Smokeball

What to ask before you buy

1. What does the plan include, and does pricing scale with firm size?
2. What exactly does the AI limit access to, in practice?
3. Where is my firm's data hosted, and in which region?
4. What does migrating from my current platform involve?

Limits in the record

• Pricing depends on plan, firm size, and features, so the record cannot state a single figure.
• The checked pages name AWS as the host but do not state a specific region.
• The platform is the system of record, so migration cost is high.

How it sits in Practice management AI

This is one of the stronger published positions in the category. It competes with Clio Manage and MyCase on small-firm workflow, and differentiates on the specificity of its security statement.

Reading the vendor’s wording

The vendor publishes more than most peers: ISO 27001 certification, AWS hosting, AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.2 or higher in transit, multi-factor authentication, role-based access controls, and continuous monitoring. It also states that the AI limits access by firm, matter, and user permissions and that customer data is not provided to third parties for AI model training.

How to evaluate it in a trial

1. Ask what the AI access limits mean in practice on your firm's matters.
2. Confirm the hosting region, since the page names AWS without a region.
3. Test the automatic time capture against a week of real work.
4. Map the migration including trust accounting records.

What adopting it costs

The switching cost is high, because the platform holds matters, documents, billing, and trust records. A migration has to move each and keep the trust records reconcilable through the change.

Closest alternative

Clio Manage — The closest alternative. Both are small-firm platforms with published security positions; Smokeball publishes ISO 27001 and encryption detail while Clio publishes SOC examinations.