Set Up a Legal Intake Triage Assistant in a ChatGPT Project

The assistant sorts the way you tell it to. Write your own tests first.

1. Self-serve: the answer already sits in a template, policy or FAQ. The requester can act without you.
2. Quick answer: you can answer in a short reply, usually by email or chat.
3. Contract review: a document needs a real read against your playbook.
4. Escalate: involves you personally or outside counsel, or the general counsel.
5. List what always means Escalate in your company. Examples to adapt: a threatened or pending lawsuit, contact from a regulator, a possible data incident, a harassment or discrimination complaint, a press inquiry, anything touching a board decision.

What you should see: A half-page of definitions in your words. Troubleshooting: If you cannot define a category in two sentences, the assistant will not sort it consistently either. Simplify first.

1. Take your FAQ and keep it to answers you would stand behind. Add a heading per question.
2. Prepare the signing authority sheet: who may sign what, up to what level, and who approves above it. Use your own thresholds. Do not paste company-sensitive figures into a file unless your account's settings allow it.
3. Save each as a Word, PDF or text file with the date in the file name.

What you should see: Two dated files with headings. Troubleshooting: If a file is a scanned image, retype or export it as text first.

1. Open ChatGPT and look in the sidebar for Projects.
2. Choose the option to create a new project and name it "Legal Intake Triage".
3. If it asks for an icon or colour, pick anything.

What you should see: A project page with a place for chats, files and instructions. Per OpenAI's Academy page, a Project keeps chats, files, instructions and context in one place, and the project instructions apply to every chat in the project. Troubleshooting: If you cannot find Projects, your plan or workspace may not include it. Ask your ChatGPT administrator.

1. On the project page, look for the option to add files and upload your FAQ and signing authority sheet.
2. Look for the project instructions or "instructions" field and paste the block below. Edit the bracketed parts.

You help the legal department of [Company] triage incoming requests. The lawyer decides the final category.

For each request I paste, return:
Category: one of Self-serve, Quick answer, Contract review, Escalate
Reason: one line
First question to ask the requester: one question
Source: the FAQ question or signing authority row you relied on, or "none"

Definitions:
Self-serve: the answer is in the FAQ or a template.
Quick answer: a short reply from the lawyer is enough.
Contract review: a document needs a real review.
Escalate: [paste your list of Escalate triggers].

Rules:
- If the request touches any Escalate trigger, choose Escalate even if the rest looks routine.
- If you are unsure between two categories, choose the more cautious one and say why.
- For signing authority questions, quote the row from the sheet. If the sheet does not cover it, say "the sheet does not cover this" and choose Escalate or Quick answer.
- Never state what the law requires. Never cite cases or statutes.
- Requests arrive with names replaced by roles. Do not ask for names.

1. Save the instructions.

What you should see: Both files listed in the project and the instructions saved. Troubleshooting: If the assistant ignores the format in a chat, check that the chat was started inside the project and not outside it.

1. Start a chat inside the project.
2. Paste six short requests you write yourself, two of them clear Escalate cases.
3. Compare each category with the one you would pick.

What you should see: Matching categories on obvious cases and a cautious category on borderline ones. Troubleshooting: If it under-escalates, add the missed pattern to the Escalate list and run the test again.