
I really enjoy the function that puts calendar entries into your outlook. No more double entries, what a life saver. The fact that it has a document management system built in is incredibly convenient as document management systems are paramount for law firms. The work plans are extremely intricate and INCLUDE a checklist as well as form emails and texts. In the current digital climate and working from home, the text feature has been an awesome feature to utilize. Clients love the convenience it provides in terms of ease of contact. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
In comparison to two other case management systems I have used in the past, this system requires a lot of clicks. However, at the same time Im not sure I would say I dislike this as the system is incredibly intricate which for me explains all the clicking required to utilize its vast features to the fullest extent of your law practice. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Our personal injury law firm switched from Needles to Smart Advocate about three years ago. The amount of growth we've had plays largely thanks to this case management software, especially after Covid-19 hit. This software made the transition from working in the office to working from home almost effortless. Our staff never missed a beat, and our clients never realize the change happened virtually overnight. While other firms struggled with technological, let alone case management issues, for us, it was business as usual. With Smart Advocate's features, updates, support, and innovation, there is no other way but growth. It's a powerhouse of a tool for great staff, which gives clients the most significant outcome. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There is not much to dislike, but there is always room for improvement. That said, when a dislike does arise, reaching out to SmartAdvocate usually remedies our dislikes. For example, the recommendation was to set up multi-plaintiff parties under one case number. We tried that out and realized that would not work for our reporting and usage needs. Their development team quickly remedied a solution for each party to work with one case number while still giving us the linking ability needed for multi-party cases. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Smart Advocate is completely customizable, optionally automated, and such a time saver. If you have ever said to yourself "there must be a better/easier/quicker way" to do something, Smart Advocate likely has the solution in place already. If you do have an idea that they're not doing yet, they are always at the ready to create and implement new solutions. More than a business, they become family! Customer service is top notch! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
If there is anything to dislike, it's that I don't have enough time in the day to learn and utilize everything they offer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The simple lay-out and tabs for easy site navigation. Compared to other platforms that I have used while working for my company, SA has by far been the one with the least amount of headaches and has been the easiest to learn. There is also a wide range of customization options for users individually Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Sometimes has slow loading times, but that may be an internal issue. Communication to SA support can be slow sometimes. When we need help, we need it fast, and there have been issues before with us getting a response or follow up quickly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I think an upside to SmartAdvocate is that it's a web-based system, so I could access it from any web browser. It's pretty helpful that we can create barcodes to scan any type of mail-piece into Smart Advocate, and it will automatically find the file to place it in. I like being able to mark a task as "in progress" once I've started it so the attorney or paralegal that assigned me the task knows I've started it.
I also like that there are templates saved for documents I can generate to send to providers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Sometimes I wish that I didn't have to select the "type" of mail-piece I'm trying to scan in... There isn't a button for "other" for me to select, and sometimes I don't know what to label it as for the scan. Additionally, It would be great to able to search for adjusters, providers, lawyers, etc. in the system like we can do when we search for clients. It can be difficult to learn the system since there is a lot to learn, but once you know where everything is it's very simple to use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I love the templates in SA. They are easy to create and administer as well as user friendly. I also really like the searchability of each window, particularly documents. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like the UDF Editor, except for the way that items are re-ordered. It would be easier if there was a way to drag and drop to put the items in the order you want. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Smart Advocate is able to conform to your practice style through a variety of inputs and tabs that cater the experience to your organizational style while also providing a pathway to develop and improve upon the same. Smart Advocate also makes reducing the litigation process to a set number of steps to be checked off and followed easy and intuitive. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Customizing Smart Advocate can often be difficult without a working base of similar litigation management programs or if the default settings do not perfectly match your practice. Without a broad knowledge or extensive training with the program it can be difficult to learn and become comfortable with the functionality of its various tabs. Sometimes tabs do not integrate well with Outlook email. There have also been occasional problems with naming multiple files at once which can sometimes lead to confusion. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The ability to customize every feature to best fit our needs. The quick responses from SmartAdvocate support and their willingness to listen to suggested changes. The reporting features are robust and also customizable, so that even when you are requested to produce a very specific report, with a little work, it is possible. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The steep learning curve to get started. Out of the box, SmartAdvocate needs a lot of work in order to get running in a manner that works well for your firm. However, the time and effort is assuredly worth it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Support, support, support. You can actually get a person on the phone to assist and not have to use a chat box that takes 10 minutes for a response. They will also use email but with a quick response. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
It's a lot to learn (because there are a lot of great features) when your already working long hours but it's worth the effort Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There is nothing Smart Advocate isn't able to do. There are many functionalities that allow you to easily navigate all areas of a law firm to not only manage the case load and firm finances, but also keep in touch with clients, the way that best fits their needs. Their support team is awesome and no false promises to date! They truly get a 5 star from me!
These are my favorites in order:
1)Document Generations
2) Text messaging options for mass text
3) Email messaging options for mass emailing
4) Workflows
5)Case Browsing Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
To date, there's really nothing I dislike! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like all the ways we are able to customize the screens. I also really appreciate how it is geared toward going paperless. We have been attempting to go paperless for years and this has helped tremendously! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I wish it ran a little faster. Sometimes some of the screens run slow. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like the tip of the weeks that are placed on the site. Having the ability to review these when I am available is outstanding! The client intake process would be great as typing can be much faster than writing it all down. I also like that finding disbursement, invoices/bills, and other costs related to a matter have special areas. The liens that should be associated with a specific matter are great having its special place too. Being as I do a lot of the accounting, I can see having these separated will make things easier. Although, I am still new and have not gone through any of it yet I can see the potential. I know once I get more into the system the likes will only increase but being as it has not been that long it is off to a great start. Truly seems more user friendly that other systems I have used in the past with my current or former employers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I have found that not being able to ask question during webinar and the speed of the speaker during the webinar makes it difficult to fully understand what is trying to be shown. I think if having a longer webinar to cover the same material but allowing a question/answer at the end would help ensure everyone on the call truly understands what is being shown. Another area where I think improvement could be made is the client intake area. I know that there are specific areas that should be required to continue. However, I have noticed that when completing a client intake they client likes to say things in their own way. There has been several times where the client has not wanted to wait until I ask a specific question before they say something. If there would be a way to toggle around and only get those caution areas at the end when something is missing. This might allow less irritation on both sides of the client intake process. I also wish there was a way to more customize the visual of my (each users) visuals. I know we can change where we have our "Tasks", "My Cases", "Critical DeadLines", etc. It would be great if we could also change the color tone of our page. The light blue/white is great but there are times where that makes it more difficult to look at for the long term. If a color scheme option was available it might make it easier on the eyes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
That you can add almost ANY detail to the case to SA that is separated into so many different categories to find info about the case. I love how it can be connected to our email to send/set tasks or email tasks to anyone. If all the information is inputted into the correct places, it can be VERY helpful. Love how it puts all the info into the template for you. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
It can be overwhelming the amount of information that SA shows/requires to fill out for the case. Not always user friendly...especially if you are still learning how to use SA and ALL of its features. I do not like when searching for a client in search bar that multiple tabs open up and can make the screen overwhelming to look at with multiple tabs. It is both a good and a bad thing how much information can be stored into SA. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Everything is in one place. Documents, deadlines, appointments are all easily accessible through SmartAdvocate. It's also nice that it is accessible from anywhere with an Internet connection. Document categorization is customizable making it easy to save, access and find documents and information. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The calendar is not the easiest to read and just getting a glimpse of what is to come in the next week or so is a bit clunky given that the appointments are in a list so you still have to read through the entirety of the calendar to find out what is important. The document viewer takes time to get used to as well. Either viewing it through the folders or through just a general list can be a bit tedious. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The user interface of SmartAdvocate is much easier than the many competitors out there. Not only do the capabilities outweigh other platforms, but the training and assistance we have received in our office has been excellent. Everything is easily able to be found in one place and the templates for document production have saved us countless hours of work. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There is not much I don't like about SmartAdvocate. Every time I have had a question about a capability, it seems that it already exists or has been easily able to be integrated. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I love the fact that there is a short cut, button, and function for everything. The software thinks of everything and if there is something that you want customized, it is able to be done quickly. This is a highly functioning program. Opening cases are easy and it helps keep everything organized. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I honestly cannot think of anything that I dislike. The software has virtually everything needed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I have found SA to be more user friendly compared to our prior software and other softwares that are available to PI firms. There are so many pros to this system: the overall set up, the layout, easily accessible menu tabs as well as its templates, reminders, subscription reports, dashboards, the ability to text and email from the software and the various syncing with other programs. This case management software makes a firm handle their caseloads efficiently. Another important feature is the client portal. Another plus to the system are the webinars and fast turn around on the customer support. You can also continuously customize the software to the needs of your firm. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The only downside to this system, as with any system, is making sure the staff is properly trained to learn how to use the software. Otherwise, there is nothing to dislike! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Searching capabilities and being able to tailor it down to specifics. The outlook feature that allows you to save documents and emails to a specific file instead of dragging. Inserting a note and being able to create a task at the same time instead of getting in and out of different features. I have only been using this on and off for a month until our migration is complete so I haven't been "all hands in" as of yet. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The monochromatic color scheme. I wish there were user preferences to change the size of font, color, etc. I have only been using this on and off for a month until our migration is complete so I haven't been "all hands in" as of yet. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I have work with this software for a few years. I must say that I am so thankful for its existence. I cant even imagine how firms work with out it. There is so many things that I like from the reports to the case management system. SOL tracking, saved Docs and the list is endless. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Nothing to dislike, lets say a lot more to learn Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
This software is very end user friendly. We have little to no down time and training new users as the company grows is relatively easy. The support staff are able to answer questions promptly when they arise. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I have not found a major dislike yet after 1 year of use. I would like to see more ability to generate custom reports rather than being limited to certain fields that leave the search too broad. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Efficient. Integrates with Microsoft Outlook. It's internet base, so I can access the software when I'm not in the office. SmartAdvocate provides educational webinars on how to use new features and can personalize the platform to our law firm's needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Nothing. This is the most efficient legal software I've used to date. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.