Automated Intake: Why You Shouldn’t Need Four Tools to Start One Case
The Problem Behind “Simple” Intake
Starting a new mediation case shouldn’t require a scavenger hunt across tools. Yet for many neutrals and administrators, “intake” still means stitching together PDFs, emails, spreadsheets, and calendar invites—each one a potential point of failure.
What should take minutes often drags into days. Details get lost. Participants miss messages. And before the first session even begins, a process meant to bring order starts in confusion.
From solo mediators working independently to firms managing dozens of matters each week, we’ve heard this story again and again. Intake may not be glamorous, but it sets the tone for everything that follows.
Why It Matters
Your intake process is your first impression. When it’s seamless, it builds trust. When it’s clunky or inconsistent, people notice.
For administrators, every manual step adds friction. For neutrals, it’s time taken away from preparation and people. And for participants, unclear instructions create unnecessary stress at an already delicate moment.
A modern ADR practice deserves a front door that’s as smooth and professional as the service it represents.
“ADR Notable integrates the time-saving tech you need in one platform—letting you focus on providing value to clients.”
– Ken Grady, Mediator and Legal Tech Expert
A Better Way: Meet Automated Intake
We built Automated Intake to take the guesswork—and the busywork—out of starting every case.
What It Does
- Create custom, branded intake forms that fit your workflows.
- Automatically generate new cases in ADR Notable as soon as a form is submitted.
- Notify the right people instantly and organize every document in one place.
- Let participants complete forms at their own pace, save drafts, and return later.
Because everything connects directly through ADR Notable, there’s no double entry, no file chasing, and no missing attachments hiding in an inbox.
What This Means for You
- For Solo Mediators: A smoother, more professional start to each engagement—without extra tools or admin help.
- For Firms: Standardized intake across teams, cleaner data, and more consistent client experiences.
- For Participants: Clarity from the start. A single place to enter information, upload documents, and know what comes next.
It’s intake that feels less like paperwork and more like progress.
Designed with Humanity in Mind
Automation can feel impersonal—but it shouldn’t. In a field built on empathy and judgment, technology should clear space for the human connection, not compete with it.
“Automation should make space for empathy—not replace it.”
By reducing manual setup and errors, the feature frees practitioners to spend energy where it matters most: listening, guiding, and helping people move toward resolution.
The Impact Firms Can Expect
- Less manual setup time and faster onboarding for every case.
- Fewer data errors thanks to direct integration with ADR Notable.
- A more professional first impression for every new participant.
Administrators will see a steadier flow of information—cases that arrive ready to go, not waiting for cleanup. Mediators will enter sessions with better context and fewer loose ends. And clients will feel the difference from their very first interaction.
Looking Ahead
As adoption grows, we’ll continue to listen, learn, and refine. Every improvement will come from real-world feedback—because our mission hasn’t changed: to make technology work quietly and gracefully behind the scenes.
A Thought to Close
Technology in dispute resolution should never replace the human element—it should clear the path for it.
Automated Intake gives every practitioner a simpler, more confident way to begin their work—so they can spend less time managing the process and more time helping people move forward.
