Priovox
Comparison 15 min read

Law Firm Call Answering: Answering Service or AI?

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Priovox Team

Small and mid-sized law firms in Germany have three ways to answer the phone: their own secretariat, an external answering service or an AI phone assistant. At 100 calls a month, an answered call costs between roughly €1.70 in a secretariat that is staffed anyway and a good €6 with an answering service that charges a base fee. External providers and AI are permissible under German professional law as long as the firm complies with § 43e BRAO (Federal Lawyers’ Act), § 203 StGB (German Criminal Code) and Art. 28 GDPR; deadline matters, ongoing mandates and emergencies stay with a human.

How do law firms answer calls today?

The classic solution is the firm’s own secretariat. A legal assistant (Rechtsanwaltsfachangestellte) picks up, knows the clients, sees the file and knows which deadline is running. That is exactly the problem. Every first-time caller who does not fit the firm interrupts work that earns fees. And after 5 pm, during holidays and sick leave, nobody picks up.

The external answering service, marketed depending on the provider as a virtual receptionist, telephone secretariat or law-firm call centre, uses people who answer in the firm’s name, note the matter and forward it by email or text message. Billing is usually per call and per minute, sometimes with a base fee. Service hours are a matter of contract.

The AI phone assistant (also sold as an AI answering machine or voicebot) conducts the conversation itself, following rules the firm sets. It asks for the area of law, the facts and the opposing party, books an initial consultation and sends a summary. Several calls at once are no problem. Neither is the time of day.

What does call answering cost a law firm?

The calculation assumes 100 calls a month and 3 minutes per conversation. The 3 minutes are the average across 52 conversations of our live agent in real use; the same value applies to the human models. All provider prices come from the linked pricing pages, retrieved on 29 September 2026.

A full-time legal assistant with ten years of experience earns an average of €2,920 gross a month according to Lohnspiegel.de, run by the WSI institute of the Hans Böckler Foundation (2,775 respondents). Add the employer’s share of social insurance, which in 2026 comes to 19.7 percent plus half of the supplementary health-insurance contribution (vdek, contribution rates 2026). That is roughly €3,500 a month, or about €20 per working hour.

100 calls of 3 minutes are 5 hours on the phone. With two minutes per call for the note and the hand-over, that becomes a good 8 hours, so roughly €170 or €1.70 per call, as long as the assistant is at her desk anyway. A firm that hires a part-timer for 20 hours a week purely for the phone pays roughly €1,750 a month for the same 100 calls, or €17.50 per call.

With an external answering service, the firm pays per call and per minute. starbuero.de lists a €0 base fee, €0.59 per answered call and €0.59 per handling minute, around the clock without surcharge; whether that is net or gross, the page does not say. 100 calls of 3 minutes cost €236 there, or €2.36 per call. The handling minute includes the wrap-up.

ebuero charges a €59.90 base fee in its Einsteiger (starter) tariff, €1.39 per call and €1.39 per minute or part thereof, all prices net, price list dated 28 March 2024. That comes to €615.90 net for 100 calls of 3 minutes, €6.16 per call, Monday to Friday from 7 am to 7 pm. Bueroservice24 lists base fees from €49.90 and the price per call on request.

At Priovox, the Solo plan costs €99 a month with 100 call minutes, Team €299 with 500 minutes, or €84 and €254 respectively when paid annually (pricing). 100 calls of 3 minutes need 300 minutes, which means the Team plan: €2.99 per call, €2.54 with annual payment. Solo covers about 33 calls, roughly €3 per call. Prices for minutes beyond the allowance should be settled before signing, with any provider.

Setup fees are missing from many price comparisons. Unlike many providers of individually configured solutions, Priovox charges no setup fee in any of its three plans, Solo, Team or Enterprise; setup with industry templates usually takes under 30 minutes, and the team helps at no extra charge if needed. The two answering services in this calculation charge none either: ebuero states “Keine Anmelde- oder Einrichtungsgebühr” (no registration or setup fee), starbuero.de lists the setup fee as €0.00. With individually configured AI solutions, particularly for larger firms and mid-sized businesses, setup quickly reaches four or five figures. The law-firm solution from Digital Apes (focused on tax firms, one location with up to 30 staff) costs a one-off fee from €1,490 net plus from €568 net a month; larger firms and multiple locations get an individual quote. fonio.ai charges from €1,000 plus VAT for a custom setup with system integration. At KI-Beratung Deutschland, the one-off setup of an AI phone assistant costs €3,900, €7,900 or €14,900 depending on the package, prices as of 20 August 2026; the page does not say whether net or gross.

ModelFixed cost per monthOne-off setupVariable cost100 calls of 3 minPer callAvailable
Own secretariat (full-time, phone on the side)roughly €3,500 total employer costn/aworking timeroughly €170 pro rataroughly €1.70office hours, not during holidays and sick leave
Part-timer for the phone only (20 hrs a week)roughly €1,750n/anone€1,750€17.5020 hours a week
Answering service, example starbuero.de€0€0€0.59 per answered call plus €0.59 per minute€236€2.36around the clock
Answering service, example ebuero Einsteiger€59.90 net€0€1.39 per call plus €1.39 per minute€615.90 net€6.16Mon to Fri, 7 am to 7 pm
AI phone assistant, example Priovox Team€299€0, in every planincluded in the 500-minute allowance€299€2.99around the clock, several calls in parallel

Over the first year, meaning 12 monthly amounts plus one-off setup at 100 calls of 3 minutes a month and the prices above, starbuero.de costs €2,832, Priovox Team €3,588 (€3,048 with annual payment) and ebuero Einsteiger €7,390.80 net, all three without a setup fee. The Digital Apes law-firm solution with the fonio Solo plan comes to at least €8,306 net (€1,490 setup plus 12 x €568), the Starter package from KI-Beratung Deutschland to €8,580 (€3,900 plus 12 x €390, 750 minutes a month included). Both providers configure the assistant for the firm, and Digital Apes looks after it on an ongoing basis; that is a different scope of service from an industry template the firm adapts itself.

The table and the annual calculation show costs only. A secretariat that recognises the client by name delivers more than a note by email. A lost mandate appears in no row.

May a law firm hand calls to an external provider or an AI?

A note first: this section is general information, not legal advice. Binding answers come from your bar association (Rechtsanwaltskammer).

The starting point is § 43a (2) BRAO, the Federal Lawyers’ Act. A lawyer is bound to secrecy about everything that became known to them in the course of their professional work. Employees must be obliged to secrecy in text form and instructed about the criminal consequences. Persons who assist in any other auxiliary capacity are treated the same way.

For external service providers, § 43e BRAO has applied since 9 November 2017. Paragraph 1 allows the lawyer to give service providers access to protected facts to the extent necessary for the service. The Anwaltsblatt, the journal of the German Bar Association, counts “IT providers for IT service offerings, cloud providers and all office services” among them (Klugmann/Leenen/Salz, AnwBl Online 2018, 283, in German). An answering service falls under this. So does an AI provider.

The permission comes with duties. Under paragraph 2, the firm must select the provider carefully and end the cooperation if it fails to meet the requirements. Paragraph 3 requires a contract in text form with three elements: an obligation to secrecy including instruction about the criminal consequences, a restriction to the knowledge needed to perform the contract, and a rule on whether further persons may be involved.

Paragraph 4 concerns location. For services abroad, access to secrets may only be granted if the protection there is comparable to that in Germany. For AI providers, that means concretely: where are voice data and transcripts processed, and which subcontractors are involved. Paragraph 8 leaves data protection law untouched alongside this.

The criminal side is governed by § 203 StGB, the German Criminal Code. Paragraph 3 sentence 2 allows professionals bound to secrecy to disclose secrets to other assisting persons to the extent necessary for their work. Paragraph 4 makes the assisting person liable if they disclose without authorisation, and the lawyer if they failed to oblige them to secrecy. Both carry imprisonment of up to one year or a fine.

Then there is Art. 28 GDPR. Whoever answers calls for the firm processes personal data on its behalf. The firm may only work with processors that provide sufficient guarantees of appropriate technical and organisational measures, and it needs a contract under paragraph 3 covering processing on instructions, confidentiality of staff, rules for subcontractors and deletion at the end of the contract.

For the selection, this produces a checklist that applies equally to answering services and AI:

  • Contract in text form with obligation to secrecy and instruction (§ 43e (3) BRAO)
  • Data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR
  • Processing location and subcontractors named; for any foreign element, a comparable level of protection
  • Call script limited to what is needed, because knowledge is only permissible to the extent necessary
  • For AI, the question whether conversations are used to train models and who sees transcripts
  • For services that directly serve a single mandate, the client’s consent (§ 43e (5) BRAO)

Priovox processes conversations on servers in Germany, signs a data processing agreement, is ISO 27001 certified and does not use customer conversations for AI training by default. Every provider should answer these four points in writing.

What separates an AI answering machine from a virtual receptionist?

The terms blur in the market. A classic answering machine stores what the caller records. An AI answering machine transcribes the message, summarises it and sometimes asks follow-up questions. An AI phone assistant conducts the conversation according to the firm’s rules, books appointments and forwards calls. Where the line between the AI variants runs, every provider decides differently.

The virtual receptionist is a person in an external office who answers in the firm’s name. She picks up on undertones, calms an agitated caller and improvises. But she knows neither file nor calendar, works fixed service hours, and with three simultaneous calls the third one waits.

The AI phone assistant takes every call immediately, at night and in parallel. Set up for law firms, it asks first-time enquirers about the area of law, the facts, the opposing party and any recognisable deadlines, distinguishes existing clients from new enquiries, books initial consultations into the firm’s calendar and forwards urgent matters to the secretariat or the responsible lawyer. It gives no legal advice, says nothing about ongoing proceedings, and the conflict check stays with the firm. That is how the AI phone assistant for law firms from Priovox works.

AI has its limits where people improvise. Unusual names, strong dialect and callers who will not say what it is about remain sources of error. The assistant must then forward the call or note a callback rather than guess. The firm defines that route during setup.

Which calls should always reach a human?

Deadline matters. Anyone who has received a notice of dismissal must file a claim with the labour court within three weeks of receipt under § 4 KSchG (Protection Against Unfair Dismissal Act). An answering service notes the date, an AI flags the enquiry as urgent. Whether the deadline is running and what needs to happen, the lawyer decides, and on the same day.

Ongoing mandates. Existing clients call with specific questions about their case, and neither an answering service nor an AI may answer them. A sensible rule puts existing clients straight through to the secretariat while it is staffed, and notes a callback otherwise.

Emergencies. Arrest, search, domestic violence, a client in acute distress. Such calls need a human at once, the secretariat during the day, the lawyer’s emergency number at night. Every external solution needs a fixed escalation path for this. Where life or limb is at risk, the reference to the 112 emergency number belongs in every call script.

In three cases, the firm’s own secretariat is simply the better choice. When the phone rarely rings and someone sits at reception anyway, an extra contract is not worth it. When clients expect a particular person on the phone, say in a family-law practice with a few long-standing mandates. And when the bulk of calls concern detention cases or ongoing proceedings.

For firms with one to ten lawyers, we consider the middle path the realistic solution. The secretariat answers during core hours; when the line is busy, after 20 seconds without an answer and outside office hours, the answering service or AI steps in. Deadlines and existing clients stay with the secretariat; first enquiries and callback requests are caught by the add-on.

How does a firm forward calls without changing its number?

The firm’s number stays in every model. Forwarding happens through call diversion in the phone system or at the telephone provider; the service provider receives a destination number on which it answers in the firm’s name. Callers keep dialling the number on the letterhead, and callbacks run through the firm’s number as before.

Four variants are common: immediate (every call goes external, say during holidays), on busy, on no answer after a set time of usually 15 to 25 seconds, and time-controlled outside office hours.

The combination of busy, no answer and time control is the technical core of the hybrid model. The secretariat always gets first access; what is left over goes onward, with the original firm number displayed, so the provider knows whose call it is answering.

Frequently asked questions

May a law firm use an AI phone assistant?

Yes. § 43e BRAO allows lawyers to give service providers access to protected facts to the extent necessary for the service, and AI providers count among them. Required are a contract in text form with an obligation to secrecy and instruction, a data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR and, for processing abroad, a comparable level of protection. This is not legal advice.

What does call answering cost a law firm at 100 calls a month?

Between roughly €1.70 and a good €6 per call, depending on the model. A secretariat that is staffed anyway comes to roughly €1.70 pro rata, an answering service to €2.36 to €6.16 (starbuero.de and ebuero Einsteiger, pricing pages of 29 September 2026), an AI phone assistant with a 500-minute package for €299 to €2.99. The basis is 3 minutes per conversation. starbuero.de, ebuero and Priovox charge no setup fee, Priovox in none of its plans. Individually configured AI solutions often charge one-off four- to five-figure amounts instead, such as from €1,490 net at Digital Apes or €3,900 to €14,900 at KI-Beratung Deutschland (pricing pages of 29 September 2026).

Does the firm need a data processing agreement with the answering service?

Yes. Whoever answers calls on the firm’s behalf and notes names, phone numbers and matters processes personal data under Art. 28 GDPR. The data processing agreement does not replace the confidentiality agreement under § 43e (3) BRAO; both must be in place.

Does an AI answering machine recognise deadline matters?

It can flag them but not assess them. An assistant configured for law firms asks for the date and type of letter and marks the enquiry as urgent, for instance with a dismissal because of the three-week deadline under § 4 KSchG. Whether a deadline is actually running is for the lawyer to check.

Does the firm have to change its phone number for an answering service or an AI?

No. Both are connected through call diversion, immediate, on busy, on no answer or time-controlled. The firm’s number stays on letterhead and website, and so does the phone system.

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