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PracticePanther is the highest-rated, easiest-to-use, law practice management software on the market. Join tens of thousands of law firms across 170+ countries relying on PracticePanther to optimize their workflows and boost productivity daily. Try it free...Read more about PracticePanther Legal Software
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Filevine is your ultimate legal tech stack, including case and document management, texting, and time and billing features. Powerful AI tools summarize and find inconsistencies in documents in as quick as a few minutes. Get your free demo. Don't waste yo...Read more about Filevine
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Ranked #1, Clio is the leading law practice management software used by over 150,000 lawyers and with the most 5-star reviews. The only legal software with 1,500+ reviews on Capterra. Lawyers can access and manage their work in one central system - with ...Read more about Clio
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MyCase is a cloud-based legal management solution that helps attorneys in small to medium size law firms manage communications with their clients and carry out daily business operations. The solution also provides functionalities for accounting and schedul...Read more about MyCase
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Voted by Forbes as Best for Firms of All Sizes, Rocket Matter’s legal practice management software is the best way for growing law firms to manage and expand their practice. From innovative timekeeping to award-winning responsive client support to its indu...Read more about Rocket Matter
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CosmoLex is a cloud-based legal management solution that offers features including time tracking, billing, trust accounting, task and document management. The solution connects all modules so that users do not have to enter information into multiple system...Read more about CosmoLex
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CARET Legal is the leading solution for legal professionals to manage their practice and create space for what matters, including delighting clients and maximizing billable time. From client intake, to matter management, to back-office reporting, CARET ...Read more about CARET Legal
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Since 2012, Smokeball has evolved into a global practice management powerhouse with smaller firms in mind across the US, UK, and Australia. With a commitment to transforming legal practices through innovation, Smokeball's all-in-one, seamless cloud-based p...Read more about Smokeball
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TimeSolv is a cloud-based legal time tracking and billing solution that caters to law firms, accountants, consultants, architects, and freelancers, helping them manage daily business operations. TimeSolv integrates project management features such as ...Read more about TimeSolv Legal Billing
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CASEpeer is the leading practice management solution built for personal injury law firms. Designed with input from leading plaintiffs’ law firms, CASEpeer provides industry-leading best practices and support. Supercharge your law firm with a cloud-based...Read more about CASEpeer
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Litify helps law firms and in-house teams achieve better business performance with an all-in-one platform that standardizes, measures, and improves their legal operations. The industry-leading platform combines secure cloud-based technology, configurable a...Read more about Litify
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SmartAdvocate is a fully customizable, award-winning legal case management system with built-in Artificial Intelligence tools, and made to handle the challenges of today’s fast paced, highly competitive and technologically demanding legal landscape. Smar...Read more about SmartAdvocate
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backdocket is a legal case and document management solution that helps law firms streamline processes related to task tracking, event scheduling, approval monitoring, and more from within a unified platform. It allows team members to manage workflows and t...Read more about backdocket
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Built on the most powerful cloud-based solution, Curo365 resides on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform built specifically for law firms and integrates with your existing Microsoft Office 365 applications. The only singular solution that seamlessly functio...Read more about Curo365
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About CloudLex: CloudLex® is a personal injury case management software developed exclusively for personal injury law firms that lets them take control of their practice from intake through closure and beyond with one comprehensive law firm software. Clo...Read more about CloudLex
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Centerbase is a subscription and cloud-based legal software solution that supports midsize law firms through accounting, billing, timekeeping, document management, automated workflows, and reporting. Personalized to user-types and practice areas, Centerbas...Read more about Centerbase
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Today, data is no longer information, but noise. In fact, 97% of all data that gets swept up in disputes and investigations is completely irrelevant. And that noise is making discovery an expensive, complex, and insecure nightmare. That's why we built Logi...Read more about Logikcull
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Nextpoint is a cloud-based eDiscovery platform that enables legal organizations to review documents, find information, filter data and streamline legal documentation. The solution creates a central repository to search and review legal documents. Modu...Read more about Nextpoint
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HotDocs is a document automation solution designed for businesses of any size or type. It enables users to convert frequently used documents and forms into ready-to-use templates to automate customer documentation. The solution offers on-premise, cloud-bas...Read more about HotDocs
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ContractSafe is the hassle-free and affordable Contract Management Solution. Take the next step in contract management! ContractSafe goes beyond merely storing your contracts in a secure spot. Our intuitive platform allows you to create, send, e-sign, an...Read more about ContractSafe
Everlaw is a cloud-based legal management solution specializing in e-discovery support. Key features include search capabilities, a prediction engine that calls up relevant documents and a context panel where users can see related documents grouped togethe...Read more about Everlaw
MerusCase is a cloud-based legal practice management solution for small, midsize and large legal firms and businesses. It is HIPAA compliant and offers document management, time tracking, billing, calendaring and communication tools. The document mana...Read more about MerusCase
Athennian is a leading entity management platform engineered to optimize corporate governance, ensure compliance, and manage documents effortlessly for legal operations, finance, tax, and treasury teams worldwide. Our platform enhances the entire entity li...Read more about Athennian
CaseFleet is cloud-based, legal case management software that helps users organize case facts, track deadlines and manage litigation and investigations. CaseFleet allows users to detail out the facts of each case in a timeline including witnesses, locatio...Read more about CaseFleet
Tabs3 Software offers practice management, case management and financials for small to midsize firms in any practice area. Choose from Tabs3 Cloud, hosted, and on-premises server options; all include outstanding US-based support. Tabs3 enables legal profes...Read more about Tabs3
Popular Comparisons
Your Guide to Top Legal Document Management, August 2023
Software Advice uses reviews from real software users to highlight the top-rated Legal Document Management products in North America.
Learn how products are chosenExplore FrontRunners
“Usability” includes user ratings for Functionality and Ease of Use.
“Customer Satisfaction” includes user ratings for Customer Support, Likelihood to Recommend and Value for Money.
Reviews analysis period: The reviews analysis period spans two years and ends the 15th of the month prior to publication.
Buyers Guide
This detailed guide will help you find and buy the right legal document management software for you and your business.
Last Updated on November 21, 2023Law firms face unique document management challenges. Largest among them: the very high quantity of paper documents legal practices use. Legal documents are also subject to varying confidentiality and privacy regulations, which mandate how these documents can be accessed, stored, changed and distributed.
Within the broad genre of content management software (CMS) is a category that addresses the specific challenges law firms face: legal document management software. To help your law firm better understand this software and make a more informed purchase decision, we'll cover the following:
What is legal document management software?
It is a form of document management software made specifically for lawyers, law firms, or any entity operating in the field of law. It is distinct from legal practice management software, which has a broader set of functionality, including tools to keep the firm's internal processes and external filings on time and on track.
Legal document management software is intended to help firms achieve a variety of goals. Speaking broadly, these goals include:
Increasing productivity by making documents easier to find, search, access, and share.
Improving the security and confidentiality of important documents by preventing unauthorized access.
Adding consistency to internal and external documents by managing all of them through a common platform.
Common functionality of legal document management software
To achieve the above-listed goals, software products will include some or all of the following features and tools:
Document capture tools | Scan paper documents and convert them into digital files, including image files, PDFs, and text files. |
PDF tools | PDF is the file format of choice for most legal document management systems: PDF tools help create, edit, manage, and add signatures to such files. |
Advanced search | Helps users find documents quickly by looking for specific text strings within documents and by filtering with metadata. |
Access control | Controls who can access, change, and distribute digital documents. Keeps logs of access activities and summarizes them in reports. |
Organizational tools | Automates the documentation and management of cases, including approvals, role permissions, and other necessary steps. |
Version control | Ensures that changes to documents do not delete older versions, preserving them in case they need to be used again. |
Integration tools | Incorporate document management functionalities directly into other software tools, such as email clients, CRM systems, and court filing systems. |
Some specialized software may also include, or integrate with, electronic signature functionality, which facilitates the legally-binding signing of documents on computers or mobile devices.
Key considerations
Here are some key points to keep in mind during your search for a legal document management system:
Data security: Along with health and financial information, legal information is subject to some of the strictest regulatory oversight, and its management can be subject to local, state, and federal statutes. Protecting digital information from theft and unauthorized access should be the primary concern for law firms considering implementation of a document management system.
Legal document management platforms increase data security in a number of ways. Many make use of a centralized portal through which all access to the system is controlled. Others use two-step authentication methods to ensure that new logins have been authenticated through two different means (e.g., email, phone, or text message).
Extent of digitization: When implementing legal document management software, many law offices mistakenly believe that all existing and future paper documents will be converted to digital. This incorrect assumption can lead to problems and delays down the line.
As suggested by the American Bar Association, law offices should use document management systems to increase the number of "low paper workflows." Working toward an entirely "paperless office" can be practical in some industries, but because of the sheer volume of paper documents involved, this is an impractical goal for law firms. Instead, firms should identify which processes stand to gain the most from digitization, and began with the documents associated with those.
Pricing and purchasing options
Cloud-based products are typically sold via subscription license, meaning law firms would pay a recurring fee to use the software. Subscription licenses are commonly priced per user per month (some vendors offer discounts for annual contracts). This fee includes the cost for support, maintenance, annual updates, and hosting.
Hosting on the vendor's servers means that law firms won't incur the IT costs associated with maintaining legal files on their own internal servers. As such, cloud-based software generally is less expensive upfront, although over time the costs of on-premise and cloud-based systems may converge.
Due to data security requirements, law firms should make certain that any cloud-based system they consider offers encryption services, bank-grade security, and frequent data backups to ensure the safety and confidentiality of their clients' legal documents.
On-premise solutions are most-often sold via perpetual license, meaning law offices pay an upfront fee to own the software. Firms would also be responsible for the costs associated with maintaining client data on their own internal servers, a responsibility that would likely necessitate on-site IT staff.
Additionally, law firms can purchase document management software as a standalone, or best-of-breed solution, or as an application within a larger practice management platform. Firms purchasing a standalone system should check that the product integrates with the other software they are currently using, such as their case management solution or legal accounting system.