What a personal injury answering service costs
Per-minute, per-call and flat pricing explained, every published price checked and dated, and a missed-call sum you do yourself before you look at any of them.
Competitor prices from their own sites, dated · No prices from memory · Della's plans at the end, after the sum
Last updated
Neck and back pain, ER visit the same night. Other driver at fault, police report filed. Other driver’s insurer named. Callback number captured.
What does a personal injury answering service cost?
As of October 25, 2026, published prices for answering services that take law firm calls ran from $65 a month at Posh to $2,100 a month at Smith.ai, with per-minute or per-call charges on top of most plans. Some, including Answering Legal, publish no price. The right comparison is cost per qualified injury call, not the monthly fee.
Where does the money go now?
- You pay per minute for a service that takes a name and a number, then pay staff to make the callback.
- The overage line on the invoice is bigger than the plan.
- You pay for the ads that make the phone ring at 9pm, and nobody answers it.
What does a missed injury call cost against any of these prices?
Before comparing fees, put a number on the other side of the ledger. In Clio's 2024 secret-shopper study only 40% of law firms answered a prospective client's call (Oklahoma Bar Journal, 2025), and an ABA Law Practice Division survey found 32% of calls to law firms went straight to voicemail. (Lawyers Mutual NC, 2019) One signed injury case usually pays for a year of any service on this page.
What are missed calls costing your firm?
The cost of a missed call is the fee from the injury case that caller would have signed. Work it out for your own firm: missed calls a month × share that are new matters × your sign rate × your average fee. The sliders start on example figures. Move them to your own numbers.
For the method and what to count as a missed call, see the full missed-call cost calculator on calldella.com.
What would it be worth to pay one predictable fee for qualified calls?
- If the bill were the same every month, what would you stop checking?
- If every after-hours injury caller arrived qualified at 7am, how many would you sign, and what is one of those worth?
How Della meets it
| If this is happening | What Della does |
|---|---|
| Per-minute bills for messages | One monthly fee with the dashboard, email alerts and the morning brief included |
| Overage surprises | Extra minutes at $0.50 each, stated up front |
| Ad spend rings a phone nobody answers at night | Answers in your firm's name every night, weekend and holiday, and takes the injury intake |
How do answering services charge? The three pricing models
| Model | How it works | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Per minute | A monthly plan with a minute allowance, then a per-minute rate | An injury intake runs several minutes, so the allowance goes fast. Check the overage rate and whether hold time counts |
| Per call | A monthly plan with a call allowance, then a per-call rate | Short calls cost the same as long ones. Check what counts as a call: wrong numbers, hang-ups, existing clients |
| Flat monthly | One fee with minutes included and the features stated | Check what is included and what each extra minute costs. Della is priced this way |
Published prices, checked on October 25, 2026
Each fact below is from the company's own pricing page, linked. "Not published" means the page does not state it. Re-check before you sign, because prices change.
| Service | Published price | Overage | Contract terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai | Human-first: $300, $810 or $2,100/month, Enterprise custom. AI-first: free, $150 or $500/month. Hybrid presets from $2.50 per call (source) | Human-first: $11.50, $10.50 or $8.50 per call over plan. AI-first free tier: $3.00 per call after 25 (source) | Month-to-month. 30-day money-back guarantee for new clients, up to $1,000, overage excluded (source) |
| Answering Legal | Not published. Prices are shown after you submit a contact form (source) | Not published (source) | No long-term contracts, no setup fees (source) |
| Posh | Live plans from $65/month to $1,900/month (prices effective 1 January 2026) (source) | $1.90 to $2.30 per additional live minute; AI-enabled plans charge about half that for AI minutes ($1.10 on Vogue AI) (source) | Month-to-month. Free trial of 7 days or 250 minutes, whichever comes first (source) |
| Ruby | $250, $395, $720 or $1,725/month; larger plans through sales (source) | Not published on the pricing page (source) | Contract length not published; no activation, onboarding or setup fees (source) |
Personal injury intake service comparison: the same ten criteria for everyone
Price is one row of ten. The table scores Call Della and four services a PI firm is likely to be weighing on who answers, hours, intake depth, urgent-call handling, integrations, Spanish and contract terms. Call Della wrote it and is one of the five. Every competitor fact is from that company's own site, linked and dated. On a phone the table stacks, one criterion at a time.
| Criterion | Call Della | Smith.ai | Answering Legal | Posh | Ruby |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who answers | AI. Della is an AI intake specialist and tells callers so if asked | Your choice of human-first (live receptionists), AI-first or hybrid source | Live, U.S.-based receptionists who answer only for lawyers source | Live, U.S.-based receptionists, with optional AI-enabled plans that mix AI and live answering source | Live receptionists ("100% live"), with AI-assisted call flows and transcripts source |
| Hours covered | Nights, weekends and holidays (after hours only) | 24/7, or only the hours you set source | 24/7/365 source | 24/7/365, or on demand when you choose source | 24/7, including after hours, weekends and holidays source |
| Published price | $329/month (Solo), $598/month (Practice), Group custom | Human-first: $300, $810 or $2,100/month, Enterprise custom. AI-first: free, $150 or $500/month. Hybrid presets from $2.50 per call source | Not published. Prices are shown after you submit a contact form source | Live plans from $65/month to $1,900/month (prices effective 1 January 2026) source | $250, $395, $720 or $1,725/month; larger plans through sales source |
| Minutes or calls included | 300 minutes (Solo), 600 minutes (Practice), Group custom | Human-first: 30, 90 or 300 calls. AI-first: 25 calls free, 75 calls on Pro, 300 calls on Enterprise source | Not published. Free trial of 400 minutes, no credit card required source | From 0 to 1,000 receptionist minutes, for example 100 minutes for $215 or 500 minutes for $975 source | 50, 100, 200 or 500 receptionist minutes source |
| Overage | $0.50 per minute | Human-first: $11.50, $10.50 or $8.50 per call over plan. AI-first free tier: $3.00 per call after 25 source | Not published source | $1.90 to $2.30 per additional live minute; AI-enabled plans charge about half that for AI minutes ($1.10 on Vogue AI) source | Not published on the pricing page source |
| Legal intake depth | Practice-specific intake for personal injury, criminal defense and immigration only. Every call becomes a dossier with summary, urgency score, recording and transcript | Lead screening, qualification and intake on every plan; practice-specific legal intake and conflict checks listed for law firms source | Custom legal intake for every new client caller, with first-stage intake and warm transfers source | Customized legal intake on your practice areas; supports your internal conflict check process source | Lead qualification and intake, with the information collected set by you; scheduling and payment collection source |
| Urgent-call handling | Urgent-call email alerts to the attorney on call, plus a morning brief by 7am in your time zone | Live transfers to set destinations (1, 2 or 10 free by plan, $15/month per extra destination) source | Transfers callers to you, pending your availability; detailed message after every call source | Transfers when you set your status to "Accepting Transfers" in the Posh app source | No specific urgent-call process published; personalized call handling, call forwarding, app and email notifications source |
| Integrations | CRM webhook on the Group plan only. No native Clio, MyCase or other practice-management integration | First CRM free, $0.50 per call for each additional CRM. Names Clio, HubSpot, Salesforce and Zapier source | 76 integrations, with direct ones for Clio Grow, MyCase, Lead Docket, Lawmatics, Smokeball, PracticePanther and Zapier source | Via the Posh portal. Names Rocket Matter, Calendly, Acuity Scheduling and Zapier, and covers Clio set-up in its FAQ source | Native Clio integration; also lists 8am MyCase, Lawmatics, HubSpot and Zapier-powered connections source |
| Spanish | Spanish on immigration intake only | Dedicated Spanish line add-on, $1.00 per call source | English or Spanish, U.S.-based bilingual staff source | English and Spanish guaranteed at no extra charge, Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm Eastern; outside those hours when a bilingual receptionist is available source | 24/7 Spanish and bilingual call handling available source |
| Contract terms | Month-to-month, no setup fee | Month-to-month. 30-day money-back guarantee for new clients, up to $1,000, overage excluded source | No long-term contracts, no setup fees source | Month-to-month. Free trial of 7 days or 250 minutes, whichever comes first source | Contract length not published; no activation, onboarding or setup fees source |
The one-to-one comparisons are on calldella.com: Smith.ai vs Call Della, Answering Legal vs Call Della, Posh vs Call Della, Ruby vs Call Della.
Hear what you would be paying for
Price what you would get, not what you would pay. Book a 30-minute demo and we run a live injury call while you listen, then walk you through the dossier. Below is a sample, with a test caller.
- Caller
- Test Caller A
- Matter
- Rear-end collision, Tuesday 9:42pm
- Injuries
- Neck and back pain, ER visit the same night
- Fault
- Other driver at fault, police report filed
- Insurance
- Other driver's insurer named
- Urgency
- 4 of 5
- Callback
- Number captured
Questions about price
Is a cheap per-minute plan better for a small PI firm?
Only if your calls are short and few. A proper injury intake runs several minutes, so a low monthly fee with a per-minute rate can cost more than a flat plan once the calls are real. Count last month's after-hours calls, multiply by a realistic call length, and price each plan on that, not on the entry figure.
Is there a setup fee or a contract?
Not with Della. Every plan is month-to-month with no setup fee, and extra minutes are $0.50 each. Of the services compared here, Answering Legal publishes no setup fees and no long-term contracts, Posh and Smith.ai publish month-to-month terms, and Ruby does not publish its contract length. Each fact is linked above.
What does it cost?
Solo is $329 a month with 300 minutes, built for solo lawyers. Practice is $598 a month with 600 minutes. Both include the Call Della dashboard, urgent-call email alerts and a morning brief by 7am. Group is priced to your volume and adds custom minutes, priced to your volume, more than one practice area, cRM webhook. Extra minutes are $0.50 each. Every plan is month-to-month with no setup fee.
We already have an answering service. Why change?
Most answering services take a message. Della takes the intake: what happened, the injuries, treatment, fault and insurance, with an urgency score on top. Put what reached your desk from last night beside a Della dossier and compare. If your current service already delivers that, keep it.
Will callers mind speaking to an AI?
Della introduces herself by name, speaks calmly and asks one question at a time. If a caller asks whether she's an AI, she tells them. Every call is recorded, so you can hear exactly how each caller was treated. Book a demo, listen to a live injury call, and judge the conversation for yourself.
Does it work with our case management software?
Every call reaches you as a dossier in the Call Della dashboard and as an email summary, so it works alongside any system. There are no direct case management integrations yet. The Group plan includes a CRM webhook that can pass each dossier to your own system.
What does Della cost?
Solo is $329 a month with 300 minutes, built for solo lawyers. Practice is $598 a month with 600 minutes. Both include the Call Della dashboard, urgent-call email alerts and a morning brief by 7am. Group is priced to your volume and adds custom minutes, priced to your volume, more than one practice area, cRM webhook. Extra minutes are $0.50 each. Every plan is month-to-month with no setup fee.
| Solo | Practice | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $329 a month | $598 a month |
| Minutes included | 300 | 600 |
| Built for | Solo lawyers | Small and growing firms |
| Della answering in your firm's name, nights, weekends and holidays | Yes | Yes |
| The Call Della dashboard: every call as a dossier with summary, urgency score, recording and transcript | Yes | Yes |
| Urgent-call email alerts to the attorney on call | Yes | Yes |
| A morning brief by 7am in your time zone | Yes | Yes |
| Recording disclosure set for your state | Yes | Yes |
| Your own Della number, with forwarding and a test call before you go live | Yes | Yes |
| Extra minutes | $0.50 each | $0.50 each |
Group: custom minutes, priced to your volume, more than one practice area, CRM webhook. Every plan is month-to-month with no setup fee.
For the sum behind the price, calldella.com has a cost per signed case calculator and a comparison of after-hours intake options, including voicemail and in-house night staff.
Forward this to your managing partner
Our after-hours injury calls go to voicemail or a per-minute message service, and I have priced the options: $329 or $598 a month flat is the one to look at. Della, from Call Della, answers them in our name, takes the full injury intake and has a dossier on our desks by dawn, with urgent cases sent to the attorney on call. From $329 a month with the dashboard and alerts included, month-to-month. See a demo: personalinjuryansweringservice.com
Sources
- Answering the Call: Why Responsiveness Is Critical for Law Firm Success, Oklahoma Bar Journal (2025). Checked 25 October 2026.
- How Your Telephone is Costing You Clients, Lawyers Mutual NC (2019). Checked 25 October 2026.