Smokeball Reviews & Product Details

Smokeball is very user-friendly. I appreciate that I can select different fields for information to include for my matter. While I don't always find the exact field I need, most of the time, the items I need for the type of matter I am working on are included. For instance, on a Family Law Pre-Decree matter, it provides fields to include marriage details, real property details, case details, child details, discovery information, and you can add or remove fields for appraisers and many other helpful items. It also has amazing template and form capabilities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

For a small firm, if no one is designated to create Templates or forms with form fields that autofill from the fields in your matter, learning to create those forms can be time-consuming and a bit tricky. However, Smokeball has amazing resources, and anyone can learn if they are interested. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like how organized and easy to use Smokeball is. Archie is a really useful assistant, too. I like how easy it is to tag emails into Smokeball and upload files. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

When we open/close files, we assign a number, and there's really not an easy way to keep track of those aside from clicking through the tabs in Matters to find the most recent. So, when opening or closing a file, this creates an additional hurdle for us. Also, sometimes an attorney's rate increases, but just for new clients and not old ones, but at the moment there seems like there's no way to adjust the rates on individual files. E.g., our current rate is $350/hr, but for ongoing matters from last year it's $300/hr. I often need to manually change it, because the system doesn't seem to allow separate billing rates for separate files. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It’s robust enough to handle modern case management, without piling on so many bells and whistles that it becomes oversized and requires a full-time administrator with special training, like Filevine does. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The Medical Records portion should make the Account field in the Medical and Settlement details be a category you can see in Reports and manipulate in Archie AI, while also changing it to be a quick status screen for notes about progress and follow ups. This will give a quick glance to see where we are at with bills and records. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like most about Smokeball is how intuitive and efficient it is for day-to-day legal work and case management. The automatic time tracking and document automation save a significant amount of time and cut down on manual entry. Everything is centralized in one system—files, calendars, emails, and tasks—which makes it easier to stay organized and keep cases moving forward. The program is user-friendly and easy to learn without needing extensive training. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

While Smokeball is very helpful overall, some features come with a learning curve at first, especially when it comes to customizing templates. At times, the system can lag, and certain tools feel more complex than necessary for simpler tasks. More flexibility in customization and reporting would make the platform even stronger. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use Smokeball for case management of all cases in the firm and I like that it keeps the entire file easily accessible. The good categorization of important information such as negotiations and medical provider information is really helpful. This accessibility keeps attorneys or staff from having to dig around the files to find out important information, essentially saving time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I think sometimes the layout and the way to access information can be tricky to use. The arrows to expand layers to each file are tiny. Also I wish we could access information while we fill out information in boxes. Like if I am filling out information for an adjuster, Smokeball does not allow me to access any other file information while I am in one box. I wish I had access to the rest of the file so I don't have to close out of the box and pull up the information where I can see it in the matter. Some of the functions are not as intuitive for the normal user at least for the visual layout. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love that I can enter the name of a witness or victim into my system, and it will find all the files that person is associated with. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I haven’t found much of a downside. If I had to point to one issue, it would be that my files somehow got switched to show only emails—something I didn’t do. I know the correct setting now, but I wasn’t too pleased to suddenly think my files were missing and not understand why. The other problem is the hours of support available. Unable to bill exact time on time keeping. Billing requires me to exit out to another system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that Smokeball keeps everything organized and provides detailed views for each matter. The integration with MS 365 is great as it allows everything to be within one platform. I appreciate how it keeps track of tasks and files organized within each matter. The template lab feature makes it super fast to create documents or drafts. It was quick and easy to set up, and I learned the ins and outs within a week. Smokeball truly helps streamline our operations, and I would highly recommend it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I think maybe the chat/messaging feature if it would allow to add screenshots rather than having to upload them Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like how organized Smokeball is. Everything is in its proper place, making it easy to find what I'm looking for and perfect for new users. I genuinely love the workflows; they make tasks more concise and cleaner, eliminating the need to bundle everything into one or remember to create follow-up tasks. I love Archie very much, particularly for how it assists with quickly locating specific documents or information and drafting pleadings and demands. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Maybe the contacts could use more work. Sometimes I just struggle knowing the adjuster for a claim because you can only assign one to the tab at a time, but there is an adjuster for many categories. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the cloud-based functionality of Smokeball, which allows me to access all my files from anywhere, whether I'm at home or on the go using my Microsoft Surface. I can easily get on Smokeball and find all my files there, making it convenient to edit documents. I also appreciate its collaboration features, which let me share documents with my staff and collaborate on important tasks. The email tagging feature is pretty helpful; it lets me tag emails as they come into my inbox and associate them with specific matters. This helps a lot with staying organized and is also useful for billing purposes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

My biggest complaint about Smokeball is the billing functionality. There's no ability to run some basic reports that we need as a firm, like seeing how many hours have been billed to a specific client or matter in a given day. This lack of functionality is a big problem for us, and it feels like something that should be easy to implement, and I do not feel like Smokeball has been sufficiently responsive to our needs in this regard. Another issue is the mobile app. Its limited functionality is disappointing, especially because litigators are often on the move. The app feels clunky and your ability to search for, access and/or edit files is very limited compared to the desktop client. My partner reports that he is even unable to draft/edit documents on his iPad Pro. Finally, it is pretty clear Smokeball is more tailored to plaintiff's practices than defense litigation firms like mine. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the tasking ability of Smokeball as it allows any attorney to send me tasks that need to be completed, which is super helpful since I work for multiple attorneys. The AI time feature is a great addition because it stops me from losing track of my billable time if I forget to save a manual time entry. I also like that I have the messaging feature to communicate back and forth with my clients. Plus, I feel it's pretty user-friendly. I didn't face any issues learning the software and I was able to learn it fairly quickly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

When I generate an email inside of Smokeball, it doesn't always put my signature line in my email. So I have to copy and paste that, and it's kind of annoying. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.