Buy help for the job that is holding up your team. If calls go unanswered, look at answering tools. If medical records sit unread, look at record review. If written discovery takes too long, look at tools built for those requests.
A tool can do several jobs. That does not mean you need to buy every part of it. Start with one job, ask for a result your staff can check and get a price for that work.
Start with the job
Ask your team: What work is waiting, and what would “done” look like? Use that answer to choose a short list.
| Work that is waiting | A finished result | Examples to look at | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calls when staff cannot answer | Call details and a clear next step for staff | Lighthouse | Who takes a transfer, what notes staff get and who calls back |
| Medical records already in your files | A treatment timeline linked to the records | Eve Medical Overviews, EvenUp MedChrons | Can you open the record behind each date and fact? Who reviews the work? |
| Written discovery requests | A draft your lawyer can review and finish | Briefpoint | Does it use your case files and client answers? What still needs a lawyer’s decision? |
| A question about the law | An answer with legal sources you can read | Clio Work | Does it use the right court or state? Do the cited cases support the answer? |
These are examples, not a best-to-worst list or a full list of legal AI tools. Some companies cover several rows. Eve, EvenUp and Clio also market intake or phone tools, so their companies can overlap with Lighthouse even when the job above is different.
Calls need a handoff
An answering tool should leave your staff ready to act. Ask where the caller’s name, number, injury and treatment details will go. Then ask who takes over when the caller wants a person.
Lighthouse uses your firm’s intake questions and can try the people your firm chooses for transfers. It provides AI answering, not an outside team of receptionists. With a configured Clio connection, it saves a contact and call note; the full call record stays in Lighthouse.
If you want people from the service to take over, include that in your search and quote. Our voice AI buying guide compares those service types and shows how to check an answered and unanswered transfer.
Do not choose a phone tool just because a later part of the case is slow. It will not fix a stack of medical records waiting for review.
Records need source pages
First decide whether you need to get records or read records you already have. Those are separate tasks. Our medical record retrieval comparison covers the first one.
For records you have, Eve describes a medical overview with visits in date order, bills and missing items. Its process includes checking the overview against the source files and exporting to Word or CSV. Eve’s overview guide.
EvenUp describes a medical chronology, a list of treatment events in date order. Its MedChrons page offers two paths: AI work that your team reviews, and AI work with professional review. Optional nurse review is listed with the second path. Ask which path your quote includes. MedChrons options.
For either tool, open several dates in the result and go back to the records. Check a correction, an uncertain date and a missing bill. A polished summary is not enough if your staff cannot find the page behind it.
Discovery needs client facts
Discovery is the exchange of case information. Written requests may ask your client to answer questions or produce documents.
Briefpoint says it can use case files and client answers to draft Word responses, including references to numbered document pages. Those page labels are often called Bates numbers. Ask it to show how a draft answer connects to the material you gave it. Briefpoint’s product page.
Your lawyer still needs to decide what to admit, object to or produce. A medical summary is not a finished discovery response. Nor does a saved Word file show that the answers are complete.
Our Briefpoint and EsquireTek guide looks more closely at the difference between software your staff use and help carrying out the work.
Research needs legal sources
Finding a fact in a medical record is different from finding the law that applies to a case.
Clio Work’s research guide describes an answer with legal authorities and source excerpts. It tells users to open the full source and check how later decisions have treated a case before relying on it. Clio Work research steps.
Ask for a demo using the place where your case will be heard. Then have a lawyer read the cited sources. Check whether a source supports the statement beside it and whether it still applies. Do this before using the answer in advice or a filing.
Use one small case
For a first demo, keep the task small enough to check from start to finish.
Consider Big Apple Personal Injury, a fictional firm, and Maya, its client. Maya says her crash was June 3. An emergency room note shows treatment on June 4. Her bill has not arrived.
Big Apple’s current delay is medical review. Staff already answer calls and have the emergency room note. The next purchase should help them check those records, rather than replace a phone service that is working.
Example · Check the finished work
- Caller report
- Crash on June 3
- Medical record
- Emergency room visit on June 4; treatment described on page 2
- Expected timeline
- June 4 treatment linked to page 2; crash date kept separate
- Missing bill
- Marked as missing, with no made-up total
- Staff check
- Open page 2 and compare the date and treatment with the entry
If the firm instead needed discovery help, it would add the actual request and Maya’s answers to the demo. If it needed legal research, it would choose a legal question and court. Use the same case where helpful, but ask each tool to do the job it is built for.
Try before you buy
Use these steps with your short list:
- Pick one task. Write down the files or call details that go in, what should come out and who checks it. For Big Apple, that is a treatment timeline from the emergency room note, checked by a paralegal.
- Agree on the sample. Use made-up files for an early demo, or files your firm has approved for that service. Before sharing real client data, have the person responsible check the contract, access, storage and data-use terms.
- Ask for the whole job. Watch the input, the result and the staff review. For Big Apple, open the timeline entry and page 2. Do not stop at a screen full of text.
- Check what is missing. The bill should stay missing. If a date or statement conflicts with another file, your reviewer should be able to find both sources and fix the result.
- Save it where staff work. Try the file or record your team will use next. Open the saved copy. Check its dates, page references and any links that need a paid account.
- Price that same task. Ask what your actual volume costs, including staff accounts, usage, review services, setup and extras. Compare quotes for the same work and billing period.
For phone answering, our cost guide explains call-based, minute-based and flat monthly bills. For medical review, ask whether the quote includes professional review or leaves it to your team. EvenUp describes case-based pricing; that alone does not give you a dollar total for your firm.
Choose the tool that helps your team finish the task with work they can check. Expand to another job after you know what the first one costs and what it leaves for staff to do.