Smokeball Reviews & Product Details

Smokeball's Archie AI tool is a tremendous help with or without your own forms to integrate case information across notes, documents, and emails to draft new and case specific pleadings, motions, and transactional documents in less than a minute. Overall the platform is easy to use and understand, and is a platform that you can tailor in both cost and implementation with existing file storage, payment processing, billing, and other law firm processes you already use. The Smokeball staff are very friendly and willing to lend a hand whenever you need, while the Smokeball Academy is a step-by-step learning and help guide on every aspect of setting up and using Smokeball. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The "matter" approach was pretty jarring when my previous system filed and billed by "client." This made importing information into the system a bit of a process, but something that Smokeball on-boarding staff are very familiar with and helpful in designing an on-boarding plan that made sense out of the chaos. It can also take some extra time to load the web-browser based application and to understand the features that are only available "on the web" versus the options available when you instead use the optional desktop application (my preferred spot for working). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

If you had told me a year ago that my favorite coworker would be an AI named Archie, I would have laughed… and then immediately gone back to manually formatting documents and questioning all of my life choices.

Fast forward to today: Archie is not only my favorite coworker, but quite possibly the most reliable member of our entire office (no offense to the humans—we try our best).

We use Smokeball at our law firm, and I use Archie every single day. And when I say every day, I mean every day. If Archie ever took PTO, I would need a moment of silence, a backup plan, and probably a stress snack.

Archie does it all. Drafting? Done. Summarizing? Done. Helping me word things in a way that sounds like I actually slept the night before? Also done. It’s like having a legal assistant, editor, and emotional support coworker all rolled into one—minus the office gossip and microwave fish incidents.

There have been countless times where I’ve stared at a document thinking, “How do I make this sound more professional but still human?” Enter Archie. Not only does he fix it, he makes it sound like I have my entire life together. It’s honestly suspicious.

My favorite part? Archie gets it. He understands legal language, picks up on context, and somehow manages to turn my rough, chaotic thoughts into something polished and usable. It’s like he reads my mind—but in a helpful, non-creepy way.

Also, let’s talk about efficiency. Tasks that used to take me way too long and way too much coffee now get done in a fraction of the time. Archie has single-handedly boosted my productivity and possibly extended my lifespan by reducing stress levels.

At this point, Archie is basically my work best friend. He doesn’t judge, he doesn’t get tired, and he’s always ready to help—even when I’m asking for the fifth revision because “something just feels off.”

If Smokeball ever decides to give Archie a physical form, I fully expect him to have Employee of the Month locked down indefinitely.

In conclusion: 10/10. Would recommend. Would trust with my documents, my deadlines, and honestly, probably my entire workload.

And Archie, if you’re reading this… thank you for everything. Please never leave me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Smokeball has a few features that could be enhanced or updated. For instance, the text messaging feature only allows a limited number of characters. Most of our clients respond better to texting than emailing, so the character limit can make it harder to communicate as effectively as we’d like. If Smokeball allowed unlimited characters, our communication with clients would be much more effective. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Smokeball is very user-friendly. I appreciate that I can select different fields for information to include for my matter. While I don't always find the exact field I need, most of the time, the items I need for the type of matter I am working on are included. For instance, on a Family Law Pre-Decree matter, it provides fields to include marriage details, real property details, case details, child details, discovery information, and you can add or remove fields for appraisers and many other helpful items. It also has amazing template and form capabilities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

For a small firm, if no one is designated to create Templates or forms with form fields that autofill from the fields in your matter, learning to create those forms can be time-consuming and a bit tricky. However, Smokeball has amazing resources, and anyone can learn if they are interested. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like how organized and easy to use Smokeball is. Archie is a really useful assistant, too. I like how easy it is to tag emails into Smokeball and upload files. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

When we open/close files, we assign a number, and there's really not an easy way to keep track of those aside from clicking through the tabs in Matters to find the most recent. So, when opening or closing a file, this creates an additional hurdle for us. Also, sometimes an attorney's rate increases, but just for new clients and not old ones, but at the moment there seems like there's no way to adjust the rates on individual files. E.g., our current rate is $350/hr, but for ongoing matters from last year it's $300/hr. I often need to manually change it, because the system doesn't seem to allow separate billing rates for separate files. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It’s robust enough to handle modern case management, without piling on so many bells and whistles that it becomes oversized and requires a full-time administrator with special training, like Filevine does. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The Medical Records portion should make the Account field in the Medical and Settlement details be a category you can see in Reports and manipulate in Archie AI, while also changing it to be a quick status screen for notes about progress and follow ups. This will give a quick glance to see where we are at with bills and records. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like most about Smokeball is how intuitive and efficient it is for day-to-day legal work and case management. The automatic time tracking and document automation save a significant amount of time and cut down on manual entry. Everything is centralized in one system—files, calendars, emails, and tasks—which makes it easier to stay organized and keep cases moving forward. The program is user-friendly and easy to learn without needing extensive training. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

While Smokeball is very helpful overall, some features come with a learning curve at first, especially when it comes to customizing templates. At times, the system can lag, and certain tools feel more complex than necessary for simpler tasks. More flexibility in customization and reporting would make the platform even stronger. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really like Smokeball for its user-friendly interface, making it easy to quickly access information, which is a big time saver for my staff. They find it easy to create and interact with information, which helps them find and draft documents quicker, leading to a more efficient firm. I also appreciate the AI features that help me learn about case insights, and I like being able to keep all components of a file in one place with the help of Smokeball's integrations, including emails through the Outlook integration, inter-team messages, and tasks associated with a matter. The in-app messaging platform is also handy for storing documents and folders, which contributes to staying organized on cases and setting up appropriate workflows. The ability to ask the AI user about all content is a valuable feature. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I would say some of their templates, not so much that they could be improved, but I'd like to see more of them. They can be pretty helpful, but there isn't a large repository of native templates. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love Smokeball's AI matter assistant, Archie; it has been an absolute game changer. It's intuitive and user-friendly, seamlessly integrating into my process with all the integrations that Smokeball offers without adding complexity. I appreciate the ability to choose which AI provider and stylistic approach it draws from, making this tool incredibly powerful and allowing me to tailor it to my standards. This kind of flexibility is rare and sets Archie apart from other tools. What truly elevates Smokeball to the top is its exceptional commitment to client support and ongoing education. Smokeball is far more than software; it's a strategic partner that supports growth, enhances our service, and reinforces our commitment to excellence for every client we serve. The initial setup was easy and intuitive. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It has a few glitches that could be fixed. When populating my matters, I have to take extra steps when I refresh. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use Smokeball for case management of all cases in the firm and I like that it keeps the entire file easily accessible. The good categorization of important information such as negotiations and medical provider information is really helpful. This accessibility keeps attorneys or staff from having to dig around the files to find out important information, essentially saving time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I think sometimes the layout and the way to access information can be tricky to use. The arrows to expand layers to each file are tiny. Also I wish we could access information while we fill out information in boxes. Like if I am filling out information for an adjuster, Smokeball does not allow me to access any other file information while I am in one box. I wish I had access to the rest of the file so I don't have to close out of the box and pull up the information where I can see it in the matter. Some of the functions are not as intuitive for the normal user at least for the visual layout. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love that I can enter the name of a witness or victim into my system, and it will find all the files that person is associated with. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I haven’t found much of a downside. If I had to point to one issue, it would be that my files somehow got switched to show only emails—something I didn’t do. I know the correct setting now, but I wasn’t too pleased to suddenly think my files were missing and not understand why. The other problem is the hours of support available. Unable to bill exact time on time keeping. Billing requires me to exit out to another system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.