Phone numbers and call routing
How a firm's numbers connect to LegalBook, versioned routing policies you simulate before publishing, recording, caller ID and blocked numbers.
For: Owner
On this page
Your phone configuration lives in Configuration → Phone in the Firm workspace. It has six tabs: Numbers, Routing policies, Recording, Caller ID, Blocked numbers and Fallbacks & incidents. You need the telephony administrator permission, which firm owners and firm administrators hold.
Live carrier service is not available yet. You can configure numbers and policies today; live calls and texts on your firm's numbers start once the carrier connection (Twilio) is certified.
Connecting a number
You keep your existing advertised number. LegalBook supports four ways to connect:
| Mode | How it works |
|---|---|
| Forwarding | Your current carrier forwards calls (all of them, after hours, overflow or no-answer) to a LegalBook number. Callers keep dialing your number. This is the fastest way to start. |
| Porting | Your number moves to LegalBook's carrier. This gives the richest routing but is not required to start. |
| SIP | Your existing phone system or carrier sends calls to LegalBook over a SIP trunk. |
| New number | LegalBook provisions an additional number, for example a Spanish line, an office line, an after-hours line or an overflow line. |
Each number belongs to a brand and an office. Nothing rings anyone until a routing policy exists for the number.
From the Numbers tab you can also set fallbacks, place a test call to an office phone, request a port and release a number. Changes that affect routing, recording or forwarding ask you to sign in again.
Routing policies
A routing policy decides what happens to a call before a person picks up: business hours and holidays, language, caller type, office, urgency and overflow.
- Policies are versioned. You edit a draft; publishing makes it the live version. There is one draft per policy at a time.
- Before you publish, simulate the draft. Walk it through each number, language and caller type, including after hours and holidays, and check the queue and greeting it reaches.
- Publishing and retiring a policy ask you to sign in again.
Onboarding step 29, Validate routing, asks you to do exactly this before going live.
Business hours and after hours
Opening hours and holidays per office are set in Configuration → Hours & holidays. What callers hear after hours and on holidays is a firm decision. The safe default is voicemail only, and urgent after-hours calls are escalated rather than dropped.
Recording
Recording policies set the mode, how long recordings are kept, and the disclosure read to callers in each language.
- The default mode is off.
- Consent and disclosure wording is read only after an attorney approves it. Recording consent law differs by jurisdiction, so this is your firm's decision, not LegalBook's.
- Recordings are kept in the firm's private storage, opened only through short-lived signed links, and every playback is audited. Recordings under a legal hold are never deleted by retention.
Caller ID
Outbound calls show the firm's caller ID, never a worker's own number. The Caller ID tab sets which firm number is shown, by rule.
Blocked numbers
Supervisors can block spam or abusive numbers. A receptionist on a live call can add a safety block for that caller. Safety blocks can only be removed by a telephony administrator.
Fallbacks and incidents
If the carrier service has a problem, LegalBook opens an incident and the supervisor's telephony console shows it. A telephony administrator can switch a number to its fallback (for example forwarding to an office phone or carrier voicemail) and switch it back when the incident is resolved.