Best Legal Document Management Software for 2023

Analyzing the Best Legal Document Management Software for Small Law Firms in 2023.

Time to modernize your law firm: It’s time to implement a Document Management System to keep your firm’s documents organized and searchable. And there are no shortage of options when it comes to legal document management software. There are old products and new products. Premise-based solutions and cloud-based products.

Who This Overview is For

This article is for law firm owners, managers and administrators that feels “there must be a better way” when it comes to managing the firm’s growing set of documents, email and other content.  This includes:

Are any of these you? If so: We’ve got you covered. Here we provide an overview of and additional resources for the best legal document management software in 2023.

Before we head into our list of the top law firm document management applications, we need to define the category. Many types of software and services are casually referred to as “document management,” but aren’t.

Legal document management software, also known as a Document Management System, is software (cloud-based or on-premise) that not only stores your law firm’s documents, but provides a comprehensive set of tools to find, organize and manage your documents.

This is in contrast to basic file storage systems (which do little more than hold your files), or even law practice management applications that provide built-in, but basic, storage of your documents.

Not to be confused with true legal document management software:

Semantics don’t matter, but functionality does.  We’ll further define what makes a DMS a DMS below in Document Management Features.

Generally speaking, legal document management software is special software that stores your documents and provides tools to manage them. The ‘manage’ part of document management software’s capabilities is what sets it apart from using a basic on-premise file server or simple cloud storage.

Document management software can come in either an on-premise variety (installed on your own local servers) or can be cloud-based.  The scope, features and capabilities of any given legal document management software varies from product to product; though broadly speaking, DMS software performs the following functions:

More modern, cloud-based Document Management Systems sometimes include these more sophisticated features:

With these features in mind, let’s take a look at the best legal document management software for small law firms. We encourage you to learn about each application, visit the publisher’s website and even share your own experience with each application.

Let’s get started.

Note that features and pricing are determined from a combination of our own account and that of authorized consultants for these products, and may change over time.

Many Practice Management applications describe “document management” as among the features their software provides. This often misleads or confuses potential buyers, as the phrase “Document Management” strongly insinuates the rich capabilities of a true DMS, whereas Practice Management software almost always provides only rudimentary document management.

You’ll often see “Document Management” listed as a feature, when really the Practice Management software includes functionality more akin to basic cloud storage (like Dropbox or Google Drive), rather than true legal document management software capabilities.

This is important to understand when evaluating a document management system for small law firms.

• Related:  Practice Management vs. Document Management Software

However, if you’re looking for Legal Matter Management, you could be referring to Practice Management and/or Document Management.

Ultimately, Matter Management is defined as how your firm particularly needs to handle matters from start to finish.

It’s important to learn about the differences, and to ensure you’re getting the right software.

• Related: Legal Matter Management Software.

If your law firm currently uses something other than a bona-fide Document Management system for small law firms, you may be wondering whether or not you should make the jump into a true DMS.  Or posed another way:  When do you actually need to get dedicated Document Management software?

In our experience, a law firm should seriously consider implementing a DMS when any of the following situations are present.

1. Your Files/Documents are Fragmented and Scattered

If your firm is struggling with matter and firm documents in too many different systems (for instance: a file server, in OneDrive, and in your case management software), it’s likely time to centralize everything into a DMS. Your new Document Management System will serve as the hub of your law firm, and the “single source of truth” when it comes to documents and email.

2. Your Filesystem is a Wild West of Unstructured Folders

Most basic file-and-folder systems start out well-organized enough. Perhaps you create a folder per client, or per matter, or both. Inevitably, over time, not everyone in your firm follows the protocol for creating and naming folders, and organizing documents… and over time, your file system becomes a mess, and finding the client matter or document you’re looking for becomes a mess. A good, law-firm-centric legal document management software platform will enforce a clear Client/Matter-centric hierarchy for documents and email, keeping your data organized with 10 matters or a 10,000 matters.

3. You Need to Classify and Annotate Documents

Basic file systems like file servers and simple cloud storage don’t provide much in the way of metadata. Metadata is simply a way you can apply attributes to a document that are about the document. For instance, you may want to classify a particular word document or PDF file as a motion. Doing so in a law firm Document Management System makes the document readily identifiable as a motion, and allows you to filter, sort or search for all documents of that type.

A good law firm Document Management System will allow you to apply document types, status (EG: Draft, Final, or Filed) as well as internal notes visible only to your team.

4. You’re Aiming for a Paperless Law Firm

If your law firm still manages all of your documents in hardcopy form, you have likely struggled to find documents and stay totally organized. This methodology of document management gives way to lost contracts, wasted time, and impeded productivity.

For these reasons, I definitely recommend having a mostly or completely Paperless Law Firm. Digitizing your files can be done over time, and you can set up the future of your firm to be more digital. Then, once you have your files on your computer, you can use a proper DMS to manage your past and future documents.

5. You Need Robust Search

Basic file systems are also notoriously bad at giving you the ability to search through all of your data. Suppose you have thousands of documents (or more), and even more emails saved over the course of many years. You’ll almost certainly need the ability to search through all of your data–documents, metadata, email and notes–including the content of every document. That means: every word on every page of every file. A good document management system for small law firms will give you Google-like search capability across all of your data. A really quality legal document management software platform will let you filter or search by matter, document type, author and more.

Once you’ve determined that your law firm needs Document Management software, the next step is to develop a shortlist of candidates to evaluate.

Here’s how to evaluate Document Management Systems for your law firm.

In this article, we’ve done our best to explore all legal document management software strategies from a neutral, unbiased perspective.  The truth is, however, that for most law firms, life is better in the cloud.  

In the past few years, as firms have transitioned to the cloud from traditional document management systems – particularly premises-based server systems – the effect on productivity, service levels, and general efficiency has been profound.

Almost all law firms see the benefits of locating, accessing, creating, editing, saving, sharing, and storing documents more effectively by the transition to the cloud – in the process providing greater flexibility, data security and IT efficiency.

Such is the transformational power of cloud-based legal document management software that it has been a key differentiator in the success of many law firms that have made the switch.

We believe it is no exaggeration to say this. Law firms that have taken the necessary steps to modernize in this way have been able to spend more time on winning cases for clients and less time on administrative and IT headaches.

Let’s be more specific about these benefits.

We could write a novel on the benefits of cloud-based software and file storage.  For this overview of legal document management software, we’ll cover the top 6 benefits of implementing a cloud-based Document Management System.

1. Data Security

With the proper law firm Document Management platform, your data (firm data, client data) is orders of magnitude more secure than it would be sitting on your in-house file server.  A reputable document management system for small law firms will include:

Compare this level of security and compliance to your own server in-house (even an expensive, well-maintained on-premise server infrastructure).   Cloud-based tools provide all the security you’ll need, often out-of-the-box.

2. Work Anywhere

It’s obvious but worth stating: Cloud-based legal document management software will enable your entire firm to work anywhere. Your team members will have the exact same access to client, matter and firm documents at home as they would in the office, without sacrificing security.

In today’s hybrid work environment, it’s more important than ever to give your team the tools they need to serve your clients, anytime, anywhere.

As you start to appreciate and even enjoy working from home, or anywhere else, another opportunity opens up for you.

Virtual Law Firms are more viable than ever before.

With the correct software and technology strategy, you can enjoy benefits such as flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and overall happiness for your firm and your clients.

Learn more below.

3. Reduced Risk of Data Loss

With server-based setups, it’s easy for data loss to occur if the backup procedure is not followed, breaks down, or if there is a server problem.

With a cloud-based system, there is no single point of failure. By storing documents in the cloud, data loss risks are lowered because the provider stakes its reputation on providing a stable, robust, and secure platform.

With cloud-based document management systems, your data will be automatically replicated and stored across multiple, geographically dispersed data centers.

If you keep all of this in mind while considering the graph below, you can conclude that with each subsequent year that you own a server, you assume more and more unnecessary risk.

4. Lower IT Costs and Fewer Headaches

Server-based document management systems require considerable IT oversight.

A law firm’s functionality depends greatly on being able to reliably access, create, and collaborate on legal documents. IT consultants regularly need to be called in to ensure everything is functioning smoothly.

Headaches and hiccups with server maintenance are common. This can get expensive, especially for smaller law firms. What’s more, IT problems are a huge distraction, keeping law firm managers from focusing on growing their firm and serving their clients.

With cloud-based legal document management software, there are no servers to own or manage and no software to install and keep updated on each of your computers.

While the ongoing headaches and costs are good enough reasons to consider a virtual desktop over an on-premise server, let’s also remember the typical upfront costs of just a few on-premise servers. Keep in mind – servers incur ongoing costs, and the higher your company scales up, the more servers and cost you will have to take on.

5. Save/Manage Emails in the Same System as Documents

For many law firms, email management alone is enough to make the jump into a Document Management System for small law firms.  With the right law firm DMS, you can quickly save and file relevant emails to the appropriate matter, right from Outlook.

Then, all documents and email for any given matter is neatly stored in one place, searchable and accessible to your entire firm.

6. Software Updates are Automatic

As is the case with any cloud-based software, a cloud-based legal document management eliminates any need to manually update software on your server(s) and desktop computers.  Cloud software publishers typically release new features (and bugfixes) on a routine basis, with no action required from you.

7. Scalability

Cloud-based software, and in particular cloud-based legal document management software, are infinitely scalable. Need more space for a big case you just took on? Chances are you can add storage in minutes. Have five new people join your team? Add them to your software and they’re up and running. All without the need to pay for expensive server infrastructure upgrades.

Conversely, if your needs decrease, with most cloud-based Document Management applications, you can scale resources (storage, users) down as needed, and pay only for what you need.

Closing the Loop

We hope you found this guide on finding the right document management system for small law firms helpful.