The enquirer who is unhappy with another firm

Three matters wearing one coat

A complaint to the firm, a complaint to the regulator or ombudsman and a negligence claim are different processes with different routes, different time limits and different outcomes, and the enquirer sees one grievance. Separating them is the single most useful thing a first contact can do, and it requires no assessment of the merits: here are the three things you may be describing, here is roughly what each one is, which were you asking about.

Never comment on the other firm's conduct

Not even mildly, not even in agreement, and especially not in generated text. "That does sound like a long time" is an opinion on another solicitor's handling of a matter nobody has seen, produced by software, in writing, at scale. Configure the refusal explicitly rather than hoping tone will carry it - this is a case where a helpful-sounding assistant creates exposure the firm would never create itself.

The file is the thing they actually need

Almost every one of these enquiries cannot progress until someone has the previous file, and almost no enquirer knows that. Saying it early - that the first practical step is requesting the file from the former solicitors, how that is usually done, and that it can take weeks - converts an angry conversation into a task. It also tells the firm, before any meeting, whether there is anything to look at.

The deadline that is already running

A negligence claim has its own limitation period and the clock often started well before the enquirer noticed anything was wrong. Software must never calculate that date or suggest whether time remains. What it can do, and should, is recognise that the enquiry contains dates, record them in the enquirer's own words, flag the matter as time-sensitive and route it to a person today rather than into a queue.