A Canadian-built bilingual AI receptionist for law firms in Moncton, New Brunswick and across Canada. Conflict-aware new-client intake, court-date confirmation, retainer-balance inquiries and after-hours legal-call triage that never gives legal advice. PIPEDA compliant, built to provincial law society conduct rules. From $25 CAD/month.
Each scenario is wired into the AI’s legal-intake classifier with explicit conduct-rule guardrails. The AI captures information and books consults — it never gives legal advice.
Captures name, opposing-party name, matter type and short description. Runs against your conflict list before booking the consult. Holds the file if a conflict flags.
Returning clients with active files are matched by caller-ID. The AI captures their question, attaches the matter number, and SMS-pings the paralegal with a one-tap call-back link.
Outbound 48-hour and 24-hour confirmation calls. The AI confirms time and address, asks for conflicts, escalates anything ambiguous to the paralegal.
Captures the matter number and routes to the trust-accounting paralegal. The AI never quotes balances itself — those are read by the lawyer or paralegal after authentication.
Hard guardrail: no legal advice. The AI captures the issue, books a paid consult for the next business day, or routes truly urgent matters (arrest, injunction risk) to a partner SMS.
Native Quebec French for Montreal/Gatineau civil-law firms. Bijural-friendly. Required-French-service compliant for NB firms under the Official Languages Act.
Slower-paced voice, calm intake script, no probing questions about abuse — escalates immediately to a partner if the caller mentions safety concerns.
When a prospective client hangs up before the AI answers, an automated SMS within 30 seconds offers to book the consult or call back. Recovers high-intent leads.
Sensitive client messages are encrypted at rest, stored on Canadian infrastructure, accessible only to authorized firm staff. Privilege-aware audit trail on every event.
Five steps, every call, under 90 seconds end-to-end.
Inbound number matched against your client and matter database. Existing clients are greeted by name; the AI pulls the active matter context.
AI listens with a 200ms interruption window. No rigid menus. Stressed callers in family or criminal matters are not made to wait through long greetings.
New intake, existing-matter follow-up, court-date confirmation, retainer-balance inquiry, or after-hours triage — each runs a dedicated path with hard guardrails.
New-client calls run name + opposing-party against your conflict list. Books the consult if clear; holds for partner review if a conflict flags.
Lawyer or paralegal receives an email per call: classification, transcript, recording link, suggested next step. Privilege-aware audit logging.
Month-to-month, no contract, all amounts in CAD. Business at $99 is the recommended tier for solo and 2–3 lawyer firms; Team-Pro at $199 fits multi-partner offices where each partner wants their own intake persona, conflict list and consult-fee script.
Solo
Sole practitioner
$25 CAD/mo
Starter
Solo lawyer + paralegal
$60 CAD/mo
Business
2–3 lawyer firm
$99 CAD/mo
Team-Pro
Multi-partner firm
$199 CAD/mo
Why Business for law firms: a 2-lawyer firm typically loses 5–10 paid consults per month to missed calls or to bigger firms that answer first. Call recording protects the firm if a prospective client later disputes what was promised. Multi-agent stacking on Team-Pro lets each partner have their own intake persona, fee script and conflict list — without confusing callers.
Smith.ai is the best-known virtual receptionist marketed to law firms and is genuinely good at intake and scheduling — for US firms. Here is an honest, source-cited side-by-side for Canadian practices.
| Feature | MapleReceptionist | Smith.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price (published) | $25 CAD/mo (Solo) — $60 Starter — $99 Business | $300 USD/mo for 30 calls (Virtual Receptionist Starter, the only clearly published tier on smith.ai) |
| Law-firm intake + scheduling | Yes — purpose-built page with conflict screening, family-law sensitivity script, court-date confirmation | Yes — explicitly markets to lawyers and law firms; emphasizes intake, screening, scheduling and outbound web-lead follow-up |
| Bilingual EN/FR (Quebec French) | Yes — native Quebec French + Maritime Frenglish | Advertises generic "bilingual answering" (typically English/Spanish); English/French Quebec support not publicly disclosed |
| Canadian hosting / PIPEDA | Yes — all data stored in Canada, PIPEDA compliant, provincial law society conduct-rule aware | Not publicly disclosed (Palo Alto, California HQ; US-based) |
| Best fit | Canadian law firms, especially Quebec civil-law, bilingual NB practices and PIPEDA-conscious firms | US law firms with English/Spanish caller base at $300+/mo |
Smith.ai pricing, law-firm marketing and language data verified via Perplexity research on 2026-05-26. Primary sources: smith.ai/pricing/receptionists, directory.lawnext.com, g2.com Smith.ai reviews. Smith.ai does not publicly document Canadian hosting, PIPEDA compliance, or English/Quebec French support as of May 2026 — confirm directly with their sales if those are deal-breakers.
Native Quebec French + Maritime Frenglish for Montreal, Gatineau, Ottawa-region bijural and required-French NB practices.
All recordings and transcripts stored in Canada. Privilege-aware audit logging on every event. Built to provincial law society conduct rules — no legal-advice guardrail.
One intake persona per partner. Each persona has its own conflict list, fee script and family-law-sensitivity profile — without confusing callers.
Per-call AI token usage, recording costs and transcription minutes visible in your dashboard. No surprise per-minute receptionist surcharges.
Real questions from Canadian lawyers evaluating MapleReceptionist.
No. MapleReceptionist is configured with a hard guardrail for law firms: it does not give legal advice, does not opine on the merits of a case, and does not commit the firm to a representation. Callers asking legal questions are routed to a paid consultation booking or to a paralegal call-back. This protects solicitor-client privilege and is consistent with provincial law society conduct rules.
The AI captures the prospective client’s full name, opposing-party name (where applicable), matter type and a one-sentence description, then runs them against a conflict list you maintain in your MapleReceptionist dashboard before booking the consult. If the system flags a potential conflict, the booking is held pending a partner’s review and the caller is told the firm will follow up within one business day. This is intake screening, not a substitute for a formal LSO/Barreau conflict check.
Call recording is opt-in on every Business+ tier deployment and the AI announces it at the start of the call ("This call may be recorded for quality and intake purposes"). Recordings and transcripts are stored on Canadian infrastructure with role-based access. Because the caller is informed and consents, the recording does not by itself break privilege; the conversation remains subject to privilege under the same rules as a phone-call note taken by a human receptionist. Speak to your local law society if you need a firm-specific opinion.
Yes. MapleReceptionist is built in Moncton, New Brunswick and ships with native Quebec French as well as Maritime Frenglish. The AI detects the caller’s language in the first two seconds and switches automatically. This is a real advantage for Quebec civil law firms, bijural Ottawa-region firms, and bilingual New Brunswick practices required to offer French service.
Yes. Outbound court-date and discovery-date confirmation calls are available on Business+ tiers. The AI calls the client 48 and 24 hours before the scheduled court date, confirms the time and address, asks if there are any conflicts, and SMS-forwards the call summary to the paralegal. Missed confirmations are flagged for human follow-up.
A 3-partner firm typically fits the Business tier at $99 CAD/month per line — that includes 25 calls/day, calendar booking, call recording, transcription and warm transfers. If each partner wants their own intake persona with their own conflict list and consult-fee scripts, step up to Team-Pro at $199/month for multi-agent stacking. All plans are month-to-month, no contract.
Spin up a bilingual EN/FR AI receptionist on a Canadian number in under 10 minutes. Conflict-aware intake. PIPEDA compliant. Cancel anytime.
