The operational decision
Make out-of-hours behavior clear when the normal intake team is unavailable. Operational urgency determines which firm-approved contact path to try. It does not allow the assistant to calculate a legal deadline, assess danger, promise protection or conclude that an attorney is already handling a matter.
Prepare the workflow
Use a firm-approved trigger, ordered destinations and fallback; test the route without contacting real on-call staff during a public demo.
Example wording for approval
“The example firm's after-hours process uses its approved routing instructions. An attempted connection does not confirm that an attorney has reviewed or accepted the inquiry.”
Worked example
The fictional after-hours tree tries a primary destination, then a backup, then an owned review queue. Test each outcome separately. When both calls fail, the assistant should explain the configured fallback without claiming an attorney has seen the inquiry. The queue item should remain pending acknowledgment. A successful daytime test does not establish after-hours readiness because the roster and availability differ. The approving firm role should inspect the failed-path wording before the public route is enabled.
Handoff record
Record these task-specific fields: trigger label, coverage window, destination order, fallback.
Acceptance check
Make every fictional destination unavailable. The assistant should announce the actual fallback rather than saying an attorney has been notified successfully.
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