Family law software for firms that work from a retainer

Family law is the practice where the client is having one of the worst years of their life. A divorce, a custody fight, a support modification or a protective order brings in two sides of one family, new partners, grandparents and, often, the same people again a few years later. Clients call often and want answers fast. Financial disclosure means a stack of bank statements, pay stubs and tax returns from someone who may not have seen them before. Temporary orders hearings come up quickly, and the other side may be reading your client’s email.

What a family law firm needs from its software

A conflict check run before anyone says much. In a small town, or a small practice area, the other spouse may have called the firm first. A conflict check that only looks at signed clients misses the person who had a consultation last month. It has to search leads and prospective clients too, and it has to find a person under a married name and a maiden name.

Fees that fit the rules. ABA Model Rule 1.5(d)(1) prohibits a fee in a domestic relations matter that is contingent on securing a divorce or on the amount of alimony, support or a property settlement. Family work is therefore hourly against a retainer, or a flat fee for an uncontested matter. Under Model Rule 1.15(c), a retainer paid in advance goes into trust and is withdrawn only as fees are earned. Many firms ask the client to top the retainer back up when it runs low, which means watching every client’s trust balance.

Time records that will hold up. A family law bill gets read closely, sometimes by a judge deciding whether the other side should pay part of it. Entries need to be specific, in small increments, and tied to the matter.

Private communication. A message sent to a shared family email account can do real damage. The client needs one place to read updates and send documents.

Deadlines. Hearings, discovery responses, mediation dates and any classes the court orders.

What Coil does for family law firms

• A conflict check built for families. Exact and fuzzy matching across contacts, parties, notes, messages, documents and leads. Alternate names, maiden names and DBAs are matched, and the results show every role a name has ever held, so the opposing party on an old matter is not mistaken for a new client. A waiver is recorded with a reason and an audit row.
• Intake that cannot skip the check. A web lead converts to a client and matter only after the conflict check has run.
• Engagement letters signed in the browser. With a certificate of who signed, when, from where and what, and the signed copy sent to both sides.
• Retainers in trust. Each deposit is recorded against the client and matter, a transfer that would take a client below zero is refused, and the account reconciles three ways against the bank. A matter can carry a trust minimum, and the dashboard lists the matters whose balance has fallen below it, so you know whose retainer needs replenishing.
• Time and expenses. A timer with six-minute rounding, entries in hours or minutes, UTBMS codes if you want them, expenses with categories and a browser extension that suggests time from what you had open.
• A client portal in English or Spanish. The client logs in with a one-use link, sees only their own matters and can upload the statements and pay stubs you asked for. Messages go both ways and stay on the matter.
• Documents and deadlines. Versions, folders, tags and text search on the financial disclosures, and deadlines that reach your calendar through an iCal feed.

One practical note on the portal: the login link goes to the client’s email. If a client shares an email account with the other spouse, set them up with an address only they can read.

What Coil does not do for family law

Coil has no child support or spousal support calculator, no state guideline worksheets and no financial affidavit builder. It does not divide a marital estate or produce a property schedule. It has no parenting plan builder and no co-parenting app for the parents to use.

Invoicing and online payments are in Phase 2, in testing. Today Coil records the time and holds the retainer, but it does not send the invoice. Court rule sets are generic starters, court e-filing is in Phase 3, and there are no mobile apps yet; Coil runs in a phone browser, with screens laid out for a desktop.

Who this suits

A family practice that bills by the hour and lives or dies by its conflict check and its trust ledger will find the core of its week here. A practice that wants its software to run the support numbers will need a separate tool for that, and it is better to know that before moving in.

Last checked October 28, 2026.