Top 3 Case Management Systems for Law Firms

In today's world there are are so many choices to make! When it comes to law firms and practice management software programs there are so many to choose from it can make your head spin, especially when you as an attorney simply want to focus on serving your clients. Well, I am here to help give you some clarity and insight as I have spent many hours on calls and demo's, even testing out many of these legal platforms that all claim to be the best. So here are my top picks: #1 Smokeball - This system seems to have everything from client intake forms that easily auto populate into the CRM system, almost zero data input. They have a text feature to clients and messenger to other users in the firm. The case matters are customized to each particular field of law which then easily transfers that data into an automated document. They have all the state court forms already and they can customize your documents to create templates that can generate documents in seconds. I love that they have a built out calculator for clients assets, sections for all contacts including spouse, beneficiaries, guardianship, children etc... which is very helpful for estate and elder care planning. Of course this platform also handles all your billing needs. Although, there is a $3 p/envelope fee for clients to esign their documents but that cost can easily be billed to the client. This system has unlimited data storage! It is a downloaded system on your computer that is also backed up to the cloud and works in collaboration with Outlook and Word, so you don't have to jump around to different folders or programs in your computer. Everything is housed in one place but if you add calendar dates on outlook in your phone that will generate also in the system. The price is around $179 p/mo p/user with a small setup fee. The downside is there is a 3 year contract but I think this is a great product and well worth the price as it will pay for itself in timesaving.

#2 PracticePanther - I think this software blows MyCase and Clio out of the water for its value. For only $89 p/mo p/user it gives user everything that the other programs offer but for a better price. It seems very user friendly and even has a text option, as so many people utilize their cell phones everyday, it just makes sense to be able to reach your clients from a phone number that is assigned to your company for texting capability instead of from your personal phone. With Clio you have to upgrade to their Pro Plan for $139 to get the lead intake portion which is already included with PracticePanther at just $89! MyCase is $99 p/user but I did not see a text option, although this would be my next best choice but I was not fond of their workflow portion of their software which I have used with another lawfirm.

#3 Briefcase - This platform looks promising! They are a startup software development company and their system is based off of salesforce platform. They do customize their system to your specific case matter fields, much like Smokeball. (This should be included in every platform in my opinion. If you do estate planning, you don't want to see fields that are related to criminal law etc.) So I think this platform will outperform Practice Panther but I have yet to find out the price point on this software but since they are not a big corporation there is wiggle room and being that they are software developers I think they are able to customize their system to fit your needs. Their system offers texting, lead intake, document automation and much of the same features as Smokeball. It does not have a billing system but it will integrate with Quickbooks or Microsoft Dynamics, possibly others. They said the cost is around $100 p/mo p/user, so this may be a good alternative to the higher pricepoint of Smokeball if the cost of the billing portion isn't too costly, which I will be exploring further.

I hope this is helpful in making an educated decision or at least get you started to choosing the right Practice Management Software System to fit your law firms needs.