Case management software earns its keep on the days you are not thinking about a case. A deadline entered once and never seen again, a task assigned to someone who left, a document that came in by email and never reached the file: those are the things that turn into a bad week months later. The software’s job is to keep each matter complete without anyone rebuilding it by hand.
What a small firm needs from case management
A solo or small firm rarely needs a workflow engine. It needs one place per matter where the facts, the people, the dates and the paper live together, and a short list each morning of what is due. It needs the record to make sense to whoever picks the file up next, including the lawyer covering while you are in trial. And it needs a way to get the data back out, because the firm will outlast any one piece of software.
What Coil does
- Matters and contacts with custom fields. Each matter links to its client, the other parties and the people working it. Every role a person has held on any matter stays on their record, which is also what the conflict check searches.
- Tasks that stay assigned. Per-matter tasks with assignees and due dates, overdue tracking, and standard task sets per practice area. Running a task set a second time does not create duplicates.
- Deadlines from a trigger date. Enter the trigger and Coil builds the chain of dates that follow from it, each one landing on a business day. Limitation dates are derived from what the matter record says. The court rule sets that ship today are generic starters, and real jurisdiction sets are in the next phase.
- Calendar feeds. Firm and personal iCal feeds carry your deadlines into Google or Outlook, correct across time zones and daylight saving changes.
- Documents on the matter. Uploads are versioned, folders and tags keep them sorted, text is extracted so files can be searched, and anything you choose can be shared to the client portal.
- Messages on the matter. Portal messages, and texts sent through your own Twilio account, are filed to the matter they belong to.
- Practice-area modules. Personal injury adds providers, records and billing requests, liens with reduction letters, a demand package with bound exhibits and a settlement worksheet that posts to trust. Criminal defense adds multiple charges per matter with attorney-entered ranges, court date chains, a speedy-trial count that says what it counts from, and a disposition PDF. Discovery sets and deposition summaries, cited to page and line, work across both.
- Roles that hold. Owner, attorney, paralegal and readonly roles are enforced on every request rather than only in the menu, and every destructive action goes into the audit log.
Switching in
Most firms looking at case management already have cases somewhere else. Coil’s importer takes a Clio or MyCase export: contacts, matters, time, tasks and calendar entries from CSV, and documents from a ZIP of matter folders. You preview the data, map the columns and then commit. Rows that fail come back in a file that says why, so you can fix them and run the import again. A second run updates what is already there instead of creating duplicates, and a trust row that would take a client below zero is refused on the way in.
What Coil does not do
There is no board view showing which stage every matter is in; that is a further-out idea. There are no mobile apps: Coil runs in a phone browser, but its screens are laid out for a desktop. Court e-filing is not built and needs a filing vendor first. Docket tracking across courts is further out still. Email filing from your mailbox into the matter is built but is waiting on a mailbox to prove it against, so do not plan on it yet. The AI assistant that writes matter summaries is in testing, not available today.
Where it fits
Coil is hosted, so there is nothing to install or update, and each firm gets its own database. Tools you do not use can be switched off, and they leave your menus and matter screens without deleting anything you recorded. The full firm export (the database file, CSVs and every document) opens without Coil. Coil is free during the beta, and beta firms keep founding pricing when paid plans start.
Questions
Can I use Coil for personal injury or criminal defense cases?
Yes. Both modules are available now. Personal injury covers providers, records and billing requests, liens, a demand package with exhibits and a settlement worksheet that posts to trust. Criminal defense covers charges with ranges, court date chains, a speedy-trial count and a disposition summary.
Does Coil calculate court deadlines for my jurisdiction?
Not yet. Coil builds deadline chains from a trigger date and lands them on business days, but the court rule sets it ships today are generic starters. Real state and federal rule sets are in the next phase, so check every computed date against your court's rules.
Is there a mobile app?
No. Coil runs in a phone browser, but its screens are laid out for a desktop, and nothing is in the app stores.
Can I bring my cases over from Clio or MyCase?
Yes. The importer takes their CSV exports, plus documents as a ZIP of matter folders. You preview and map the columns before anything is committed, and any row that fails comes back in a file that explains why.
Last checked October 28, 2026.