Our rating is based on our subjective judgment. Use our resources—including our rating and community ratings and reviews—to find the best fit for your firm.
Community Rating: 5/5 (based on 1 rating)
The community rating is based on the average of the community reviews below.
Composite Rating: 4.6/5
The composite rating is a weighted average of our rating and the community ratings below.
MerusCase is customizable, cloud-based law practice management software that’s best for small to medium-sized litigation firms. However, it’s probably not a good fit for firms looking to integrate third-party services.
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MerusCase Highlights
Customization. While most cloud-based software is built to be used as-is, take it or leave it, MerusCase is built to be customized. If the built-in case types don’t work for your firm, MerusCase will work with you to build custom case types. Plus, you can add custom document templates, task workflows, and reports.
All-in-one. MerusCase includes everything you need to manage your cases, including a full email client and accounting package.
Robust reporting. Whether you want a list of upcoming client birthdays, you want to break down realization rates by originating attorney, or you want to know who is your most productive employee this month, you can do it in MerusCase. And if you can’t, the customer support team will build you the report you need.
Helpful tools. MerusCase includes helpful features and tools for things like batch scanning and referral tracking. If you handle personal injury cases, you might appreciate the settlement distribution calculator. If you do family law, you might like the custody arrangement tool.
Pricing
MerusCase is a simple $79/user/month annually. That includes a hands-on onboarding process during which the team will customize MerusCase for your needs.
For law practice management software, the following are essential features, and you should therefore expect to see a check in every box in this section.
Case/Matter Management
Matter management is the defining feature of law practice management software, of course. However, some software is targeted at specific practice areas and may implement case management in different ways in order to manage information specific to those practice areas.
✓
Client/Contact Management
Managing clients and other contacts is a core feature of law practice management software.
✓
Task Management
Basic task management includes creating tasks with due dates that can be associated with cases/matters and assigned to different lawyers. Some products stick to pretty basic task management, while others offer enough features to make any Getting Things Done devotee happy.
✓
Calendar
As with email, this feature means a full calendar client, not just an integration with Outlook or Google Calendar.
✓
Timekeeping
Timekeeping is a core feature of practice management software, essential for lawyers who bill by the hour but useful even for those who don't.
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Additional Features
Conflict Checking
An actual conflict checker is more than just a search box. This applies to software that actually has a conflict checking feature. Implementation varies, but at a minimum you should be able to search the entire database for matching names. It should check for conflicts accurately and intuitively, allow for a lateral hire to input their conflict database into the system, work quickly when new clients call, and comply with the rules of professional conduct for checking conflicts.
✓
Email Client
Does it include a full email client? (Alternative solutions that don't amount to an email client, like plugins for Outlook or Gmail, do not earn a check for this feature. See software integrations, below.))
✓
Text Messaging
Can you send and receive text messages and associate them with your matters?
✗
Document Management
Basic document management allows you to add documents and associate them with your cases/matters.
✓
Document Assembly
Loading your firm’s document templates into your law practice management software can save time and ensure consistency. This check means basic document assembly suitable for form letters, invoices, etc. For advanced document assembly, you’ll probably need additional software.
✓
Secure Client Portal
✓
Basic Bookkeeping
This means basic checkbook register–style bookkeeping, which is more limited than full accounting. You should be able to keep track of your operating accounts and reconcile your balances, but you may still need full accounting software.
✓
Trust Accounting
This means you can track your client trust accounts, including expenses and payments. It is normal to see trust accounting without basic bookkeeping or full accounting, in which case you will need something else for accounting.
✓
Full Accounting
Some software includes full double-entry accounting features, making additional accounting software unnecessary.
✓
Billing & Invoicing
Does the software allow you to send bills or invoices?
✓
Online Payments
Payment processing is increasingly offered either as an included or add-on feature, especially with cloud-based law practice management software.
✗
Software Integrations
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Open API
✓
Things You Might Want to Know
No native apps. MerusCase does not have an app for iOS or Android. What it does have is a fully responsive web app, and the first time you visit the web app from your mobile device, you will be prompted to “install” the app by creating a home screen shortcut. It’s not quite the same as a native app, but it allows you to get the job done.
Task templates. Like many law practice management software options, MerusCase allows you to create task workflows. Unlike many, task workflows in MerusCase are quite powerful. You can trigger a task workflow on any activity in MerusCase, like a calendar event, document added to the file, or anything else. It’s pretty cool.
OCR. MerusCase will run OCR on documents you upload and allow you to search within your documents.
HIPAA compliant. This includes the secure client portal for sharing messages and documents with your clients.
Who MerusCase is For
According to MerusCase, its target demographic is small firms looking to scale up, and medium-sized firms. It considers its sweet spot to be firms of about 15–50 lawyers, but has clients with as many as 300 lawyers. The feature set is definitely geared towards litigation firms, which makes sense since MerusCase was originally built for workers compensation firms.
Our firm researched many online legal software companies and we decided to move forward with Merus. Moving to a cloud based system was challenging at first, but once our staff began to become comfortable with the new system, there is no looking back. The training Merus provided was well worth it. The customer service and tech support are amazing. The interface is easy to navigate.
What did we do before Merus?
Our firm researched many online legal software companies and we decided to move forward with Merus. Moving to a cloud based system was challenging at first, but once our staff began to become comfortable with the new system, there is no looking back. The training Merus provided was well worth it. The customer service and tech support are amazing. The interface is easy to navigate.