Legal Triage: The Missing Layer in Legal Technology

Most legal technology is built for order.

Structured documents. Defined schemas. Clear production workflows. Cases already in motion.

That makes sense. Once a legal matter has form, enterprise tools shine. Platforms like Relativity and similar systems are powerful and necessary for what they do.

But the legal process does not start with order.

It starts with chaos.

The Moment Before the Case Exists

Before discovery. Before pleadings. Before timelines are clean or relevance is clear.

A parent sits across from an attorney holding a phone full of screenshots. Text messages. Emails. Bank statements. Photos. Voice notes. Fragments.

Some of it matters. Some of it does not. No one knows yet.

They are not asking for e discovery.

They are asking a more basic question.

Is there a case here?

This moment is emotionally charged and time sensitive. The data is unstructured and non homogeneous. The stakes are personal. The clarity is low.

And yet this is one of the most common entry points into the legal system.

It is also one of the least supported by technology.

Why Enterprise Tools Do Not Belong at Intake

Enterprise legal platforms are built to manage scale and structure. They assume documents are already collected, relevance frameworks exist, and the matter already has legal shape.

At intake, none of that is true.

Introducing heavy systems too early often increases friction.

• Cognitive overload for clients
• Unnecessary cost
• Premature formalization
• Time spent organizing information that may never matter

This is not a failure of enterprise tools. It is a mismatch of problem domains.

Intake is not about completeness. It is about prioritization.

Introducing Legal Triage

We call this early stage legal triage.

Legal triage is the process of rapidly assessing unstructured information to determine what is relevant, what is missing, what should be prioritized, and whether further legal action is warranted at all.

The term is intentional.

In medicine, triage is not treatment. It is assessment under uncertainty. It exists to allocate attention responsibly when information is incomplete and stakes are high.

Legal triage serves the same function.

It happens before discovery. Before case management. Before enterprise tooling makes sense.

Until recently, it has not had a name or tools designed for it.

The Problem With Do Everything Legal Tech

Many legal AI products promise end to end solutions. Intake. Analysis. Drafting. Strategy. Filing.

The ambition is understandable, but it often leads to systems that are overpowered for early use and underperform where nuance matters most.

In practice, the most effective tools are right sized.

Right sized tools solve a specific problem well. They respect the user context. They do not assume maturity that is not there. They integrate forward instead of replacing everything.

Legal triage is a right sized use case.

Where CaseBuilder Fits

CaseBuilder was designed for this pre case moment.

Not to replace discovery platforms. Not to compete with enterprise systems.

It exists to help attorneys, paralegals, and families make sense of early stage chaos quickly and responsibly.

It exists before Relativity enters the picture. Before formal production workflows begin. Before decisions are locked in.

Legal triage is not the entire legal process. But without it, the process often starts on unstable ground.

Looking Forward

Progress in legal technology will not come only from larger platforms and broader automation.

It will come from recognizing distinct moments in the legal lifecycle and building tools that honor the reality of those moments.

Legal triage is one of them.

And it is long overdue.