Immigration, bankruptcy & tax resolution
Keep every case moving toward filing—without chasing pay stubs and birth certificates between deadlines.
Deptly helps immigration, bankruptcy, and tax resolution practices sign more of the frightened callers who reach out in a bad week — and carries the document checklists, the appointment prep, and the 'any news on my case?' cadence that fill the months in between — while legal strategy, filings, and every question of law stay with the attorney.
Part of Boutique Legal Services
What does Deptly do for immigration, bankruptcy & tax resolution?
Deptly answers the calls that arrive while you're in court or consults — people holding an IRS notice, a garnishment, a denial — qualifies them with your intake questions, and books consultations from your real calendar. It runs each matter's document checklist to filing-ready, preps clients for biometrics, 341 meetings, and interviews with your approved materials, keeps anxious clients updated on a cadence you set, and follows payment plans per your policy. Legal advice, strategy, and every filing stay with the attorney.
Sound familiar?
Five moments from the way this work actually runs — not because anyone is careless, but because the loop depends on whoever is busiest.
The client has called three times this week to ask whether USCIS has moved. The receipt notice hasn't changed since March, and every call lands mid-consult.
The 341 meeting is nine days out and the client still hasn't sent the last two pay stubs. The third request is sitting unanswered in his inbox — he's embarrassed, so he's avoiding it.
It's the week after a notice batch went out. There are eleven voicemails from people holding IRS letters, and your paralegal is still assembling last month's offer in compromise.
The RFE deadline is circled on the wall calendar, and the birth certificate it needs is with a relative overseas — untranslated, and 'coming soon' for the third week running.
A payment-plan client missed his second installment. Nobody noticed for three weeks, and now the balance conversation is twice as awkward as it needed to be.
Why this happens
These practices run on someone else's clock. USCIS decides when the petition moves. The trustee sets the 341 date. The IRS answers when it answers. So every matter alternates between short bursts of legal work and long stretches of waiting — and the client, whose life is on hold, experiences every quiet week as something going wrong. They check the case status daily, call when they can't stand it, and every one of those calls interrupts billable work to deliver the same answer: we're waiting, and that's normal.
Underneath, the workflow engine is document collection. A petition without certified translations, a means test without six months of statements, an offer in compromise without complete financials — none of it can be filed. The client is the bottleneck, and the client is also frightened, sometimes embarrassed, often gathering records across languages and borders. The chase has to be gentle and relentless at once, and it falls to paralegals in the margins between deadlines — which means it happens unevenly, and files stall for weeks on one missing page.
Then the volume arrives in waves: notice batches after filing season, a policy change in the news, the year's garnishment cycles. Intake, chasing, and reassurance all compete for the same few hands, and urgent legal work will always outrank administrative follow-through — that isn't a discipline problem, it's structure. Deptly carries the checklist, the update cadence, and the calls in between, so the attorney's attention goes to strategy and filings.
What Deptly handles here
Three complete responsibilities — each with a trigger, the actions carried, the escalation point, and what done actually means.
Responsibility 1
Answer the frightened first call and book the consultation
- Starts when
- A call or web form arrives from someone holding a government letter — an IRS notice, a garnishment, a denial, a court date — usually while you're in a consult, a 341 meeting, or immigration court.
- What Deptly does
- Responds within minutes with the calm intake scripts you wrote, in the languages you've approved
- Runs your intake questions — which agency, what the letter says, any dates printed on it, prior filings — and logs every legal question word for word, unanswered
- Books the consultation from your real calendar, explains the consultation fee from your approved schedule, and sends the questionnaire and the document checklist for that matter type ahead of the meeting
- Flags any date printed on the letter to your team the same day — the deadline math stays with your office
- Comes to you when
- A caller mentioning detention, a levy already in motion, or a date inside your urgency threshold goes to the attorney under your escalation rules — same day, not end of week.
The consultation is booked, the intake summary and verbatim questions are in your practice software, and the caller knows exactly what to bring — or the inquiry is in front of you with one clear question.
Responsibility 2
Run the document checklist to filing-ready
- Starts when
- An engagement is signed and the matter opens with a checklist attached — pay stubs, bank statements, tax returns, civil documents, translations, the credit counseling certificate.
- What Deptly does
- Opens every item as a tracked outstanding item in your practice software, so the state of the file is visible instead of remembered
- Chases each item on the cadence you set — text, email, or a call, in the client's preferred channel and language — and marks items received as they land
- Sends your step-by-step instructions when a client is stuck: how to download the statements, where to order the certificate, what your office needs the translation to include
- Schedules the readiness steps around the checklist — the credit counseling course reminder, the translation hand-off, the questionnaire that's still half-finished
- Flags any file where a printed deadline is approaching and items remain outstanding, with what's missing and the full chase history
- Comes to you when
- A client gone quiet as a date approaches, a document that doesn't match the name on the file, or a record that may not exist goes to your paralegal or the attorney with the history attached — not another automated nudge.
The checklist reads complete and the file is marked filing-ready in your system for attorney review — or you know exactly which items stand between this client and the filing, and who was asked, when.
Responsibility 3
Carry the wait: status cadence, appointment prep, and payment plans
- Starts when
- A matter enters a waiting state — the petition is pending, the 341 is scheduled, the offer is under review — and the client starts checking every day.
- What Deptly does
- Sends the scheduled administrative updates you approved: what stage the case is in, what happens next, whether anything is needed from the client
- Answers routine 'any news?' calls and texts with your approved status language and logs each contact on the matter
- Confirms and preps clients for biometrics appointments, 341 meetings, and interviews from your prep sheets — where to go, what to bring, when to arrive
- Tracks payment-plan installments and follows missed ones per your billing policy, politely and consistently
- Comes to you when
- A new agency notice, a changed date, a distressed client, or any question of substance reaches the attorney the same day, with the file context attached.
The client hears from the firm on a rhythm instead of chasing it, appointments are attended prepared, installments stay current or get flagged early — and the 'any update?' calls stop landing on the attorney.
One job, before and with Deptly
The same signal, followed all the way to a verified outcome instead of waiting on whoever is busiest.
Today
- The consultation goes well: a Chapter 7 makes sense, the client signs, and your paralegal sends the document checklist that evening.
- Two weeks later, four of nine items are in. The pay-stub and bank-statement requests sit unanswered — the client is embarrassed and avoiding his inbox.
- The garnishment grinds on while chase emails go out whenever someone remembers, between deadlines on other files.
- The client calls upset that nothing is happening — while the missing statements sit in his own online banking.
- The filing goes out three weeks later than it should have, after a scramble that ate two evenings.
With Deptly
- The engagement is signed, and the full checklist opens in your practice software with every item tracked: pay stubs, statements, tax returns, the credit counseling certificate.
- Deptly chases each item on your cadence — text first, because that's what this client answers — and marks items received as they land.
- When the statements stall, it sends the download walkthrough your office wrote and offers to stay on the phone while he does it.
- Ten days in, one item remains. Deptly flags it to your paralegal with the garnishment noted, and the counseling course reminder is already scheduled.
- The client gets a short weekly note: what's in, what's left, what happens after filing. The is-anything-happening calls stop.
- The file is marked filing-ready in your system with the complete checklist attached — the attorney reviews and files.Closed loop
Start from the outcome you want
The same responsibilities, prioritized differently depending on what you are trying to change first.
Be the firm that answers the frightened call
People holding an IRS letter or a garnishment notice call several firms in one sitting, and the first office that answers with calm and a plan usually signs the case. Deptly responds within minutes — with your scripts, in the languages you approve — books the consultation while the resolve is still there, follows every unsigned engagement agreement to a decision, and reaches back out when the next filing comes due: removal of conditions, naturalization, this year's compliance work. Same number, same practice — more of the callers you already earn becoming signed clients.
Get the checklist and the status desk off your team
If your paralegal spends afternoons re-requesting bank statements and your evenings go to reassuring anxious clients, the practice is spending its highest-value hours on its most repetitive work. Deptly runs every checklist item to received, sends the updates that stop the 'any news?' calls before they start, preps clients for biometrics and 341 dates from your materials, and follows installments on your billing policy. What reaches you is a short brief and the handful of matters that genuinely need a lawyer's attention. The rest is already handled.
Take the notice wave without dropping the open files
The weeks after a notice batch or a policy headline bring both problems at once: a surge of frightened new callers, and current clients phoning for reassurance — while every open file still needs its documents chased. Deptly holds all three. New inquiries get answered and booked in parallel, existing clients get the status message you approved for the moment, and no checklist loses its cadence because intake got loud. The weekly brief shows which matters wait on clients, which wait on you, and where a deadline is closing in on an incomplete file.
What Deptly handles, asks about, and never decides
Every responsibility above runs inside this boundary. You set the rules; anything outside them waits for you.
Deptly handles
Routine work done within the rules you approve.
- Answers and returns every inquiry — phone, text, web form — with your intake scripts, in the languages you approve
- Books and confirms consultations against your real calendar, with questionnaires and document checklists sent ahead
- Chases every checklist item to received — statements, certificates, translations, questionnaires — on a cadence you set
- Sends approved administrative status updates and answers routine 'any news?' calls and texts
- Confirms and preps clients for biometrics appointments, 341 meetings, and interviews using your prep materials
- Tracks payment-plan installments and follows missed payments per your billing policy
Deptly asks first
Anything judgment-shaped waits for your okay.
- Any client message that goes beyond your approved administrative language
- Fee arrangements or payment plans outside your standard schedule
- Whether to decline or refer an inquiry outside your practice areas
- How to handle a distressed client beyond your approved scripts
- Anything touching a new notice, a changed date, or changed client circumstances
Always human
The decisions that stay yours, always.
- Legal advice and strategy — which chapter to file, how to respond to a notice, whether to appeal — logged verbatim, never answered
- All communication with USCIS, the courts, trustees, and the IRS
- Deadline calculation and docketing — printed dates get flagged; the calendar math stays with your team
- Filings, petitions, and everything submitted under the attorney's signature
- Conflict-of-interest determinations and the terms of the engagement itself
The full rulebook — approvals, escalation, and audit history — lives on trust and control.
Who this covers
Each one gets the same execution engine — these notes call out what actually changes.
Immigration law
Timelines are set by an agency and measured in months, so the update cadence is the relationship — clients check their case daily and call when they can't stand the silence. Checklists span civil documents, certified translations, and medical exams, often across borders and languages; biometrics and interview dates need confirmed, prepared clients; and every approval quietly schedules a future filing — removal of conditions, then naturalization — that most firms never systematically collect.
Bankruptcy
The means test runs on pay stubs, bank statements, tax returns, and the credit counseling certificate — and the client producing them is under creditor pressure, embarrassed, and prone to going quiet. The document chase is the workflow: every gap delays the filing and the relief the client desperately needs, so the chasing has to be gentle, persistent, and tracked instead of squeezed into a paralegal's margins.
Tax resolution
Intake arrives in waves — after filing season and whenever notice batches land — from callers frightened by a government letter, so the first minutes have to calm and qualify at once. Offers in compromise and installment agreements run on exhaustive financial documentation with dates printed right on the letters, and resolved clients need annual compliance follow-through that rarely gets systematized.
Systems we commonly work in
- Phone calls & SMS on your existing business lineConfirmed
- Email & calendarConfirmed
- ClioPossible
- MyCasePossible
- DocketwisePossible
- LawPayPossible
- Best Case & other filing-preparation setupsScoped in discovery
Confirmed means standard channels every business already has — phone, text, email, and calendar. Possible means the platform supports what the workflow needs. Anything marked scoped in discovery gets verified during discovery before we commit to it — Deptly works within the tools you already have, as described on how it works.
See the loop close
Every proof item on this site is labeled for exactly what it is.
A biometrics notice becomes a prepared client and a quiet week
Deptly
Your paralegal logs the biometrics notice on the Reyes matter — March 12, 10:30 AM. Deptly picks up the new appointment and starts the confirmation workflow you approved.
Tuesday 9:50 AM
Deptly → Client
Good news from your file: your fingerprint appointment is scheduled for March 12 at 10:30 AM. Here's the address, what to bring — the appointment notice and your photo ID — and what to expect. Nothing else is needed from you before then.
10:02 AM — sent in Spanish, per the client's preference
Client
Thank you!! Does this mean my case will be approved?
10:15 AM
Deptly
Sends the explanation you approved — a biometrics appointment is a routine processing step, not a decision — and logs the question word for word on the matter for the attorney's next client check-in. No legal question gets answered on the way through.
10:16 AM
Deptly → Client
Reminder for tomorrow: 10:30 AM at the Application Support Center — here's the address again. Bring the appointment notice and your photo ID, and plan to arrive 15 minutes early. Reply here if anything comes up.
March 11
- Dinbox
Owner brief
Friday evening
The Reyes biometrics appointment is confirmed and prepped. Four 'any update?' contacts this week were answered with your approved status language — none reached your desk. One flag: the Osei checklist still has two documents outstanding; the chase continues on your cadence.
More demonstrations live on proof and examples.
Questions owners ask
Deptly carries only the administrative side: intake logistics, consultation booking, checklist chasing, approved status updates, appointment prep, and payment reminders. It never advises which chapter to file, how to respond to a notice, whether to appeal, or what a receipt notice means for the outcome — those questions are captured word for word and routed to the attorney. The boundary is written down during setup, and every script Deptly uses is one you approved.
Deptly can work in the languages you approve, with every script reviewed by your team first — language coverage for your client base is confirmed during discovery, not assumed. Preference is stored per client, so the checklist chase, the appointment prep, and the status updates arrive in the language the client actually reads. Anything outside the approved languages or scripts routes to a person.
The cadence is gentle and practical, never shaming: your tone, spaced requests, step-by-step help like a statement-download walkthrough, and an offer to do it together by phone. What changes outcomes is consistency — the chase no longer depends on a paralegal finding a free hour. And a client still silent as a date approaches gets flagged to a person with the history attached, instead of receiving a fourth automated nudge.
The first minutes are built from your calming scripts: acknowledgment first, then structure — what happens next, what to gather, when they'll talk to the attorney. Deptly identifies itself honestly as part of your office's intake support and never holds itself out as a lawyer. What a frightened caller needs most is an answer now, a plan, and a booked time with the attorney — not a voicemail beep in the worst week of their year.
Yes. That surge is mostly the same worry arriving a hundred ways, and it gets the message you approve for the moment — for example, that the firm is reviewing the change and the attorney will contact anyone whose case is affected. Deptly answers those contacts in parallel and logs every one, anything case-specific or distressed reaches the attorney, and new inquiries keep getting answered and booked while it happens.
Deptly works inside the tools you already run rather than replacing them — contacts, notes, tasks, and checklist status land in your system of record so your team sees one truth. Platforms like Clio, MyCase, and Docketwise are common in these practices; filing-preparation tools like Best Case typically stay with your team, with Deptly tracking file readiness around them. Your exact setup is confirmed during discovery.
Deptly never communicates with USCIS, the IRS, a trustee, or a court — that stays with your team. Where your firm approves it, routine checks of the public case-status tools by receipt number can be part of the update workflow, with any change routed to your team the same day rather than acted on. What your setup permits is defined during discovery.
Yes — installment reminders and missed-payment follow-up run on your billing policy: your timing, your tone, your thresholds. Consistency is what keeps those conversations comfortable and the receivables predictable, because the reminder arrives on schedule instead of after someone notices. Anything disputed, any hardship conversation, and any change to the plan itself comes to you.
They get answered — qualified with your intake questions, steadied with your scripts, and booked into your first real consultation slot instead of hearing voicemail. Categories you define as true urgency — a detention, a levy in motion, a date inside your threshold — follow your escalation rules to a person you designate. Everything else is organized and waiting when you open.
The administrative half, yes: confirming the date, sending your prep sheet, covering what to bring, where to go, and when to arrive, and chasing anything the appearance requires. Substantive preparation — testimony, likely questions, strategy — is attorney work and stays that way. That line is drawn in writing during setup, and it's a line Deptly doesn't cross.
A paralegal's hours are too valuable for re-requesting bank statements — and the leak in these practices is nights, notice waves, and the follow-through that never gets a quiet hour. Deptly is priced by the scope of the workflows it carries, not by headcount, and it keeps chasing through the weeks your team is buried. The honest comparison is on the pricing page — against owner and staff time, not inflated claims.
Yes — this branch has natural return events most firms never systematize: removal of conditions, naturalization, work-permit renewals, and the annual compliance check that keeps a resolved tax client resolved. Deptly works from the return dates your team puts on the file and reaches out with your approved language at the right time, booking consultations for the clients who respond.
No pitch, just a straight read
Talk through how this would work in your business
Walk through how the work actually moves in your business and hear exactly what Deptly would carry first — including an honest no if the fit is not there.