PracticePanther Legal Software

Amazing program!

Comments: I bought this program when I first opened my practice about 2.5 years ago. I knew going into my own firm that I wanted a comprehensive client management tool. After spending hours online reviewing various programs, I decided to give the 30-day free trial a shot. I think I purchased the monthly subscription immediately after starting to use the program. Since that time, I have built on my knowledge, incorporating the MailChimp and QBO features first, then started learning how to streamline my document preparation through the template feature. What would have previously taken me multiple hours a week to manage, now takes minutes.

Pros:

PracticePanther is intuitive and very user friendly. It has a ton of features that expedite minuscule tasks and free up admin time. It syncs with all my favorite resources, like QBO, MailChimp, and Box, making communication with clients a lot easier and keeps routine mailings operational. If you use a lot of form templates, the template builder is a major time saver and cuts down on user error and oversights. I use this program every day in my law office and am very grateful for how easy it is. Even better, the customer support team is phenomenal. I rarely have any issues with the program (it is easy to use), but when I run into something I need help with, a quick message to the PP team is responded to within minutes and the problem is solved or at a minimum I am given an update and expected time of completion. I couldn't recommend this program more to a solo or small legal practice.

Cons:

Nothing, the team is constantly updating its software and programs that it connects to. They provide online videos to help and I frequently learn of new ways to use the program from regular updates by the team.

Great practice management software. The only short-fall is that it doesn't allow auto future billing

Comments: PracticePanther is a great platform and you should definitely give it a good try during a free trial period.
It also has Rules of Court deadline figuring if you're a Civil firm.
PP has great integration with QuickBooks on-line.
You can print checks directly from PP, or QB online to pay other legal vendors (Chiros, etc.)

Pros:

Price - either $59/mo or $49/mo if paid the year in full. Fee to bill clients on-line: $.20 per transaction plus 1.95% Workflow customizable - Yes, you can customize the workflow on different case-types. Activity Log - easy access history. Create Contact on the fly as creating matter - easy to create a Contact during the process of creating a matter. Intake form for new clients - Yes, can put a link on your website so new clients can fill-out a new client form, and that info will auto fill into the client's PP account. Time tracking timers - you can have multiple different timers open and running at the same time and assign them. Mobile App - there is no mobile App, but the site is mobile optimized. E-file integration - there is No e-file integration. Color assignments - there are up to 6 colors that you can assign to parties & roles. Task customizable - Yes, you can customize task flows. Easy to create and merge documents - Yes, it's very easy to create and merge documents with the program. PDF-auto convert - No, it cannot auto PDF convert a document. Create documents that can merged - Yes. This program makes it easy to create documents that can be merged. Support - Yes, support seems to be free. Notify client when upload a document - Yes, you can notify a client a document gets uploaded that you want them to review or be aware of. Email syncing - very good syncing with Gmail and Outlook. Emails linked to a matter - Yes. Easy to link emails to a matter. Client Portal - Yes.

Cons:

The only thing that kept me from staying with PracticePanther, is that MyCase allows you to be able to set future billing to go out to a client(s) and forget it. PracticePanther has a bit of a 'workaround' if you get the client's Visa/Debit card on file, but many times clients are uneasy giving you their card number. With Criminal Defense clients that need to make monthly (or future) payments on a retainer amount, MyCase allows you to set-up future dates where a client will be emailed a bill, which they can tap on a button and pay on-line. This is the main thing that made me go with MyCase. But if not for that, I would have stayed with either PracticePanther or Smokeball. Smokeball had/has the slickest software for being able to send emails from (either) Outlook or Gmail, and a small window at the bottom allows you to connect that email to a matter. Smokeball's software also made/makes it very easy to sync a Word document with a Client/Matter.

Alternatives Considered: MyCase and Smokeball

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: I ended up going with MyCase because it has the auto future filling of clients. But if MC didn't have that, I would have gone with PracticePanther or Smokeball.

Loved it at first, disappointed after 6 months

Comments: I purchased PracticePanther about 6 months ago, and I was initially very happy with it. I hadn't used a practice management software before, so it felt pretty life-changing. The platform felt intuitive and user-friendly, and it simplified everything from time tracking to billing. However, after 6 months of use (and data loss), I have become increasingly frustrated with PP and have finally made the (costly and inconvenient) decision to switch to Clio. There have been a lot of glitches with the platform and things that don't work intuitively. But the most frustrating and costly glitch occurred when I downgraded my plan to the "middle" plan, and it somehow deleted all the custom rates I had set for each matter. No one at PP could figure out why this happened or how to undo it, so I spent half a day re-reviewing engagement agreements, and re-creating new matter rates -- in addition to spending an hour or so on the phone with PP customer service and sending emails explaining the issue (and didn't even get a response). The "solution" PP offered was to upgrade me back to the higher level for one month (about a $30 value)! That provided absolutely zero benefit to me (I downgraded because I didn't need the features from the highest plan). The amount of money I've lost using PP has been in the thousands! I've switched to Clio now, which seems better so far.

Pros:

That it made time tracking and billing easy

Cons:

Too many glitches in the software that caused serious issues with my pricing and billing

Alternatives Considered: Clio

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: The interface seemed more intuitive and seemed more geared toward transactional law (rather than litigation)

PracticePanther Integrations with Key software is a great advantage

Comments: I am very pleased with PracticePanther. Very easy to use. Does what we need.

Pros:

Integration with quickbooks and the ability to take credit card payments through PP helps make collections and billing work well with all team members being able to take payments without needing all of them to be able to get into quickbooks.

Cons:

Having restart searches for contacts or matters when we did not find the one we were looking for i.e. multiple persons with same name. and having to search again. Would like to be able to have reporting using matter type. Being able to customize reports would be great. Some reports show graphs but are hard to get the information ranked like the graph

Love PracticePanther

Comments: This software has saved us time on the tasks that would take a long time like creating letters or pleadings as they are automated now. Since the information pulls from the fields there is also a very low risk for typing errors.

Pros:

Super easy to use! We love that we can create custom fields for a contact or matter and have really enjoyed the automation portion of the software. The templates are easy to create and automatically pull the information from the contact and matter sections that we need.

Cons:

Under Matter, instead of editing the whole section, it would be nice if I could hoover over the field I only need to update. I also wish I could highlight text in the matter or notes section. I create multiple matters under one client and some of the information in the fields is always the same. It would be nice if I could select an option so any time I create a new matter for that client, the information in the matter auto fills for any new case going forward.

Alternatives Considered: CosmoLex, Smokeball, Tabs3 and Clio

Reasons for Choosing PracticePanther Legal Software: Had to upgrade every so often and had to log onto our server to use. With PracticePanther, I log in from anywhere.

Switched From: Tabs3

Reasons for Switching to PracticePanther Legal Software: Price and ease of use