10 Powerful Document Management Systems for Law Firms

Plus the key factors about DMS That You Need To Know To Earn More Profits

Laura Donovan* Law firms are under a lot of pressure to manage documents properly and efficiently since the legal sector is one of the most document-intensive sectors.

Having a practical, user-friendly Legal Document Management System (or DMS) for legal teams is a must-have, and there are a variety of choices, as with other software solutions for your law firm that LawFuel has reported on.

We have looked at some of the best document management systems for law firms, helping you to find the solution your law firm needs by comparing ratings and costs.

Top 10 Legal Document Management Systems

1.   LogicalDoc 

This standalone, cloud-based solution offers limitless file storage for formats and sizes, using an ability to readily handle content retrieval and automating business processes It is ideal for both small firms and large, providing a fast and ready ability to access legal and other information in real time.

LogicalDoc is a regular winner of \’best document management software\’ and similar such accolades from software marketing sites like Capterra and helps streamline filin and administrative tasks readily, including email integration and also with multiple user interfaces to provide a really effective legal document management system.

Your whole collection of case files is stored securely in one location.

As a result, LogicalDoc supports thorough information search and tracking across the document workflow.

Unique features:

ü Collaboration with Other Users

ü Email Integration

ü Multiple User Interfaces

Client OS: Windows, Mac, Web

Deployment: Cloud-Based

2.   MyCase

MyCase is a complete legal document management system for law firms with an emphasis on small law firms and solo lawyers. It provides a comprehensive range of applications and combines user cooperation, free data storage, and convenient file access. MyCase consistently earns good reviews from law firm clients.

When dealing with legal documents, legal professionals can modify, comment, view the document history and share them with clients.

Starting Price: $49/month

Unique features:

ü High-Rate Data Security

ü e-Signature

ü Easy Integration

Client OS: Web

Deployment: Cloud-Based

3.   Rubex

Rubex is a more sophisticated and secure legal document management system for multiple businesses, including the legal industry.

It effectively automates workflow in legal offices and provides for many document activities such as comprehensive sorting, tracking, archiving, and exchanging files of any size and formatting. Rubex allows you to rapidly access the necessary data from any device, as well as generating documents from a centralized dashboard setup.

Starting Price: $15/month

Unique features:

ü Visual Workflow Dashboards

ü Email Import

ü Signature Options

Client OS: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, or Web

Deployment: Cloud- or Premises-Based

4.   Cosmolex 

The storing, retrieval and assembling of documents with other documents and formats are only a few of the features from Cosmolex, which has a fully featured legal accounting suite and is a \’one stop shop\’ system from that viewpoint. Legal professionals can view the legal documents you require from any device for free. The software also permits you to integrate your storage with apps like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, GSuite, LawPay etc.

Starting Price: $69/month

Unique features:

ü Privacy Control

ü Easy User Interface

ü Customer Support

Client OS: Web

Deployment: Cloud-Based

See: 9 Best Software Tools for Law Firms

5.   Clio 

Clio is one of the most-used DMS software systems in this space and receives top reviews. The software lets you have limitless storage and can access all of your legal documents from any device at any time.

The software supports automatic backups of pictures, audio, and videos. Searching and filtering are facilitated by backup copies and integration with other applications.

It integrates with Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and other software and provides flexible pricing for different law firm sizes.

Starting Price: $39/month

Unique features:

ü Enhanced Data Protection

ü Extensive Legal Forms Library

ü e-Signature

Client OS: Web

Deployment: Cloud-Based

6.   Worldox 

Worldox provides three broad legal document management systems categories: Professional, Enterprise, and Cloud. All three permit lawyers to save the firm\’s documents and integrate email.

Legal professionals can store documents instantly and combine them with emails in all Worldox versions. You can search for all the information you want directly in the software\’s toolbar and customise the interface as it is connected to Microsoft Office and MS Outlook.

Unique features:

ü Robust Email Management

ü Access Customisation

ü User-Friendly Interface

Client OS: Windows, Web

Deployment: Cloud-Based

7.   Smokeball

Smokeball is a popular legal DMS app suitable for both small law firms and large. It provides legal document management services for a variety of legal fields using thousands of legal forms across its legal fields. With Smokeball, legal professionals can have the data from the editable file templates automatically put into their documents.

In addition, Smokeball offers a broad collection of more than 20,000 public forms, automatically records time spent on each matter as well as integrating with a mobile app.

Unique features:

ü Time & Activity Monitoring

ü Easy Offline Access

ü Integration with Microsoft Word

Client OS: Windows, Web, Android, iOS

Deployment: Cloud-Based

8.   Practice Panther 

Legal professionals can save a good chunk of time with Practice Panther\’s consumer design and streamlined functionality, allowing them to focus on more crucial and profitable work. It can complete your case files with all the necessary information and allows real-time preview and editing right through to payment without having to leave the Practice Panther platform.

Practice Panther also provides its unique payment method with economical pricing, robust processing, and a cashback benefit. It integrates with Zapier and MailChimp

Starting Price: $49/month

Unique features: 

ü Centralised Document Storage

ü Easy Access

ü Integration with Multiple Applications

Client OS: Web

Deployment: Cloud-Based

9.   Airdesk Legal

Airdesk Legal is a cloud-based legal document management system that provides automated document production and powerful search capabilities. It allows enterprises to concentrate more on legal work while lessening administrative duties.

Create templates for complaints, share files, interact with other applications, and save files with Airdesk Legal.

Unique features: 

ü Easy File Sharing

ü Indexing Tools for Quick Search

ü Robust Integration Tools

ü Easy Migration

ü Real-Time Collaboration Tools

ü Customisable User Access

Client OS: Web, Windows, iOS, Android

Deployment: Cloud-Based

10.  NetDocuments

NetDocuments provides a legal document management system, email management software, governance software, and collaboration tools across several platforms.

You can concentrate on your clients and results by utilising NetDocuments, a market-leading cloud document management system. It offers a dependable and secure solution to edit and collaborate on legal documents anywhere using any device.

Unique features:

ü Unlimited Versioning

ü Password-Protected Links

ü Optical Character Recognition To Search Any Document

ü Always Compliant With GDPR, HIPAA, FINRA, And More

ü Set Auto-Deletion Dates

ü Project-Centred Workspaces

Client OS: Web

Deployment: Cloud-Based

What is a Legal Document Management System?

A Legal Document Management System (DMS) combines case management and document management. Legal enterprises can benefit from the simple and efficient search, editing, and archiving of various documents and data.

Legal Document Management Systems allow outsiders to upload case files to the organisation\’s system via portals included in legal document management solutions. In addition to helping businesses manage their papers, several of these technologies also assist in document creation. In addition to creating and editing templates, users can produce invoices and access large databases of free public forms.

Advantages of Legal Document Management System

Understanding the potential ROI of a Legal Document Management System assist law firms in making the transition to a digital solution.

Here are the most significant advantages of legal document management systems for legal firms.

Boost Performance

Versioning systems, audit histories, and check-in/check-out tools all assist law firms in avoiding duplication of effort and fixing errors. It is also possible to keep each distinct version of each document with good legal document software.

Access Management

Admins control various functions, including who may read, share, and update a document. Legal professionals can use passcodes and encryption to increase security and protection in a robust DMS system with top security features.

Additionally, a lot of legal document management systems feature guest user portals.

Files at Your Disposal

It\’s essential to keep case files current and accessible. A legal document management system can make crucial documents and legal files instantly accessible when lawyers converse with clients by placing all case files in one place.

Creating Files and Templates

A good Legal document management system assists in creating and storing legal documents to permit the retrieval of relevant information, sensitive data and any legal files. Create templates for various documents, including contracts, complaints, invoices, etc.

Encourage Work Mobility

Productivity and case management depends on accessing, storing, and processing case files. Accessing documents from any location, at any time, and on any device becomes simple with the appropriate document management software.

Legal Document Management System Elements

File Storage

Most legal document management systems provide storage, disaster recovery, and backup services. Often these are cloud-based products and lawyers can store legal documents, case files, digital files and other data on internal or external servers.

Powerful Search Resources

Find documents more quickly, including emails, contracts, discovery, and forms. Legal document management software and legal practice management software can permit users can search for documents using specific criteria with this feature.

Metadata and Classification

Use metatags to categorise documents for simple organising and searching. You can label documents with keywords, codes, and client names. Incoming documents and emails can also be automatically tagged using these tools.

Optical character recognition and imaging (OCR)

Using OCR technology, imaging technologies scan and digitally save documents and convert printed or handwritten materials into machine-encoded text documents. This way, handwritten documents can be read, searched, and modified more instantaneously.

Be in Control of Access & Security

Decide who can read or alter documents to secure them by using software that permits users to ask for passwords and set the required level of password complexity. Or add security questions or two-factor authentication to meet the specific needs of users.

View Document History

Discover who has read, shared or edited each document. Check the dates, timings, and actions applied to specific documents.

Automated Court Forms Collection

A library of court forms and other publicly available legal documents is often hosted by legal document management software. 

E-Signature

Permit authorised users to sign papers electronically. Both legal professionals and clients can utilise this feature.

Integrate Document Management Systems with Other Applications

Most legal document management systems are easy to combine with case management, scheduling, accounting, and other types of software.

Legal Accounting and Billing Software

Invoicing can be made more accessible by integrating a legal document management system with legal accounting software. Create templates for various invoice kinds and let the accounting software fill in data automatically.

Case Management Software

Several case management tools help lawyers keep track of appointments, billable hours, documents, invoices, and other details.

Email

Legal document management systems link with existing email services to manage file sharing and communications more effectively. Assign email addresses, as well as metatags, to specific cases or clients.

Conclusion

Good legal document management systems tend to streamline and speed up your daily legal document-related tasks, increase efficiency and profitability as well as implemented top security to prevent unauthorized access to the DMS. A good system will provide for faster contract review, email sorting, invoice preparation and other tasks.

One of the document managements systems on our list may revolutionise how you do your job and assist your team in upgrading routine legal workflow.

See: 9 Best Software Tools for Law Firms