Top 10 Legal Document Management Systems for Law Firms in 2023

One thing that’s true for law firms is a room full of papers. Legal procedures involve a lot of documents. While working with many documents, lawyers, and firms waste valuable time locating, processing, and storing these documents.

But there is a better way to manage legal documents: using a legal document management system.

Using a legal document management system, law firms and public agencies can manage their legal documents easily while having access to the entire database at a click of a button. Legal DMS have been gaining traction due to the benefits they offer to legal firms by streamlining document creation, management, processing, and storage efficiently.

The legal document management software market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.5% from 2022 to 2030. The market growth can be attributed to the increasing demand for cloud-based DMS and the growing need for compliance and risk management.

Let’s examine the benefits of legal document management and deep dive into the pros and cons of the market's top 10 systems.

What is legal document management software?

A legal document management system helps law firms organize all their documents and has the functionality to organize access and search for them.

Most of the time, document management meets the requirements of law offices that must manage sizable volumes of mixed paper and digital documents in multiple formats and keep a highly searchable file system with crucial privacy safeguards.

It is usually a cloud-based system that allows sufficient storage and efficient access. It aims to boost efficiency at law firms by facilitating the finding, editing, accessing, and sharing of documents.

Why use legal document management system?

• 90% of professionals face difficulty locating contracts.
• More than 50% of the time worked on the job is spent producing and maintaining documents instead of working.

Law firms have a lot of documents for multiple clients. Here are some reasons why legal firms should use legal document management system:

• Organize their documents - Legal DMS automatically classifies and saves all incoming documents in designated folders, making it easier to search, access, and store documents.
• Improving security- Legal DMS stores documents on secure cloud storage instead of emails or personal machines, preventing unauthorized access.
• Reducing operational costs- Legal DMS saves 80% costs by using intelligent automation to automate manual document processes.
• Improving productivity- Legal DMS handles all aspects of document management, thus leaving time for law professionals to do the actual work.
• Compliance- Legal DMS makes law firms compliant, if it ever comes up during audits.

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Comparison of the top legal document management systems

We've compared the legal document management mentioned in the blog above. Here's a snapshot view of all software in brief.

Best Legal DMS in 2023

#1. Nanonets

Nanonets is an AI-based document management software with in-built powerful OCR, no-code workflows, and secure storage.

Nanonets can simplify legal document management by:

• Organizing all incoming legal files into different folders by client name, type of file, or dates.
• Converting all documents in a searchable database - means you can search documents with keywords from documents.
• Providing cloud or on-premise hosting as options.
• Automating all document processes with no-code workflows.
• Digitizing all documents for efficient document archiving.
• Providing role-based access, SSO login, document tracking, and custom features.

and more.

It can enable orderly archiving of data and straightforward searchability when incorporated into a broader document management system. This can save the legal professional a great deal of time and work.

Pros

• Automatically extract data from documents, emails, and images.
• No-code workflows to automate document upload, versioning, sorting, and storage
• Integrates with 5000+ software
• No-code legal document management system
• Role-based access for added security
• Cloud and On-premise options
• SOC2 compliant
• 24x7 Support
• Dedicated customer manager
• Free migration assistance

Cons

• No document generation options

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#2. MyCase

MyCase is a case management software that offers readily available training, committed customer support, and continuous product updates. It allows users to store all their case information and paperwork in one place.

It has a robust feature set from real-time updates, texting, document sharing, and task management to time tracking, creating invoices, and collecting payments. They also offer the MyCase Client Portal to organize client interactions and securely share data.

Ideal For: Time Tracking, Task Management

Pricing: Starts from 49$/Month/user

Free Trial: Yes

Pros

• Platform Compatibility
• Automated Workflows
• Affordable Pricing Structure
• Intuitive Interface

Cons

• Limited Feature Set
• Limited Integration Capabilities
• The email Feature can be improved

#3. Closing Folders

Closing Folders is a legal document management software. Its primary focus is enabling users to close cases and track documents throughout their life cycle. It is a centralized platform that helps manage and collaborate on various legal transactions. It has a diverse feature set consisting of tools like version control, schedule manager, online signature, and many more. to organize documents, streamline workflow and improve compliance.

Ideal For Contract Management, Access, and Permission Control

Pricing: Not Disclosed

Pros

• Integration with DocuSign
• Easy import
• Ability to handle Large Transactions

Cons

• No Integration with other DMS
• Limited Text Formatting

#4. Process Street

Process Street is a business process management platform. Its main objective is to facilitate effective team collaboration. It assists teams in sharing their fundamental procedures and converting them into effective no-code workflows.

It offers various functionalities, including employee onboarding to prepare new hires for success and establishing workflows, including employee and client onboarding and tenant screening. Process Street provides a free trial for users wanting to test the platform.

Free Trial: Yes, it also has a free version

Pricing: From 25$/month/per user

Ideal For: Process Management via Workflows

Pros

• Easy to build Workflows
• Efficient Task Tracking

Cons

• Initial Learning Curve is Steep

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#5. LexWorkPlace

LexWorkPlace is a cloud-based document and email management software. It enables users to manage documents and email and enhances collaboration. LexWorkPlace can be used for teams that may do many things, like manage workflows, delegate tasks to team members, monitor time and payment, and store data.

Some of the features that LexWorkplace provides are full-text search, document version management, document indexing & profiling, permissions & access management, and end-to-end data encryption.

Pricing: $395/month (3 users)

Free Trial: No

Ideal for: Document Classification, Archiving & Retention

Pros

• Version Control
• No Downtime

Cons

• Inability to Save Emails

#6. Clio

Clio is a legal practice management software that enables efficient running, organizing, and collaborating on cases. Users can use it to safely edit, store, and manage documents on the cloud.

Case and document management, scheduling, accounting, time tracking, task management, and billing are some of its main features. Additionally, Clio includes a mobile app that enables users to review, share, or upload documents, update case statuses, and connect with clients and team members.

Pricing: Starts from $39/month/user

Free Trial: Yes

Ideal for: Tracking Leads and Managing Cases

Pros

• Comprehensive Lead & Case Management
• Easy Integration

Cons

• Separate Offerings (Grow & Manage)
• No preset templates

#7 LogicalDoc

LogicalDOC is free software packed with an open-source database.

Although it supports all popular DBMS, developers still advise MySQL for use in production systems. LogicalDoc enables users and organizations to securely and reliably organize, index, retrieve, control, and distribute crucial business documents, focusing on business process automation and quick content retrieval. Additionally, it supports automated import from shared files and integration with Microsoft Office and Outlook.

Pricing: On Request

Free trial: Yes, it also has Free Version

Ideal for: Indexing and Quick Retrieval of Documents

Pros

• User Friendly
• Open Source Plugins to improve functionality

Cons

• Customization requires Programming Knowledge
• Difficult to create backup files

#8. efileCabinet

Efile cabinet is a document management software that enables users to manage documents, create workflows and customize processes to suit their needs. With features like advanced text search, secure sharing, e signatures, it aims to help organizations create, manage and efficiently share documents and take care of compliance. It also has the option of a mobile application for users.

Pricing: $699/ year/user

Free Trial: Yes

Ideal For: Content Management

Pros

• Easy to Use, Accessibility
• Drag and Drop

Cons

• Complex Search Functionality
• Limited Integration

#9. Sharepoint

SharePoint is a web-based platform for collaboration that seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office. Although SharePoint's primary function is as a document management and storage system, the way each business uses it will vary greatly. Groups can create a central, password-protected area for document sharing with this tool.

Its features can be accessed through web applications and a web user interface (UI). It offers various features across the spectrum, like expanded file names, large file support, information rights management, folder sharing, and document library accessibility.

Pricing: It is available as part of Microsoft Office 365 Suite

Free Trial: Has Free Version

Ideal For: Collaboration

Pros

• Sharing & Collaboration
• Data Synchronization
• Multi-Device Use

Cons

• Difficult to Navigate
• Steep Learning Curve

#10. Imanage

Imanage is a comprehensive content management system that securely creates and collaborates documents. They also provide an ecosystem of partners and integrations like Google Workspace. With features like email management, AI-based contextual search, and encryption, it aims at assisting organizations in efficient knowledge management.

Pricing: On request

Free Trial: No

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Why Nanonets?

Nanonets is an extremely easy-to-use document management system with no-code workflow management, best-in-class OCR software, and reliable, secure cloud storage. You can set up Nanonets in one day, use them without writing a single line of code and automate every manual process within minutes.

Nanonets offers:

• 14-day free trial
• A forever-free plan
• Training support
• Whitelabel solution
• Free migration assistance
• 24x7 live support
• Customization options

Apart from these, here are three reasons why Nanonets is an excellent option for a legal document management system:

• Workflow Automation - Automate emails, document capture, PDF lookup, match legal documents, and more with simple no-code workflows.
• Document Management - Find every reference, contract, or agreement with just one word. You can use Nanonets to find documents, document annotation, digitization, storage, and more.
• Excellent Customer Support - Our team is on standby to help you throughout your journey. Nanonets provides 24x7 support, technical assistance, and free training sessions for all our clients.

Nanonets offers a feature-packed platform to automate everything from complex financial processes to routine data entry. With seamless integrations, a no-code platform, and workflow automation, Nanonets is perfect for law firms looking to eliminate manual processes.

How to select the best legal document management software?

While selecting a Legal Document Management System.

Identifying your needs

Before you shortlist possible software, review the current systems and processes to identify critical gaps the software will help you solve. Once these are identified, make a thorough list that can be used for reference.

Three key factors that you should keep in mind are

Security and Compliance

Regarding law firms, security is of paramount importance as they carry a lot of sensitive, confidential data of their clients. Data privacy and security are a must for corporate and personal clients. Even a minor data breach can lead to disastrous consequences. Thus, enterprise-grade security is a must for legal document systems to protect the data from hackers, phishers, and other cyber attacks. Thus, when choosing a document software, it’s encryption and compliance features should be verified.

Ease of Access

The work in a law firm involves a lot of collaboration. Multiple parties may be affected, and documents can change many hands throughout the process. Thus, in such cases, it becomes essential to ensure that documents can be accessed from the database quickly and efficiently. It offers great freedom and flexibility as teams can serve clients anytime and anywhere. This also goes a long way in boosting productivity and overall efficiency.

Secure Sharing

Different permission/access levels or approval mechanisms must be required to ensure security. Documents should be encrypted so sharing and collaboration can be done securely. Some software also has provisions to set passwords or secure sharing links.

Research

The next step is to shortlist various software that suits your needs. You can consult people already using that software and check for reviews on portals like G2 and Capterra. Once you’ve zeroed in on some of them, do an in-depth analysis via product demos, trials, etc.

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Common features of Legal Document Management Software

Some of the features that legal document management software should have are as follows.

Document Storage

The primary problem that a Legal document management platform aims to solve is document storage - having unlimited space for all the documents is a must. The system must have provisions to store all data from text files, audio recordings, video clips, and images. It should allow for efficient document archiving to store legal documents in secure cloud storage.

Security & Compliance

Security features like password protection, permission management, and multi-factor authentication are necessary, and so is compliance with various regulations as law firms deal with sensitive data.

Email Management

This is also not one of the necessities but helps a lot if present. Having a centralized system that can manage all your documents and emails helps reduce friction and save time lost between the to and fro, which is done when these two are managed on different software. Look for legal document management software with email parsing capabilities to extract information from emails on the go.

Integration Capabilities

This will especially come in handy for legal firms who already use various tools to manage different processes and want to continue using them/their data. A legal document management software that offers seamless integration with various applications will enable a smooth flow of information.

Document Workflows

The management requirements for your company can include document tagging, editing, altering roles and permissions for documents, moving a document across folders, creating new documents, and updating documents.

Thus if the software provides workflow automation, many of these tasks can be automated.

Optical Character Recognition

The majority of law companies still work with a lot of paper documents. Legal offices require an automated scanning and document indexing solution to manage the information contained in these documents effectively. Software with OCR Technology can help solve this problem effectively.

Keyword Search

Since there is a lot of data across multiple files, searching for a particular data point often becomes a monumental task. The presence of advanced search enables users to use multiple techniques when searching and makes document retrieval faster.

Approval Automation

Legal documents need to be approved before they’re sent to clients. Make sure your legal document management system has approval workflows or allows you to create one.

Conclusion

With automated workflows, task management, time tracking, signature management, collaboration, and secure sharing, Legal Document Management Software can go a long way in getting the activities of your law firm in order and boosting efficiency in the process.

Thus, with time adoption of legal document management software will only rise as more and more firms realize their value.

With a plethora of options available in the market, do ensure you select the one best suited for your needs and budget.

Read more about document management:

• 10 Best Document Automation Software
• How to automate document verification?
• Verify 10,000+ ID cards with automated ID verification
• How to archive documents properly?
• Which are the best legal document management software?
• How to classify documents using document workflows?
• Enhance document security with Nanonets
• Automate document indexing with no-code workflows
• The 2023 Guide to Document Automation
• Top EDMS systems in 2023
• The 2023 guide to document processing

FAQs

Find contracts when you need them with just a keyword. Use Nanonets to simplify document search, storage, and processing.

Read more about document management

• 10 Best Document Management Software in 2023
• How to use legal OCR efficiently?
• Why is OCR important for contract management?
• How to get started with contract lifecycle management?
• 10 Best Document Automation Software in 2023
• 5 Best Document Scanning Software in 2023
• Best Legal Document Management System for Lawyers
• Why should you shift towards modern document processing in 2023?
• How to optimize document security?
• How to archive documents effectively?

The blog was originally published on 11 December 2022 and was updated on 12 January 2023.