A mass tort intake call is not a motor vehicle intake call with different words swapped in. The person on the phone did not just have an accident. They used a product, took a medication, worked with a material, or lived near a site, sometimes years ago, and they are now wondering whether what happened to them is connected to it. They may be sick, they may be scared, and they may have seen an ad that promised answers your firm cannot give in the first minute.
That is why Mass Tort Leads demand a different intake discipline than single event cases. With a car crash, the facts are usually fresh and simple: when did it happen, who was at fault, were you hurt, have you seen a doctor. With a mass tort claimant, the facts are spread across months or years, the exposure may be something the person barely remembers, and the injury may have a name they cannot pronounce. The script has to do more work, in less time, with a caller who is often less certain about their own story.
Start with the person, not the product
The first thirty seconds set the tone for everything that follows. Intake staff sometimes open with the product name or the campaign name, because that is what the lead record says. That is a mistake. The caller may not know the campaign name. They may have responded to an ad about a condition, not a product. Or they may have been contacted by a family member on their behalf. Open with the person instead.
A simple opening works: confirm the name, confirm it is a good time to talk for a few minutes, and ask what brought them to reach out. Let them answer in their own words for twenty seconds before you steer. You will learn more from that unscripted answer than from three closed questions, because it tells you how the person understands their own situation. Do they talk about a diagnosis first, or about a product? Do they sound certain, or are they repeating something they heard in an ad? Are they calling for themselves, or for a spouse or a parent? That context shapes every question that follows, and you cannot get it back once you have started marching through a checklist.
It also matters for a practical reason. Mass tort intake often involves older callers, callers who are ill, and callers whose first language is not English. A calm, unhurried opening tells them this is a conversation, not an interrogation. Firms that work with English and Spanish speaking clients should make sure the script exists in both languages and that the person answering can switch without putting the caller on hold to find someone else.
Question one: what happened to you, and when were you diagnosed
Once the opening is done, the first real qualification question is about the injury or diagnosis, not the exposure. This surprises new intake staff, because the exposure is what defines the campaign. But the injury is what defines whether the person has a case at all, and it is also the part of the story the caller usually knows best.
Ask what condition or diagnosis they have, and when they received it. Listen for specifics. A named diagnosis with a date is a strong signal. A vague description, like feeling unwell or having pain, is not disqualifying on its own, but it means the next questions matter more, because the firm will need medical records to establish anything.
The date matters as much as the diagnosis. Mass tort cases turn on timing rules, and a diagnosis that came years after the exposure can still fit, while a diagnosis that came before the exposure usually cannot. Your script should capture the diagnosis date in the caller’s own words, and the intake note should record it exactly, not as a paraphrase. Later, when the firm reviews the file, the difference between “diagnosed last spring” and “diagnosed in April” can matter, and the intake team is the only chance to get it right.
Question two: what were you exposed to, and for how long
With the injury established, the second question is exposure. What product did they use, what medication did they take, what did they work with, or where did they live? The script should ask for the name first, then the dates of use, then the frequency. A person who used a product once for a week is in a different position from a person who used it daily for years, and your firm’s case criteria will draw that line somewhere. Intake does not need to decide the line. Intake needs to capture the facts cleanly enough that someone else can.
This is where mass tort scripting gets harder than single event intake. People forget brand names. They remember a pill was round and white, or a product came in a blue bottle, or they worked at a plant that used a chemical they never knew the name of. A good script gives the intake agent follow up prompts for exactly this moment: what did the packaging look like, where did you buy it, did a doctor prescribe it or did you buy it yourself, do you still have the bottle or the prescription record.
Question three: have you spoken to another firm, and have you signed anything
Prior representation is one of the most common reasons a mass tort lead fails to convert, and it is also one of the easiest to screen for if the script asks directly. Ask whether the caller has spoken to another law firm about this same issue, and whether they have signed any paperwork. Ask it plainly, without judgment, and make clear that the answer does not make them a bad caller. People sign things they do not understand, especially when they are ill or frightened, and some have signed with a firm and then never heard from that firm again.
The intake agent should also ask whether anyone else in the household has filed a claim for the same exposure. In some campaigns, a spouse or family member with the same exposure and the same diagnosis may be a separate claimant, and in others the household claim is already covered. Either way, the firm needs to know before it invests in the file.
Question four: what treatment have you received, and where
Treatment is the bridge between the diagnosis and the proof. Ask what doctors the caller has seen, what tests were run, and what treatment they are receiving now. Ask for the name of the treating physician or the hospital, and whether the caller has medical records they can share. You are not asking the agent to evaluate the medicine. You are asking them to find out whether there is a medical record trail the firm can follow.
This question also tells you how engaged the caller is. A person who can name their doctor, their last appointment, and their current medication is usually a person who will cooperate with the records process. A person who cannot name a single treating provider may still have a case, but the firm will have a harder road establishing it, and the intake note should say so honestly.
One practical note: do not ask for a diagnosis the caller does not have, and do not suggest one. Intake agents sometimes try to be helpful by naming a condition they think fits the campaign. That is not their job, and it can create a record that causes problems later. Ask what the caller was told, by whom, and when. Leave the medical judgment to the medical records.
Question five: consent, contact, and the next step
The last minute of the call is about permission and logistics, and it matters as much as the qualification questions. Mass tort outreach is governed by consent rules, and the firm needs a clean record of what the caller agreed to. Ask whether it is alright to contact them by phone, text, and email about their case, and record the answer. Ask for the best number and the best time to reach them, because a claimant who works nights or cares for a sick spouse will not answer a call at ten in the morning, and a good lead turns into a dead lead when the firm calls at the wrong hour three times and gives up.
Then tell the caller exactly what happens next, in plain language, and in the order it will happen. Someone from the firm will call back, or a packet will arrive, or medical records will be requested, and here is roughly when. Do not promise a result, a timeline for a settlement, or a dollar figure. Do not promise that the firm will take the case. Promise only what the firm controls: that the information will be reviewed, that someone will follow up, and by when.
What the script should never do
A few habits show up in mass tort intake scripts that do more harm than good, and they are worth naming directly.
First, the script should never ask the caller to prove their case on the phone. The caller is not a witness under oath. They are a person describing a medical history from memory. If the agent’s tone turns skeptical, the caller will either shut down or start guessing, and both outcomes produce a worse record.
Second, the script should never include a price, a fee percentage, or a promise about compensation. Mass tort economics vary by campaign, by injury, and by the stage of the litigation, and an intake agent quoting numbers they do not control creates expectations the firm cannot meet. Keep the call focused on facts and next steps.
Third, the script should never be so long that the agent reads it instead of listening. Two minutes of qualification means the script is a guide, not a recital. The best intake agents know the five questions cold and spend their attention on the answers, not on the page.
Train the script, then test it on real calls
Writing the questions is the easy part. The work is in training and testing. Have new intake staff role play the script with each other, including the hard versions: the caller who cannot remember the product name, the caller who has already signed with another firm, the caller who is angry, the caller who cries. Then listen to real calls, with permission, and check whether the five questions are actually being asked, in order, and whether the notes match what the caller said.
Pay attention to the calls that fail. If a large share of your mass tort leads are being declined for the same reason, the script may be missing a question, or asking one in a way that produces the wrong answer. If the firm keeps finding out about prior representation after the file is already open, the question about other firms is probably buried too late in the call, or asked too softly to get an honest answer.
If your firm is buying mass tort leads and the intake numbers are not where they should be, the problem is often not the leads. It is the first two minutes. Fix the script, train the people who use it, and listen to what the callers are actually telling you.
To see how a steady supply of qualified claimants fits into your firm’s intake pipeline, take a look at how our mass tort lead program works and what a well screened delivery should include.
