is digital, type your responses directly rather than uploading a handwritten scan. Cross-reference your answers against official records: tax returns for income figures, the police report for the date and details of an incident, a marriage certificate for a marriage date. Small discrepancies between the form and the underlying documents create unnecessary questions later.
Complete every field. If a question does not apply, write “N/A” rather than leaving it blank. A blank field looks like something you missed; “N/A” tells the paralegal reviewing the form that you considered the question and moved on. Most intake delays trace back to skipped fields — an employer name, a policy number, a date the client thought was unimportant.
For the open-ended narrative section, stick to facts and chronology. Describe what happened, when, and who was involved. Save your legal theories for the consultation itself. The attorney will form their own assessment, and a clean factual summary is a better starting point than an argument.
How to Submit It
Submit the form through whichever channel the firm specifies. Many offices now use secure client portals where you upload the completed form and supporting documents to an encrypted server. These portals reduce the security risks that come with sending sensitive information over regular email.1Centerbase. Why Your Law Firm Needs a Client Portal If the firm accepts email submissions, ask whether they require a particular file format or size limit; some offices reject attachments that are not PDFs or that exceed a size cap.
Hand-delivering the form to a receptionist or legal assistant is an option if you prefer in-person. If you send a physical copy by mail, use certified mail or a delivery service that provides a tracking receipt.
What Happens After You Submit
Once the firm has your completed form, a paralegal or intake specialist reviews it for completeness. Expect a follow-up within a day or two, either a call to fill in gaps or a message scheduling your initial consultation.
The first substantive step the firm takes is a conflict-of-interest check. Professional conduct rules bar a lawyer from representing a client when that representation would be directly adverse to another current client, or when there is a significant risk that duties to another client or third party would limit what the lawyer can do for you.2American Bar Association. Rule 1.7: Conflict of Interest: Current Clients The names, dates, and identifying details on your form are run against the firm’s existing client database. If the opposing party is already a client, the firm has to either obtain informed written consent from both sides or decline your case. Providing accurate names and identifiers is what keeps a firm from accidentally representing both sides of a dispute.
The attorney then reviews your answers and documents to assess the strength and complexity of your matter. That review shapes the first consultation: the lawyer arrives with an understanding of your timeline, the parties, and the key facts, so the meeting can focus on strategy rather than basic data collection.
Your Information Is Protected Before Representation Begins
A common worry is that filling out an intake form exposes private details without any guarantee of protection. The professional conduct rules address this directly. Under the ABA’s Model Rules, anyone who consults with a lawyer about possibly forming a professional relationship qualifies as a “prospective client.”3American Bar Association. Rule 1.18: Duties to Prospective Client That status triggers real obligations: even if the firm never takes your case, the lawyer cannot use or reveal the information you provided, with only narrow exceptions that mirror the rules for former clients.
The protection goes further. If the information you shared could be “significantly harmful” to you, the lawyer is barred from later representing someone whose interests are adverse to yours in the same or a related matter. That disqualification extends to every other lawyer in the firm unless the firm sets up a formal ethical screen and gives you written notice.3American Bar Association. Rule 1.18: Duties to Prospective Client
Once a full attorney-client relationship forms, the broader confidentiality rule applies. A lawyer cannot reveal information related to your representation unless you give informed consent, the disclosure is necessary to carry out the representation, or one of a few specific exceptions applies, such as preventing serious physical harm or complying with a court order.4American Bar Association. Rule 1.6: Confidentiality of Information
Submitting the Form Does Not Mean You Have Hired the Firm
Submitting a completed intake form does not create an attorney-client relationship, and it does not commit the firm to representing you. Most forms include disclaimer language saying so explicitly. A military legal assistance intake questionnaire, for example, states plainly that receiving services from a non-attorney at the office “does not create an attorney-client relationship” and that a formal relationship requires meeting with an attorney.5United States Marine Corps. Legal Assistance Client Intake Questionnaire Private firms use similar language.
The practical point: do not assume an attorney is working on your case because you turned in the form. Until you receive a written engagement letter or retainer agreement that both sides sign, no representation exists. If you have a looming deadline, a statute of limitations about to expire, or an answer due in a pending lawsuit, confirm in writing that the firm has accepted your case and is tracking that deadline. The intake form alone is not enough.
Why Accuracy on the Form Matters
What you write on the intake form does not stay on the intake form. It becomes the raw material for formal court filings: complaints, petitions, discovery responses, and financial disclosures. An attorney who signs and files a pleading certifies to the court that, after reasonable inquiry, the factual claims in the document have evidentiary support.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 11 – Signing Pleadings, Motions, and Other Papers If facts from your intake form were wrong and the errors reach a filing, the court can sanction your attorney and you for presenting unsupported claims.
Some downstream documents carry their own penalties. Discovery responses, financial affidavits, and certain declarations are signed under penalty of perjury, meaning the signer attests that the contents are true and correct.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1746 – Unsworn Declarations Under Penalty of Perjury If an inaccurate figure from the intake form, an understated income number, a missing asset, an incorrect date, carries through to a sworn document, the consequences can escalate from sanctions to perjury exposure.
The form itself is not a sworn document. But treating it casually because it feels like paperwork rather than testimony is what causes problems later. Fill it out as though every number and name will end up in front of a judge. There is a reasonable chance it will.