Home > Legal Software > MerusCase > MerusCase vs CARET Legal

MerusCase vs CARET Legal

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Our analysts compared MerusCase vs CARET Legal based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Legal Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Overview Pricing Benefits & Features Analyst Ratings Comparison Charts User Ratings Analyst Summary Screenshots
MerusCase Software Tool
SelectHub Award Winner
CARET Legal Software Tool
SelectHub Award Winner
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Product Basics

Analyst Rating

we're gathering data
Detailed Analysis

User Sentiment

Excellent User Sentiment (157 Reviews)

Analyst Rating

86 Detailed Analysis

User Sentiment

Excellent User Sentiment (345 Reviews)
Meruscase is a scalable cloud-based solution for firms of all sizes to save time on various practice operations: automate documents, track billable time and manage calendaring, email and legal cases. It provides 360 degree visibility of relevant case data with robust predictive searching modules. Users can batch scan documents and auto-populate forms using custom templates. Maximize revenues with intuitive time tracking, customized e-billing and comprehensive bookkeeping.

Administrators can delegate tasks, while team members can collaborate on them with increased transparency using color-coded tiered calendaring. Leverage 35 built-in reporting modules to gain data-driven insights on billing and cash flow patterns, workloads, performance and more. Keeps data secure with SSL encryption and regular backups. The vendor also offers automatic updates, seamless migration, personalized training, unlimited cloud storage, remote accessibility and dedicated support.
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CARET Legal (formerly Zola Suite) is a cloud-based practice management solution with integrated matter management, CRM, time tracking and billing capabilities. Businesses can centralize all firm and client data, track time and expenses, and manage operating and trust accounts. It helps prepare digital invoices, run financial reports and connect legal matters with associated contacts, documents, communications and tasks to get complete visibility over active cases. The built-in legal calendar tracks important events and touchpoints in real time.

It complies with SOC 2 auditing standards and secures sensitive information via military-grade encryption and user permissions. Companies can expedite client onboarding with trigger-based workflows and intelligent forms. It integrates with third-party applications for continued scalability.
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$39/User, Monthly
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$150/User, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Assistance

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Product Insights

  • Quick Access: Locate specific documents, client information and case records easily with purpose-built data management tools. 
  • Automated Data Collection: Automatically collect, review and store case documents and legal records with AI-enabled scanning tools, eliminating human errors and omissions. 
  • Universally Accessible Training: Prepare tailored training routines and timelines with an open knowledge base. 
  • Manage Work Comp: Streamline workers' compensation adjudication cases by accessing Jet File and EAMS (Electronic Adjudication Management System). 
  • Easy Data Recovery: Recover data at a moment’s notice with regular backups. 
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  • Easier Data Management: A centrally accessible data repository provides a single source of truth for all employees and team members. 
  • Prompt Customer Support: Offers multiple support options to clients with quick response times. 
  • Flexible Accounting: Provides in-house accounting tools and integration with QuickBooks. 
  • Onboarding Support: Minimize time to market with dedicated onboarding and data migration support. 
  • Better Insights and Decisions: Comprehensively diagnose the firm’s financial health, productivity, profitability and efficiency metrics with powerful built-in reports. 
  • Global Reach: The mobile app provides unrestricted access to all features, including time tracking, matter management, emails, payment portal, billing and OCR capabilities. 
  • Seamless Integration: CARET Legal seamlessly integrates with your existing systems, streamlining workflows and eliminating data silos.
  • Enhanced Efficiency: Automated processes and intuitive dashboards empower your team to work smarter, saving time and resources.
  • Improved Collaboration: Secure document sharing, real-time communication, and collaborative workspaces foster seamless teamwork.
  • Advanced Analytics: Data-driven insights provide actionable intelligence, empowering you to make informed decisions and optimize operations.
  • Exceptional Security: Industry-leading security measures protect sensitive data, ensuring compliance and safeguarding your clients' information.
  • Tailored to Your Needs: Customizable settings and flexible configurations adapt CARET Legal to the unique requirements of your practice.
  • Enhanced Client Experience: Client portals and self-service options provide transparency and empower clients to actively participate in their cases.
  • Timely Reporting: Automated reporting capabilities deliver real-time visibility into key metrics, enabling proactive decision-making.
  • Expert Support: Our dedicated team of legal experts provides ongoing support, ensuring a smooth implementation and maximizing your ROI.
  • Future-Proof Innovation: CARET Legal is continuously updated with the latest technologies and best practices, ensuring your firm remains at the forefront of legal innovation.
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  • Document Management: Connect legal documents with associated matters, cases, contacts and assignments. Keep track of pending documents and case status with regular reporting. 
    • Form Automation: Pull case data from associated matters like client names, addresses, case notes, numbers and more to automatically fill out legal forms and documents. Convert documents into PDF court forms or Word format, as per firm requirements. 
    • Predictive Search: Search for specific legal documents with stackable search filters and the Global Search tool. Turbo-caching predictive algorithms search associated matters for any and all relevant documents. 
    • Batch Scanning: Scan and upload multiple sets of documentation at once. Process the records into single and multi-page documents and sort them into relevant case files. 
  • Time and Expense Tracking: Interact directly with the time tracking and billing portals to identify billable hours and track payments, year-end reconciliations, balance forwards and overpayments. Create and manage separate trust and operating accounts in accordance with industry regulations. 
    • Time Tracking: Track billable hours spent on client activities like meetings, hearings, communications and documentation. Add notes to specific time entries and retroactively edit the ledger in case of errors. 
    • Billing Management: Provide clients with versatile payment methods supported by Ledes, ESIS, Chubb, PDF and more. 
    • Reporting: Generate reports based on preset data fields to create insights into the firm’s cash flow patterns, reliable clients, profitable practice areas and productivity. 
  • Teamwork and Collaboration: Synchronize calendar and email entries for seamless collaboration between team members and clients. 
    • Email Management: Integrate existing email clients with the in-platform tool to automatically organize all correspondence. Link emails to relevant matters and track related communications between team members and clients. 
    • Calendar Management: Stay on top of deadlines, events, hearings and appointments with synchronized calendar entries. Connect events to associated legal matters and allow access to everyone on the case files. 
    • Task Management: Assign tasks to team members, track individual attorney contributions and set up alerts for pending tasks. 
  • Backup and Security: Secure firm data and documentation with daily backups performed nightly. Updates are issued regularly and are easy to install. 
    • Cloud Storage: Store an unlimited number of legal documents and files and access them globally from any device with an internet connection. 
    • Security: Protect firm information from vulnerabilities with SSL encryption. It is HIPAA compliant. 
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  • Matter Management: Use the matter dashboard to track active cases in real time. Create custom fields with check-boxes, dates, pick lists and currency and record all matter-specific activities, including time entries. Limit access to sensitive information on a per-matter basis and categorize matters based on practice area, responsible attorney, custom fields and open date. 
  • Intelligent Email: Automatically file emails to associated case files and add time entries for sent emails. The proprietary smart suggest feature locates associated contacts. Convert emails to tasks, matters and billable hours. 
  • Integrations: Supported integrations include G Suite, Exchange, Microsoft 365, RPost, Outlook, Google Calendar, NetDocuments, OneDrive, LawPay and QuickBooks. 
  • Calendar: Send ICS invites, create time entries, set private events, mark recurring events and follow up on team obligations. Set up daily, weekly or monthly schedules for report delivery. 
    • Rules-Based Calendaring: Integrate with LawToolBox to automatically track procedural, administrative and regulatory deadlines. 
    • Date Calculator: Factor in days out, federal holidays and weekends while calculating dates for templates and deadlines. 
  • Legal Contacts: Create cards and lists for various legal contacts, including clients, prospects, witnesses, opposition counsels and referral sources. Generate custom fields and categorize them based on contact role, created by and contact type. 
  • Legal Documentation: Store multiple legal documents depending on the subscription plan. Access instant preview of documents, in-document search, complete version history and file locking and tagging capabilities. Create matter-specific document folders and securely share files via the Caseway portal. 
    • Word Ribbon Plugin: Create, open and save documents directly from Microsoft Word. 
  • CRM: Filter leads by source, practice area and potential revenue and convert them to matters. Identify successful referral sources with intelligent metrics. Embed intake forms into the firm’s website. Automatically create lead entries and generate retainer agreements and standard documents.  
  • Task Management: Tag, sort, filter and create sub-tasks based on requirements. Implement standardized procedures using task templates. Delegate tasks to team members, turn on notifications and assign deadlines. 
  • Client Portal: Allow clients to exchange case-related documents via a 256-bit encrypted channel. The payment portal can process both debit and credit card transactions. Request and approve eSignatures instantly. 
  • Mobile App: Available for both Android and iOS users. Insurers can design custom logos, send and receive documents, share invoices and receive payments. Secures access via fingerprint authentication and Apple TouchID. 
  • Time and Billing: Choose from over 11 ways to create time entries. Build custom invoices with support for UTBMS codes and LEDES format. Run financial reports, develop accounts payable and trust checks, process payments and more. Manages vendor bills and supports split, consolidated and separate billing frequencies. 
    • Time Entry: Create automated time entries and assign “no charge” and “no charge don’t show” labels. Designate round-up increments and log time entries in decimals or HH:MM format. 
    • Rate Cards: Create rate cards with custom user rates. Allow clients to inherit rate cards and set matter-specific discount rates. 
    • Expenses: Automatically track all expenses. Charge soft costs and import copy activities from photocopier devices via the uniFLOW importer. 
  • Business Accounting: Earmark part of payments for expenses and to timekeepers. Set up firm-wide budgets to predict revenue on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. Run year-end reconciliations and add time entries for individual transactions. 
    • Reports: Run built-in client, compensation, productivity, accounting, trust and vendor reports. 
  • Trust Accounting: Manage trust accounts separately. Accept payments via checks and debit and credit cards. Administrators can withdraw money from trust accounts to avoid overdrawing from operating accounts. 
    • Retainer/Trust Fund: Create retainers for trust and operating accounts and get notifications when the balance falls below the minimum. View and print ledgers and trust account summaries with sub-ledgers. Run three-way reconciliation reports. 
  • Smart Settlement: Intelligently manage settlement workflows, including percentages and memo generation for all involved parties. Create a settlement statement for every settlement memo. Capture expenses incurred by the firm, clients and third parties in a detailed value list.  
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Product Ranking

#34

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#46

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 157 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 345 reviews
94%
of users recommend this product

MerusCase has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 94% when considering 157 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

94%
of users recommend this product

CARET Legal has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 94% when considering 345 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

4.3 (4)
n/a
4.6 (5)
4.8 (114)
4.7 (70)
4.64 (119)
4.7 (78)
4.6 (112)

Awards

MerusCase stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated CARET Legal and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Billing and Payments and Task Management. CARET Legal stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award
Billing and Payments Award
Task Management Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Intuitive Interface: Many users find MerusCase easy to navigate and use, even without prior experience with legal software. They appreciate the logical layout and straightforward design.
Robust Features: MerusCase offers a comprehensive suite of tools that streamline various aspects of legal practice, such as calendar management, task assignment, and document storage. This allows lawyers to manage their cases efficiently.
Strong Customer Support: Users consistently praise MerusCase's responsive and helpful customer support team. They appreciate the quick response times and knowledgeable assistance provided.
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Robust Legal Case Management: CARET Legal offers a comprehensive suite of tools for managing cases, including document management, calendaring, and time tracking, streamlining legal operations.
Excellent Collaboration Features: Its intuitive interface fosters collaboration among team members, allowing seamless sharing of documents, notes, and tasks, enhancing teamwork.
Customized Reporting: CARET Legal's customizable reporting capabilities provide tailored insights into case progress, resource allocation, and billing, enabling data-driven decision-making.
Automated Workflows: The software automates repetitive tasks such as document generation and approval processes, freeing up lawyers to focus on higher-value work.
Improved Efficiency and Productivity: By centralizing legal operations and automating tasks, CARET Legal helps firms improve efficiency, reduce turnaround times, and enhance productivity.
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Billing Issues: Some users have reported problems with the billing system, such as difficulty generating invoices and tracking payments.
Customization Limitations: Users have expressed frustration with the limited customization options, making it challenging to tailor the software to their specific workflows.
Learning Curve: The software's interface and features can be complex, leading to a steep learning curve for new users.
Mobile App: The mobile app has received negative feedback for its limited functionality and user-friendliness.
Customer Support: Some users have reported challenges with customer support, including slow response times and difficulty resolving issues.
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Limited Customization: Many users find that CARET Legal's customization options are limited, making it difficult to tailor the software to their specific needs.
Steep Learning Curve: The software's complex interface and lack of user-friendly features can make it challenging for users to navigate and use effectively.
Expensive: CARET Legal's pricing model is often seen as expensive, especially for small to medium-sized law firms with limited budgets.
Integration Issues: Users have reported difficulties integrating CARET Legal with other software applications, leading to workflow disruptions and data management challenges.
Limited Support: Some users have experienced slow response times and inadequate support from CARET Legal's customer service team, leading to frustration and delays in resolving issues.
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MerusCase is generally praised for its user-friendly design and ability to manage complex legal cases, particularly its document management, case file organization, and customizable dashboards. Users specifically appreciate the platform's scalability, making it suitable for both small and large firms. Features like batch scanning for efficient mail processing and email integration with automatic linking to cases are highlighted as major advantages. However, some users find the software's learning curve steep and desire more comprehensive features. For example, users express the need for better legal document creation tools and smoother integration with external calendars like Google Calendar. Compared to competitors like Rocket Matter Premier, MerusCase shines in its user-friendly interface and integrated accounting tools. However, Rocket Matter Premier is considered more robust in billing and time tracking, offering advanced features and customization. Ultimately, MerusCase is best suited for legal professionals who prioritize ease of use, efficient case management, and document organization. Its strengths lie in simplifying complex legal processes, making it ideal for firms transitioning to digital case files or those seeking a straightforward, scalable solution. However, firms requiring advanced billing features or extensive customization might find other platforms more suitable.

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CARET Legal has garnered significant user praise over the past year, with reviewers consistently highlighting its strengths in legal research and document automation. One user remarked that CARET Legal's "research tools are top-notch, making it easy to find relevant case law and statutes." Another reviewer lauded its "intuitive document automation features, which have saved me countless hours drafting contracts and pleadings." Compared to similar products, CARET Legal stands out for its user-friendly interface, comprehensive research capabilities, and robust automation tools. Users have noted that its "clean and organized interface makes it a breeze to navigate," while its "deep integration with legal databases provides access to a wealth of information." The software's ability to automate repetitive tasks has also been a major differentiator, with one reviewer stating that "CARET Legal has streamlined my workflow, freeing up more time for high-value tasks." In summary, CARET Legal is highly recommended for legal professionals seeking a comprehensive and user-friendly legal software solution. Its strengths in research, document automation, and user experience make it an ideal choice for lawyers, paralegals, and legal teams looking to enhance their productivity and efficiency.

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Screenshots

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