# Litig Cold Start Interview > Run an initial client interview from a cold start to elicit the story, issues, timeline, documents, and goals. - Skill: `matrixx0070/litig-cold-start-interview` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add matrixx0070/litig-cold-start-interview` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/matrixx0070/litig-cold-start-interview/raw - Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS) - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: Matrixx0070 (https://skillmd.com/u/matrixx0070) - Updated: 2026-09-08 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/matrixx0070/litig-cold-start-interview --- ## When to use Use this when you meet a new client with no prior context and must extract a coherent picture in one sitting. The aim is to get the full story, spot legal issues, build a timeline, inventory documents, and learn what the client actually wants — without prematurely narrowing. **Not for:** demand-specific intake once a claim is chosen (see litig-demand-intake) or evaluating a received demand (see litig-demand-received). ## Method 1. Open with a narrative prompt: let the client tell the whole story uninterrupted first, then probe. 2. Run a conflicts check on every party and entity name before going deep. 3. Build a dated timeline of events, capturing who did what and when. 4. Identify legal issues emerging from the facts — flag, don't yet resolve. 5. Inventory documents, communications, and potential witnesses; ask what exists and where. 6. **Decision point:** if a limitations or notice deadline looks imminent, stop and escalate to the attorney before the meeting ends. 7. **Decision point:** if a conflict surfaces, pause substantive intake until it is cleared. 8. Elicit the client's goals and constraints (money, vindication, speed, relationship, budget). 9. Explain confidentiality and next steps; set expectations about scope and engagement. 10. Route your issue-spotting summary to a supervising attorney before giving the client any assessment of the claim's strength. ## Example > Prospective client describes a partnership souring over misused funds. You take the narrative, run conflicts on both partners and the LLC, timeline the capital contributions and withdrawals, flag possible breach-of-fiduciary-duty and conversion issues, list bank records and the operating agreement to collect, and learn the client wants a buyout, not a public fight. ## Pitfalls - **Leading the witness.** Feeding the client a theory shapes their memory; use open questions before closed ones. - **Skipping conflicts.** Substantive discussion before a conflicts check can disqualify the firm and breach ethics rules. - **Premature advice.** Assessing the claim's merits in the first meeting, before facts are verified, risks wrong and unauthorized advice. - **No document plan.** Leaving without a concrete list of what to collect and preserve stalls the matter and risks spoliation. ## Output format ``` CLIENT: CONFLICTS CHECK: NARRATIVE SUMMARY: TIMELINE: ISSUES SPOTTED: DOCUMENTS / WITNESSES: DEADLINES: CLIENT GOALS: NEXT STEPS: ATTORNEY REVIEW: ``` ## Reference Under ABA Model Rule 1.18, prospective clients receive duties of confidentiality even if no engagement follows — treat everything as privileged and screen carefully. Conflicts screening (Rules 1.7 and 1.9) must precede substantive discussion to avoid imputed disqualification. The attorney-client privilege attaches to communications for the purpose of obtaining legal advice, but the crime-fraud exception and waiver by third-party presence can defeat it. Begin preservation counseling early, since the duty to preserve arises when litigation is reasonably anticipated. Open-ended, non-leading questioning produces more reliable and admissible accounts. This is general information, not legal advice; ethics rules and privilege doctrine vary by jurisdiction and a licensed attorney must apply them to the specific matter.