Filevine vs Smart Advocate (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Filevine if

• Fits if your firm runs heavy caseloads, such as personal injury or mass torts
• Works for prosecutors, public defenders and other government legal offices

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want a price before a demo, as every package is quoted by the sales team
• Watch out: intake, depositions and signatures are separate packages, and analytics, court deadline rules and the client portal are extensions
• Not for you if you want to try case management first, since the free LOIS Explore trial is AI only and closed to existing customers
• Not for you if you'd rather set it up yourself, as setup runs through Filevine's certified partners
• Skip it if you need phone apps, as the listing has it as web only

Pick Smart Advocate if

• Fits if you run a litigation practice and want case steps automated
• Works for firms with their own IT staff who prefer an on-premises server

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want a price before a sales demo, as none is published
• Skip it if you want to try it first: there is no free plan or trial
• Too light for billing and trust accounting: the listing shows neither
• Watch out: on the Server edition, backups and upkeep fall to your own IT staff

Filevine

• Filevine publishes no prices: every package is quoted by its sales team after a demo.
• Intake, depositions and signatures are separate packages; analytics, court deadline rules and the client portal are extensions to Matters.
• The free LOIS Explore trial covers AI research and drafting only, not case management, and is closed to existing Filevine customers.
• Setup is handled by Filevine's certified implementation partners rather than self-serve onboarding.

Smart Advocate

• No prices are published; the site offers demos only.
• The Server edition's backups and maintenance are handled by your own IT staff.
• Aimed at litigation practices rather than small general practices.

Filevine

Matter management

Each matter collects tasks, contacts, deadlines, calendar events, emails and notes, with custom reports and dashboards built from any field in Filevine.

Document management and assembly

Unlimited document storage with search, PDF splitting and combining, and document assembly that fills templates from matter data.

LOIS legal AI

Ask LOIS answers questions about a matter with cited sources, AI Drafting writes from case facts, LOIS for Word works inside Microsoft Word, and LOIS Legal Research checks case law.

Deposition tools

Schedule depositions and book court reporters, get live transcription and follow-up suggestions from Depo Copilot, and keep summarized transcripts in a searchable library.

Intake with Lead Docket

Captures and qualifies leads, tracks referral fees, takes online payments and moves signed clients into case files, with AI lead summaries as an option.

Timekeeping, billing and payments

Multiple timers, time tracked from email, LEDES billing codes and bulk invoicing, with Filevine Payments for online payment that it says is IOLTA compliant.

Smart Advocate

WorkPlans and Automated Procedures

Checklists that automate routine steps at each stage of a case.

Document templates

Templates are built from Word, Excel or PDF forms and filled from case data with 4,000+ merge codes.

Built-in AI

Summaries of cases, records and depositions, plus transcription and translation.

Outlook integration

A plugin files email into cases and syncs deadlines to Outlook calendars.

Mobile apps

Apps for iPhone, iPad and Android search cases, track time and add appointments.

Cloud or server

A hosted Cloud edition, or a Server edition you own and maintain.

Filevine

Pricing could not be confirmed. See filevine.com.

Smart Advocate

Pricing could not be confirmed. See smartadvocate.com.