Alvina Khan, Administrative Assistant

She asks what the matter concerns, whether anything you have received carries a date, and which language you would rather meet in. Those three answers decide who you see and how soon.

The reason for asking before booking is that the firm has three kinds of licensee and they do not do the same work. A consultation with the wrong one costs you a fee and a week, and it is avoidable at the point of the first call.

By what the matter actually needs. A refusal that may go to the Federal Court, an appeal, or a stalled file that needs mandamus goes to Kapil Rathod, because only a lawyer may act there. An ordinary immigration filing goes to an RCIC at the lower consultation rate. Small Claims Court, a Provincial Offences charge or notarial work goes to Saleema Panjwani.

Complexity moves a matter up rather than down. Where it is not obvious which side of a line a file falls on, it goes to the lawyer, because the cost of assessing it there is smaller than the cost of assessing it in the wrong place.

She does not advise on the matter itself. She is not licensed to, and routing is not advice: what she is deciding is who is qualified to answer, not what the answer is.

Because the fee differs and so does the scope. A consultation is $500 with the lawyer, $250 with an RCIC and $200 with a Licensed Paralegal, all inclusive of HST. Paying the lawyer's rate to be told your matter is an ordinary filing is the waste this call exists to prevent.

It also decides the deadline. If you are holding a refusal letter, the clock started on the day you received it, not on the day you called, and the first thing she will ask for is that date.

English, Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu. That matters more at intake than anywhere else, because the first conversation is the one where a client has to describe a situation they may not have the vocabulary for in a second language.

A detail lost at that stage does not stay lost harmlessly. It shapes who you are booked with, and an inaccurate account of a date or a relationship is exactly the sort of thing that becomes a refusal months later.