What this article helps with: How to use Chat with Lia: the bar above your message composer, the suggestions Lia offers, handing Lia a job in plain language, and what it can and cannot see.
Who this is for: Case managers and paralegals working conversations day to day, plus firm admins deciding whether to turn it on.
When not to use this article: This is about the side of Lia your team drives directly. For the work Lia does on its own once a client is enrolled, start with What is Lia?.
Key Terms
Key Terms
What do you mean when you say...
The AI bar = the strip above the message composer in a two-way conversation. It shows whether Lia is on for that client and what Lia is currently thinking about.
Chat with Lia = the private drawer the bar opens. What you type there goes to Lia, not to your client.
Task = a job Lia has queued up and will carry out. Tasks are visible to your whole team under Lia's Tasks.
Suggestion = something Lia proposes on its own, which you approve, edit, or dismiss.
Overview
Most of Lia runs on its own. Chat with Lia is the part your team drives.
Open any two-way conversation and you will see a bar above the message composer. It tells you whether Lia is switched on for that client, and it surfaces what Lia is currently thinking about that case. Click it and a drawer opens where you can talk to Lia directly.
The most useful way to think about it: this is how you hand Lia one specific job, in your own words, without setting up anything firm-wide. You describe what you want done and when, Lia turns it into a task, and you watch it run.
What you type in the drawer goes to Lia, not to your client. The composer is labeled Chat with Lia (private) · only you see this for exactly that reason. Nothing you say there reaches the client, and nothing Lia proposes goes out until a person approves it.
Lia suggests, you decide
The first time you open the drawer on a conversation, Lia reads the thread and offers a read on it. Something like: there are no open escalations, but this client has not replied since May, so a short check-in would keep things moving. Do you want one queued?
You have three ways to respond to anything Lia proposes:
Approve it. Lia queues the task and carries it out.
Edit it. Change the wording or the timing first.
Dismiss it. The suggestion goes away. You can always ask for it again later.
When a suggestion is simple enough, it appears as options right on the bar so you can act without opening the drawer at all. Anything that needs more thought opens the full drawer instead.
Handing Lia a job in plain language
This is where the drawer earns its keep. You can describe a piece of work the way you would explain it to a colleague, including multi-step sequences with their own timing, and Lia builds it into a task.
For example, you could type:
"Casey has a deposition next Tuesday. Send a reminder today. Seven days out, remind him about formal attire and no sandals. Three days before, remind him to be honest. One day before, remind him and check whether he needs anything."
Lia works through that, writes it up as a task with each of those steps and dates, and shows it to you before anything happens. You then edit it, dismiss it, or send it.
Once you approve, the task appears under Lia's Tasks on the client, where you and anyone else on the case can watch it run and see it move to done. Tasks are shared across your team, so nothing you queue is hidden from the people working the case.
If you find yourself typing the same sequence repeatedly, the AI task screen has task templates you can build once and reuse, so a deposition reminder sequence becomes one click instead of a paragraph.
Asking about the case
Alongside queuing work, you can ask Lia questions about the client in front of you. Summarizing is the most common use and the fastest thing to try first. "Give me a summary of what happened on this case last week" reads the conversation and gives you the short version, which beats scrolling a six month thread before a call.
What Lia can see depends on whether the client is enrolled. This catches people out, so it is worth being precise:
Not enrolled. Lia can only see what is in Hona, which in practice means the conversation thread itself. Ask about the messages and you get a good answer. Ask about a document and Lia does not have it.
Enrolled. Enrollment pulls case context in, including fields and documents from your case management system where the integration supports it. That is what lets you ask something like "what does the police report say" and get a real answer.
One honest limitation: specific billing figures are unreliable. A single bill often carries several different amounts, and Lia will not guess between them unless the document states the figure plainly. Treat any number it gives you as a starting point and check the document.
How the chat is organized
How the chat is organized
Your chat is scoped to the contact, not to a single case. If a client has more than one matter with you, the conversation thread is shared across them, so the chat is too.
Each user has their own chat history. What you type is yours, and your colleague opening the same client sees their own thread rather than yours. History is preserved, so refreshing the page or coming back tomorrow does not lose it.
Tasks work the other way around. Anything you queue shows up under Lia's Tasks for everyone on the case, because the work itself is shared even when the conversation about it is not.
Where to start
If you are handing this to a team for the first time, start narrow. The point is to build confidence on something low stakes before trusting it with more.
Summarize a case you already know. You will immediately see how good the answer is, because you can check it.
Queue one follow-up on a client who has gone quiet, and watch the task run end to end.
Build one sequence you repeat by hand today, like a deposition or appointment reminder series, and see whether it saves you the typing.
Firms that get value from this tend to pick two or three jobs their case managers do constantly and move just those over, rather than trying to run everything through the drawer on day one.
Availability and access
Chat with Lia is in early access and is enabled separately from the rest of Lia. A firm using Lia does not automatically have it. If you want it turned on, talk to your Hona account team.
A few things to know while it is in early access:
Queuing a task requires the same access as the rest of Lia, because a task is Lia doing real work on a real client.
The parts of the experience described here are what works today. More of it is being built, and the way suggestions and tasks are presented is still being refined.
If the bar is missing entirely from your conversations, see Troubleshooting and FAQs: Lia. The usual causes are a Follower role, a conversation with a lead rather than a client, or the firm not having Lia enabled.
Where to go next
What is Lia?: the overview of Lia and how the pieces fit together.
Escalations and drafts: how Lia hands work back to your team: the review panel, task statuses, and approving what Lia proposes.
Enrolling clients on Lia: why enrollment is what gives Lia case context.
Getting started with Lia: access and permissions: who can see and do what.
Troubleshooting and FAQs: Lia: fixes for the things firms run into.
FAQs
Could I accidentally text my client from the drawer?
Could I accidentally text my client from the drawer?
No. The drawer is a separate composer from the message box, and it is labeled private. Your client's messages go through the normal composer. Anything Lia proposes to send still has to be approved before it goes out.
Can my colleague see what I typed?
Can my colleague see what I typed?
Your chat history is your own. The tasks you queue are shared, because those are real work on a shared case and the rest of the team needs to see them.
Why does Lia not know anything about the case?
Why does Lia not know anything about the case?
Almost always because the client is not enrolled. Without enrollment, Lia can see the conversation and not much else. Enroll the client and the case context comes with it.
What if I change my mind after approving something?
What if I change my mind after approving something?
Open Lia's Tasks on the client and look at the task. You can also pause Lia for that one client from the case header, which stops outbound messages while keeping the work in progress. See Enrolling clients on Lia.
Does this replace the automatic skills?
Does this replace the automatic skills?
No, and it is not meant to. Care Coordination and Provider Liaison handle recurring work for every enrolled client without anyone asking. The drawer is for the one-off, this-client-this-week job that does not warrant a firm-wide rule.
Conclusion
Chat with Lia is the shortest path from "someone should follow up on this" to it actually being queued and done. Start with a summary, queue one follow-up, and go from there. If you have questions, chat with our support team or email [email protected].