Everlaw vs Smokeball

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Our analysts compared Everlaw 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

Everlaw is a cloud-based platform for law firms, corporations and government agencies to facilitate their litigation and investigation processes. Intuitive and easy to use, it enables legal stakeholders to communicate and collaborate securely in real-time and create narratives as a team. It streamlines the entire e-discovery process with self-service rapid uploading, granular searching, efficient post-reviewing and production offerings.

Elucidate hidden insights using its interactive visualization and clustering modules and make accurate evidence-based case predictions using machine learning algorithms. Businesses can leverage its secure API, customized project templates and administration access control to personalize it for their unique needs.
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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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$250 Monthly
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$39/Month
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Assistance

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

Product Insights

  • Easy to Use: Non-tech-savvy people can adopt the platform quickly thanks to intuitive UI and UX. 
  • Streamlined Document Management: Keep track of all documents and ensure availability using Bates numbering and document binders. Stack, tag and organize files according to the firm’s requirements. 
  • Quick and Simple Search: Along with filtering, labeling and tagging, save previous searches on search cards for fast and accurate results. Pull up documents based on codes, tags and labels. 
  • Rich Knowledge Base: Easily navigate the platform using training videos and tutorials. 
  • Scale With Custom Searches and Narratives: Adapt to different circumstances by building custom searches and narratives. Create compelling and versatile storyboards for deposition using AI-enabled visualization options. 
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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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  • Uploads: Upload data with simple drag-and-drop capabilities from both native and third-party sources like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Google Vault and more. Review all documentation securely under one platform with dedicated support for various file types like spreadsheets, Slack messages, calendar invitations, Microsoft Teams data, videos, Encase archives and more. 
  • Search Optimization: Build extensive search queries for contacts, matters and documentation with stackable metadata, content and work-product filters to get smarter, faster and more accurate results. Automatically zero in on email communications and side conversations between specific people with the Smart Terms portal. 
  • Case Reviews: Streamline the review process of legal matters and documentation with an organized and controlled approach. Set viewership parameters and coding rules with dedicated review portals. 
    • Translation Services: Improve firm versatility with the foreign language translation extension capable of translating over 109 languages. Automate translation of legal matters without the integration of third-party tools or services. 
    • Redactions: Search legal documentation and automatically redact words, phrases, entire pages and patterns such as personally identifiable information (PII). State the redaction reason with customizable stamps and save time otherwise spent on the manual identification and redaction of documents. 
    • Transcription Services: Dig deeper into audio and video documentation with automatically generated transcription synchronized during playback. Manually search the transcripts or attach notes to timestamps for future reference. 
    • Coding Rules: Implement auto or conditional coding of documents that are contextually related to each other, such as duplicates or attachments. Increase review consistency, eliminate errors and speed up the process with coded legal documents. 
    • Review Assignments: Assign reviews to different members across a team through the review assignment portal. Track review progress, highlight particular review criteria and automatically assign dynamic reviews that update based on changes in data. 
  • Production Management: Automatically produce, save and back up an unlimited amount of legal documentation. Eliminate errors and streamline legal processes with customizable self-service protocol options and easy clawbacks. Share and export productions with secure, auditable sharing extensions. 
  • Advanced Analytics: Get detailed insights on legal matters, firm health and business processes with advanced analytics and reporting modules. Data visualization of standard and statistical data uncovers hidden information and predicts client requirements. 
    • Email Threading: Perform email reviews in threads without running additional scripts. The analytics portal eliminates duplicate emails, displays contextual information along with a matter, identifies inclusive emails and spots missing emails in complicated conversation threads. 
    • Data Visualization: Get a comprehensive 360-degree view of documents with interactive data visualizations. Explore document dates, metadata, contents, formats, review activity and more with customizable visualizations and metrics. 
    • Clustering: Automatically identify conceptually and contextually similar documents and combine them into large datasets with the clustering tool. Combine and study similar documents without any training, prior case knowledge or third-party resources like dictionaries and ontologies. 
  • Predictive Coding: Machine learning identifies the most important legal documents and case matters based on custom ratings, codes and attributes. Improve the predictive model by feeding weighted terms and important case matters to create a defensible model against which to test run arguments before trial. 
  • Storybuilding: The Storybuilder suite provides a complete, end-to-end set of post-review tools to manage litigations and investigations. Automatically organize the most important documents that reinforce the team’s case narrative in one environment without exporting and importing documents into other portals. 
    • Case Collaboration: Encourage team members to collaborate in real time under a single architecture already integrated with all case-related documents. Use the storybuilder extension to prepare coordinated case strategies, share review protocols, draft internal briefs and memos and more. 
    • Deposition Management: Coordinate with team members to prepare and execute completely digital depositions. Discuss ongoing depositions with team members in real time via a live chat tool. 
    • Deposition Transcripts and Testimony: Automatically create deposition transcripts and review, annotate, link to them all under one roof. Mark specific transcripts as key testimonies. 
  • Security: Ensure the security of staff, clients and legal matters. Secure data sharing, communication and document access from external and internal vulnerabilities. 
    • Communication Security: Maintain collaboration continuity among team members with the in-platform messaging tool. Protect all client and staff communication from security leaks. 
    • Sharing Security: Protect sensitive information by creating and sharing assignments, binders of documents, folders and more, with permission-based access. Share legal documentation only with case-related contacts. 
    • Permissions and User Groups: Assign groups with permission-based access to features and tools like codes, assignment groups and Storybuilder objects. Securely manage group permissions and monitor all activity logged in the system for suspicious behavior. 
    • Multi-Factor Authentication and Sign-On: Enforce multi-factor authentication for all staff on a database to prevent unauthorized access. Additionally, administrators can remove username and password-based access by enabling login through existing directory services like GSuite, Active Directory and LDAP. 
    • Location Whitelisting: Whitelist remote working environments based on IP address or country. Automatically deny access to the firm database when members ping location from unrecognized IP addresses. 
  • Matter Management: Create an unlimited number of projects from customizable templates and rename, suspend and delete them whenever required. Clone general settings, duplicate administrative tools, transfer work and find information across projects with correlated document sets. Analyze projects billable to anticipate monthly expenses. 
  • API Management: Build new applications or use integrated organization and project management tools. Securely connect applications to firm data using API keys and automate dashboard and report generation. 
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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

#17

among all
Legal Software

#31

among all
Legal Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

we're gathering data
91
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97
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97
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99
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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Everlaw
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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92%
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8%
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79%
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89%
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11%
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

we're gathering data
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86%
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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 275 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 747 reviews
93%
of users recommend this product

Everlaw has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 93% when considering 275 user reviews from 3 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)
4.6 (211)
4.8 (176)
4.85 (40)
4.76 (189)
4.8 (24)
4.7 (179)
n/a
4.8 (189)

Awards

Everlaw 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

Data Visualization: Storyboard and dashboard provide robust data visualization capabilities, according to 79% of users reviewing this feature.
Data Management: According to 83% of users, data management is one of the platform’s strongest suits — bolstered by binders, Bates numbering, filtering and tagging capabilities.
Functionality: 88% of users who mentioned this aspect said the system offers best-in-class functionalities for document review, disposition, production, time tracking and early case assessment (ECA).
Ease of Use: Regarding this element, 92% of users said that the platform is user-friendly and easy to navigate.
Training: 78% of users talking about training resources found the product training and knowledge base satisfactory.
Service and Support: 92% of users who reviewed this aspect were content with support responses and service costs.
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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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A study of user sentiments did not reveal any major cons.
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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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Everlaw provides excellent data management capabilities as part of a legal practice management solution. It’s particularly beneficial to businesses that prioritize eDiscovery and production in their day-to-day services, such as firms dealing with personal injury and mass tort. The platform offers versatile core functions, such as time tracking, ECA and document review, making it suitable for both eDiscovery and case management. It has some of the best visualization tools, including storyboards, binders and custom tags and labels. Overall, the solution is a promising acquisition for firms that deal with a ton of data on a daily basis.

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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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