Lawmatics vs Smokeball

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Our analysts compared Lawmatics vs Smokeball based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Legal Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Lawmatics is a comprehensive legal management software designed to streamline various administrative tasks for law firms. It excels in client intake, CRM, marketing automation, and task management, making it particularly suitable for small to mid-sized law firms looking to enhance efficiency and client engagement. Users appreciate its intuitive interface and robust automation features, which significantly reduce manual workload and improve client communication.

Key benefits include improved client retention, enhanced productivity, and a more organized workflow. Popular features encompass automated email campaigns, customizable intake forms, and detailed analytics. Compared to similar products, Lawmatics stands out for its user-friendly design and extensive customization options, which users find particularly valuable.

Pricing typically ranges from $99 to $199 per month, depending on the plan and number of users, with options for monthly or annual payments. This flexibility allows firms to choose a plan that best fits their needs and budget.

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Smokeball is a hybrid solution to manage various facets of a legal firm, including cases, billing, documents, clients and daily operations. It provides comprehensive billing including automated timekeeping & activity tracking, custom invoices, online payments and trust accounting. Users can create and manage legal documents and forms using over 20,000 forms, perform e-filing and request e-signatures. Assign, collaborate and automate tasks and workflows with smart reminders on priorities, events and deadlines, as well as increased visibility with convenient access to its intuitive legal calendar. It also provides centralized access to organize relevant legal case data and a secure portal to enhance client communication.

Its real-time reporting and dashboarding modules enable data-driven insights on business trends, performance, finance and profitability. It offers intuitive integrations with Lawpay, QuickBooks, MS Word and Outlook, and more. to enhance its billing, payment and management functionality. In addition to its user-friendly remote accessibility, its hybrid implementation enables both online and offline access. Firms are entitled to dedicated onboarding, training and support services.

Pros
  • User-friendly interface
  • Streamlined workflows
  • Strong document management
  • Good customer support
  • Mobile app available
Cons
  • Limited reporting
  • Costly for small firms
  • Inconsistent integrations
  • Learning curve for users
  • Occasional bugs
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$99 Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
$39/Month
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
Small 
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Enhanced Client Communication: Streamline client interactions with automated email and SMS reminders, ensuring timely updates and reducing missed appointments.
  • Improved Case Management: Centralize all case-related information, making it easier to track progress, deadlines, and important documents.
  • Increased Efficiency: Automate repetitive tasks such as client intake and follow-ups, freeing up time for more critical legal work.
  • Better Client Experience: Provide clients with a seamless onboarding process through customizable intake forms and automated workflows.
  • Data-Driven Insights: Utilize built-in analytics to gain insights into firm performance, client satisfaction, and case outcomes, enabling data-driven decision-making.
  • Enhanced Collaboration: Facilitate better teamwork with shared calendars, task assignments, and real-time updates, ensuring everyone is on the same page.
  • Secure Document Management: Store and manage sensitive legal documents securely with robust encryption and access controls.
  • Customizable Workflows: Tailor workflows to fit the specific needs of your practice, ensuring that processes are both efficient and compliant.
  • Client Portal Access: Offer clients a dedicated portal where they can view case updates, upload documents, and communicate with their legal team.
  • Time and Expense Tracking: Accurately track billable hours and expenses, simplifying the billing process and ensuring no revenue is lost.
  • Seamless Integrations: Integrate with other essential tools such as email platforms, calendars, and accounting software to create a cohesive ecosystem.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Ensure compliance with legal industry standards and regulations, reducing the risk of penalties and legal issues.
  • Scalability: Easily scale the software to accommodate the growth of your firm, whether you're adding new clients or expanding your team.
  • Enhanced Client Retention: Improve client retention rates by providing a more organized, responsive, and professional service.
  • Cost Savings: Reduce overhead costs associated with manual processes and administrative tasks, leading to a more profitable practice.
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  • Easy Access to Information: Consolidate all case-related information, including documents, contacts, workflow and communication in a central hub. 
  • Requires Minimal Training: Minimize time spent on reskilling and training employees using the intuitive user interface and training materials. 
  • Automated Billing: Accurately track time and create bills for client work via the AutoTime module. 
  • Seamless Integrations: Integrate with all the popular apps like Microsoft Office, Outlook Calendar, Contacts, email clients and more. 
  • Matter-Specific Document Search: Easily locate particular documents and case files. Find documents used in specific contexts, depending on the firm’s requirements. 
  • Increased Productivity: Smokeball automates time-consuming tasks like document generation and billing, freeing up your time to focus on what matters most: serving your clients.
  • Improved Client Communication: Smokeball's secure client portal allows you to share documents, invoices, and other information with clients instantly, keeping them informed and engaged throughout the legal process.
  • Enhanced Collaboration: Smokeball provides a central platform for your team to collaborate on cases, share ideas, and track progress, streamlining your workflow and fostering a more efficient work environment.
  • Boosted Profitability: Smokeball's accurate time tracking and billing features help you capture every billable hour and ensure you are getting paid for all the work you do.
  • Reduced Costs: By automating manual processes and eliminating paper, Smokeball helps you save time and money, allowing you to reinvest those resources back into your business.
  • Improved Scalability: Smokeball grows with your firm, providing the tools and resources you need to manage your caseload effectively, regardless of size.
  • Enhanced Security: Smokeball's cloud-based platform is backed by robust security measures, ensuring your data is always safe and protected.
  • Peace of Mind: Smokeball's reliable performance and expert support team give you the peace of mind to focus on what you do best: practicing law.
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  • Client Intake Automation: Streamline the client onboarding process with customizable intake forms and automated follow-ups.
  • CRM Integration: Seamlessly integrate with popular CRM systems to manage client relationships and track interactions.
  • Email Marketing: Create and send targeted email campaigns using built-in templates and advanced segmentation tools.
  • Document Automation: Generate legal documents quickly with pre-built templates and automated data population.
  • Task Management: Assign, track, and manage tasks within your team to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
  • Appointment Scheduling: Allow clients to book appointments online, reducing administrative overhead and improving client satisfaction.
  • Analytics and Reporting: Gain insights into your practice with detailed reports on client acquisition, case progress, and marketing effectiveness.
  • Client Portal: Provide clients with a secure portal to access documents, communicate with your team, and track case status.
  • Workflow Automation: Automate repetitive tasks and standardize processes to increase efficiency and reduce errors.
  • Customizable Pipelines: Visualize and manage your case progress with customizable pipelines tailored to your practice areas.
  • Integrations with Legal Software: Connect with other legal software tools such as Clio, PracticePanther, and MyCase for a seamless workflow.
  • Lead Management: Track and nurture leads from initial contact through to client conversion with robust lead management tools.
  • Text Messaging: Communicate with clients via SMS directly from the platform, ensuring timely and effective communication.
  • Custom Fields: Capture and store unique client information with customizable fields tailored to your practice needs.
  • Client Surveys: Collect feedback from clients with automated surveys to improve your services and client satisfaction.
  • Billing and Invoicing: Simplify your billing process with integrated invoicing and payment tracking features.
  • Security and Compliance: Ensure your data is secure with robust encryption and compliance with legal industry standards.
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  • Time and Expense Tracking: Automatically track time spent on in-platform tasks, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook and associate it with relevant legal matters. Prepare invoices for billable hours and run reports on profitability and productivity. 
    • Productivity Insights: Generate productivity reports by practice area, staff member and matter. Identify non-billable hours, potential issues and productive staff members to improve the firm’s bottom line. 
    • Automated Billing: Populate billing entries and send invoices directly from the time and expense tracking portal. Pull data from associated matters to automatically create customizable entries. 
  • Document Automation: Draft and edit documents automatically from the information stored in associated legal matters. Integrate with Microsoft Word to move documents and generate PDFs directly from the source. 
    • Document Standardization: Improve the firm’s standard documentation processes with smarter fonts, letterheads and state-prescribed texts. 
    • Form Library: Access over 17,000 public legal documents through the Law Firm Form Library portal. Organize the forms by matter, contacts and/or practice areas and search by keywords. Automate form retrieval processes with “If, Then Else” and “Ask” commands. 
    • Area Specific Automation: Populate legal documentation with information specific to the associated matter. Eliminate overlapping of data with over 250 unique practice areas to choose from. 
  • Client Portal: Smokeball Communicate provides clients with a simple messaging and file-sharing portal. Collaborate on cases, share updates and send files securely with multi-factor authentication and full encryption. 
    • Time Tracking: Automatically log all the hours spent on client correspondence to transform them into billable time. Concentrate all communication through a single portal to simplify tracking and billing. 
    • Communication Management: Directly turn messages into tasks. Manage all email correspondence, in-platform messages and in-app communications under the same roof. 
  • Electronic Filing and Signatures: Integrate with InfoTrack and DocuSign to attach signature clauses to documents. Additionally, insert text boxes, radio buttons, checkboxes and more. 
    • Document Status: Keep track of all the documents sent for signatures. Automatically save the signed documents alongside associated legal matters. 
    • Court Searching and Tracking: Utilize InfoTrack to run searches across PACER, state courts, Federal and Bankruptcy courts, and trial and appeal boards. 
    • Filing Resources: Fill out 1099S forms, sign IT Electronic Signatures and legally incorporate firms anywhere in the U.S. Electronically file documents directly from the relevant legal matter with automated expense tracking. 
  • Mobile Application: View and edit legal documentation, attend hearings, send emails and add billing entries from anywhere via the mobile app. Get a quick and clean overview of the legal calendar. 
  • Workflow Management: Assign tasks to team members and set multiple reminders for important events, dates and hearings. 
    • Workflow Automation: Set up standardized automated workflows for regular processes like client intakes, filings, closings and more. 
    • Next Step: Create a sequence of simple or multi-step tasks against each other for every legal matter. Set up prescriptive tasks, litigation reminders and drafting deadlines in advance. 
    • Daily Digest: Broadcast an email every morning to staff members with reminders of upcoming tasks and events. 
  • Case Management: Organize legal cases according to practice areas with matter-specific information. 
    • Digital File: Automatically structure all email correspondence according to associated matter. Staff members have complete access to every file relevant to their work. 
    • Data Structuring: Organize matter-specific information like emails, notes, documentation, billing information, contacts, case numbers and more under one file. Access files from any device with an internet connection. 
  • Email Management: Sort thousands of emails into relevant folders to simplify access by staff members. Integrate with Microsoft Outlook to save an unlimited number of emails, grouped together by associated matter. 
    • Email Time Tracking: Send and receive emails to automatically log billable hours through the time tracking extension. Draft an email via the toolbar to autofill the address bar. 
    • PDF Creation: Convert any document to a PDF file or combine multiple ones into a single PDF before sending an email attachment. 
  • Calendar Management: Create calendar entries and automatically link associated matter and client files to get a 360-degree view of legal cases. Sort the calendar by workweek, month and case timeline to always stay on top of obligations. 
    • Integration: Integrate with Microsoft Outlook to automatically track events and accepted invitations. 
    • Calendar Sync: Access everyone’s legal calendar to stay on top of important events and hearings. Automatically synchronize important dates and tasks across the entire staff’s calendars. 
  • Firm Insights: Use the firm insights dashboard to generate reports on matter-type profitability, referral revenue, real-time performance and more. Filter reports based on practice areas for greater insights and agile decision-making. 
    • Flexible Analysis: Combine time tracked and billing reports to get greater insights into non-billable hours, profitable practice areas, write-offs, discounts and productivity. 
    • Workload Analysis: Identify which practice areas need more work. Use the insights dashboard to evenly distribute the workload between attorneys, assistants and paralegals. 
    • Fixed-Fee Data: Adjust fixed fees, client expectations and staff workloads based on real data from firm insights that show the true cost of work performed for each client. 
  • Billing Management: Prepare custom invoices for firm activity traced by the time tracking portal. Interact directly with the relevant time entries to review and approve invoices. 
    • Integrations: The billing portal integrates with LawPay to process credit card payments and online transactions. Manage trust and operating accounts ethically and offer clients flexible payment options. Additional integrations include QuickBooks Online. 
    • Activity Codes: Create custom activity codes for similar time and expense entries to expedite data entry and billing. 
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Product Ranking

#29

among all
Legal Software

#31

among all
Legal Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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Smokeball
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Billing And Payments Calendaring And Legal Docketing Client And Contact Management Dashboard And Reporting Document Management Matter/Case Management Mobile Capabilities Task Management Time And Expense Management 97 97 99 81 91 89 88 100 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 22 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 747 reviews
98%
of users recommend this product

Lawmatics has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 98% when considering 22 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

95%
of users recommend this product

Smokeball has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 95% when considering 747 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

n/a
4.9 (14)
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4.8 (176)
4.91 (11)
4.76 (189)
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4.7 (179)
4.9 (11)
4.8 (189)

Awards

Lawmatics stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Smokeball and concluded it deserves the award for the Best Overall Legal Software available today. Smokeball stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

Analysts' Pick Award
User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Streamlined Client Intake: Lawmatics makes it easy to collect client information and intake new cases, saving time and reducing administrative burden. For example, users can automate intake forms and send them directly to potential clients, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
Automated Communication: Lawmatics automates email and text message communication with clients, ensuring timely updates and reducing the risk of missed deadlines. For example, users can set up automated reminders for upcoming appointments or deadlines, freeing up time for more important tasks.
Improved Client Engagement: Lawmatics provides tools for client communication and engagement, such as online portals and client-facing dashboards. For example, clients can access their case files, track progress, and communicate with their attorneys directly through the platform.
Enhanced Organization: Lawmatics helps law firms organize their cases, tasks, and deadlines, improving efficiency and reducing the risk of errors. For example, users can create custom workflows and assign tasks to team members, ensuring that all tasks are completed on time.
Data-Driven Insights: Lawmatics provides data and analytics to help law firms track their performance and identify areas for improvement. For example, users can track case outcomes, client satisfaction, and staff productivity to make informed decisions about their practice.
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Data Management: The platform’s data storage and organization capabilities are top-notch, according to 100% of users reviewing this feature.
Functionality: According to 91% of users who reviewed this aspect, the software offers various useful functions, including task management, case organization, accounting and AutoTime.
Ease of Use: 88% of users who mentioned this element said the solution is straightforward with an intuitive UI and robust knowledge base.
Integrations: 81% of users mentioning this aspect were satisfied with the variety and effectiveness of available integrations.
Service and Support: All the users who reviewed customer service mentioned that it’s responsive.
Automation: 75% of users who mentioned this element swear by the platform’s automation feature, especially document templates and automated emails.
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Limited Customization: Some users have found the platform's customization options to be limited, making it difficult to tailor the software to their specific workflows and needs. For example, some users have reported difficulty in creating custom fields or reports.
Steep Learning Curve: The platform can be complex to learn and navigate, especially for users who are new to legal practice management software. This can lead to frustration and a longer time to get up to speed.
Integration Challenges: Some users have reported difficulties integrating Lawmatics with other essential legal tools, such as accounting software or e-signature platforms. This can create a fragmented workflow and make it harder to manage all aspects of a legal practice.
Customer Support Issues: Some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the responsiveness and quality of customer support. This can be a major concern for users who need help troubleshooting issues or getting answers to questions.
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Steep Learning Curve: Smokeball's interface can be complex and require significant training, especially for users unfamiliar with legal practice management software.
Limited Customization: While Smokeball offers some customization options, it may not be flexible enough for law firms with unique workflows or specific needs.
High Cost: Smokeball can be expensive, especially for small law firms or solo practitioners.
Integration Challenges: Integrating Smokeball with other legal software applications can be challenging and may require technical expertise.
Limited Reporting: Some users find Smokeball's reporting features insufficient for generating detailed insights into firm performance.
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Is Lawmatics the case closed solution for your legal practice? Over the past year, user reviews on Lawmatics have been largely positive, with many highlighting its user-friendly interface as a key strength, especially compared to more complex competitors like LEAP. Lawmatics is praised for its intuitive design, making it easy for even tech-averse legal professionals to navigate and utilize its features effectively. Users specifically appreciate the straightforward approach to client intake, automation, and marketing tools. However, some users note that Lawmatics' simplicity, while a strength for some, can also be a limiting factor. They point out that the platform's pre-built workflows, while extensive, may not offer the same level of customization and flexibility as LEAP's rules-based engine, which allows for more complex automation scenarios. This difference is crucial for firms with unique or highly specific workflow needs that might require more tailored solutions. Overall, Lawmatics emerges as an ideal choice for small to mid-sized law firms looking for an intuitive, user-friendly platform to streamline their operations without the complexity of more feature-rich, but potentially overwhelming, alternatives.

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User reviews of Smokeball paint a mixed picture, highlighting both its strengths and weaknesses. While some users find it incredibly helpful for streamlining workflows and enhancing collaboration, others struggle with its complex interface and limited customization options. Positive reviews often praise Smokeball's ability to automate tasks, save time, and increase efficiency. One user remarked, "My billable hours increased by over 50% while my work hours remained the same!" Another noted, "Smokeball has made my job of opening new files and maintaining case information exceedingly easy." These comments highlight the software's potential to improve productivity and profitability, especially for busy legal practices. However, some users find Smokeball's steep learning curve and complex interface a significant drawback. One reviewer lamented, "It took me months to feel comfortable using all the features." Another commented, "The interface can be overwhelming, especially for users unfamiliar with legal practice management software." These challenges highlight the need for comprehensive training and support, which may be lacking for some users. Comparatively, users often cite Smokeball's robust security features and comprehensive functionality as key advantages over competitors like Clio and PracticePanther. One user noted, "I feel confident that my client data is safe with Smokeball's encryption and access controls." Another commented, "Smokeball offers everything I need to manage my practice effectively, from document creation to billing and reporting." These comments emphasize Smokeball's strong security and wide range of features, making it a compelling option for law firms seeking a comprehensive legal practice management solution. However, its higher cost compared to competitors can be a barrier for some. One user remarked, "Smokeball is a great program, but it's simply too expensive for my small solo practice." This highlights the importance of considering individual needs and budgets when choosing a legal practice management software. Overall, user reviews suggest Smokeball is a powerful and feature-rich legal practice management solution, but its complexity and cost may not be suitable for all users. Law firms should carefully weigh the software's strengths and weaknesses against their specific needs and budget before making a decision.

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