Amicus Attorney Reviews

Pros

I actually look forward to pulling up the program (it reminds me of the best secretary/paralegal I have ever had). Everything is at hand, and connected to anything I need to do, whatever task is immediately at hand. It is flexible enough to accommodate interruptions in work, and powerful enough to take on every task I need to perform.
When I was practicing full-time, my overhead was 30% while generally in the profession 40% to 60% was considered normal. My billing hours went up dramatically, and my family time increased commensurately.
The tech support has alway been terrific. I had been practicing for several years before the personal computer was introduced, and I am not a computer wiz. When I needed tech support they were always on time and always fast and effective in sorting whatever I needed.
The online tutorials are also terrific - clear and easy to follow; allowed me to use advanced features initially beyond my ability.
This is a great program backed by a solid company with real integrity. I is always a pleasure to do business with them.

Cons

Paying for it, of course. Worth the money, though in increased billing hours and increased time with my family.
Several years ago there was an separate accounting add-on, which I used and did not like at all. I am not sophisticated in accounting principles or software. Tech support was good, but I ended up doing it the old fashioned way (hired someone).

Pros

The efficiency. The program for billing is easy to operate. The management of client's files is essential to our practice. Being able to add all contacts to a file is a time saver when working with same.

Cons

Nothing I can recall at this moment. I so far have not had a bad experience with this program.

Pros

Easy to keep track of client info and who is who on the file, plus scheduling events

Cons

1. Document management sucks. I am sure that I am not the only person who keeps all documents organized in Windows subfolders. We should be abler to access and manage documents seamlessly and use that functionality in Portal.
2. Inability to create a workflow overview: we need to see status of file at a glance. The Chronology function is too cumbersome and is only chronological: not theme/category-organized. It does not tell us what is really going on in the file
3. Email integration almost never works well: multiple duplicate copiers for all recipients and not easily searchable.
4. Inability to immediately create letters to a contact ("person") on a file using firm letterhead. This should be a no-brainer but even your seminars can't teach us that.
5. Server version constantly crashing and freezing, meaning that all notes on the desktop are lost.
6. Notes are really hard to work with: impossible to reply to a sticky in a way that keeps a chain going and shows to whom the sticky was sent.
7. The custom pages function is really primitive

Pros

This program is a good integration of: document management for clients; contacts; task and deadline tracking; timekeeping; billing; and, an email program. The fact that it can be accessed online and via a phone app is a major plus. You don't have to travel with a laptop and can access all of your files anywhere.

The way it sorts emails, documents and everything else by client files that you can create is very useful in keeping you organized. Depending upon the settings you select, much of this is done automatically by the application. Multiple users can access and work on client files and immediately share their work with other attorneys in the firm. It's a very collaborative platform.

I like the integration with QuickBooks and truly appreciate the ability to work with operating and client trust accounts. However, QuickBooks is the only financial management program with which it integrates.

I have been at this almost a year and learn a new function daily that improves my effectiveness for clients.

Their technical support has been great. I am crazy about their support staff and can tell you this is a major reason that I have stuck it out through a steep learning curve.

I also appreciate the fact that it has an open forum where users can recommend changes and improvements. I am impressed that Amicus actually takes action on suggestions and has adopted user recommendations. This is a nice value add proposition.

Cons

There are some significant limitations.

The application integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Word but not at all with the WordPerfect suite of programs that many attorneys find to be the standard in the practice and better that their Microsoft counterparts. Amicus indicates that it is considering creating an integration with the WordPerfect suite.

Amicus limits users to 20 GB of space that is not much in this day and age. Expanding the account size within Amicus is very expensive. The application integrates with Dropbox, which is a more affordable option to add storage space. Yet, oddly, it does not integrate with Microsoft OneDrive. This is also a new functionality that Amicus says it is considering. When evaluating this program be mindful of this restriction as it can easily double the actual cost of moving to this platform.

Getting documents out of and putting them back into a client file is a bit cumbersome. It also takes time to learn how to save versions of the same document and the versions are not easily seen.

Moving emails around is a awkward. It is time consuming to select a group of emails for filing. Similarly, you cannot select an entire conversation on a subject, regardless of whether it is in your Inbox or Sent box, and place them in the client file. So, in some cases you need to clean both Inbox and Sent mail and place items in the client file. A real time killer.

I have found that the application times out or snags on occasion.

Pros

Amicus always trys to make a product that is easy to use and learn which this product is. I really like the way it brings up the documents to be able to see them once they are attached to the file. It is also easy to put in notes about the document. I review the medical records and put notes on the file.

Your tech people are always helpful and pleasant.

Cons

Unfortunately I have found many glitches with this upgrade that I do not like. One is when you are attaching a new person to the file you get choices from the contact list but there is no way to review the person to see if the address for that person is correct. We have doctors who work out of multiple locations. I asked someone at Amicus and they told me there was no way to do it. Our old Amicus program allowed us to do this.
Another thing was if someone else has the file open I can not cut and paste from the custom pages area. I prepare depo billing while the attorney is preparing the client and if the attorney has the file open I can not cut and paste info from it.
Also because most of us have older eyes we need the resolution made larger on our computers. This distorts the info on the people on the file. You can not see all the phone numbers or the e-mails.
Another thing is there any way to make the program use fax numbers with out the ( ) on the area code number. We use ring central for computer faxing and it takes twice as long to try take the () out and put a hyphen in when copying and pasting into our outlook.

Pros

Cost effect client management and time keeping software.

Cons

I don't like the way that the client trusts reports are printed and the inability to customize the reports. It makes 3-way trust reconciliation difficult.

Pros

Amicus integrates your calendar, contacts, email, phone calls and matters and reminds you to create docket entries for all appointments, emails, calls, documents, etc. The beauty and economic benefit of the software is that it helps you to capture your time and to keep you organized. Over the years, Amicus has added things like Amicus mobile (which allows you to access features from your mobile device or any web browser) and a client portal (which allows you to permit clients to access certain information).
I have always considered the most important element of the software to be the communications module. If you turn on email integration and make notes of all of your calls using the software, you can quickly review what has been happening in a case by turning to the communications module. You won't forget to docket your time for all those communications.

Cons

While many other features have been added, the developers have not made material improvements to the communications module since email integration was added in about 2001. Obvious improvements have been needed since then. For instance, you cannot access scanned or faxed letters from the communications module. These can be added and viewed in the documents module and in a chronology module (added in about 2015), but neither option is not ideal. Flipping through communications should be as easy as flipping the pages of a paper file, but it's not. It is the organizational equivalent of having one file folder with your emails and phone calls, and another file folder with your faxes and letters. You have to flip from one folder to the other to view each. Also, you should be able to filter communications. For instance, you should be able to display only client communications, or only counsel communications, but you can't (even though there is a field for role on file for each contact attached to a file). The chronology module will put everything including all communications and documents (including letters and faxes) in chronological order, but you can't filter the chronology to show only communications (it will also show every document, docket, calendar appointment, etc.).
I have looked at alternative practice management software several times over the years and haven't seen one that I am adequately attracted to want to make what would be a painful change.

Pros

It helps keep everything in on place on a file and client making it easier to find. It is helpful in tracking your time so you can accurately bill your clients. It is good fro conflict checks which can be done in a minute or less if you keep information current. As with any product it depends upon you to keep the information correct and up to date.

Cons

Since being bought out by Abacus the tech support has dropped. Most issues my be upgraded as the person answering the telephone is doing nothing more than searching database as you can here them typing. When they do an update it generally does nothing but appearance changes while causing other features not to work. It also causes other prormas like Quickbooks to break.

Pros

It has a fairly intuitive interface for many users and the familiar look and feel can ease some into practice management system. It has a lot of features that it does well such as calendaring. Custom precedents are a must and we are having a difficult time replacing that feature. It email saving feature is also a nice touch however using email in the application and even searching for it is cumbersome. It billing features are for the most part excellent although there is room for improvement.

Cons

In my opinion the cons out weigh the pros. Their technical support has been severely lacking in my opinion. The biggest issue is the lack of features compared to other software offerings. Most of the integrations are clunky at best. The worst is this product has had a TON of bugs over the years and constantly having to restart the services on the server is an incredible pain to say the least. If i wasn't able to do this and create a script so other users the product would be unusable. It is also fairly slow.

Pros

this program is excellent for keeping track of cases, clients, court dates, to-do notices, escrow accounts & billing.

Cons

When closing elements of the program, one has to be careful not to inadvertently close the entire program on the user's computer. There is no warning that you are about to close the entire program on your computer. While the escrow (trust) account feature is good, it has limitations. It cannot interface with the bank, so auditing the account is a manual procedure. Also, the escrow function is limited to a case by case report. The program does not give the user an overview of the entire status of all escrows )in a separate report.

Pros

The program's visual layout, divided into files and calendar, is easy to understand, easy to use and easy to teach new users to use. The program allows people, events, and documents to be easily associated with files and integrates with Outlook so that emails with their attachment can be retained, tracked and reviewed.

Cons

The program's file tab includes an events tab which focus solely on the attorney and staff actions and events. No way exists to track the primary events in a litigation or transactional matter without being inundated with every timeslip and calender event on the case. As a result, the diamonds get lost in the overwhelming minutia and the events tab rarely gets used.
Additionally, my firm's primary focus, even before tracking any time or events, is the client and the events that are contained in their story. THE PROGRAM HAS NO MEANS TO SEGREGATE AND TRACK EVENTS IMPORTANT TO THE CLIENT'S CASE FACTS WITHOUT GETTING EVERY TIMESLIP AND EVENT ASSOCIATED WITH THE CASE. Again the diamonds get lost in the overwhelming minutia and the events tab rarely gets used.
It would seem that the program could have user designated tabs to track client, not attorney, case facts, court appearances, depositions, and key events to close the transaction or case without having to sift through endless timeslips and events.
Documents can be tracked by case type however to change the selection of document types, the documents associated with that particular case type must be modified. From a users point of view it would be more beneficial if document types could be designated from a modifiable pull down menu. For example, documents filed with the court could be identified as pleadings but as the case progress the documents could be identified with motion 1, motion 2 and motion 3 by the user.

Pros

Right out of the gate, the client portal is the feature that sets apart AA from every, other legal case management software. There are only one or two other programs out there that offer this feature. If you have a practice that requires client updates or have clients who use email for case communications, the Portal can dramatically reduce that in box volume as well as provide needed security. It's also a great marketing tool. Very few firms offer this to their clients.

Flexibility is number two. There are few, other programs out there that allow the user so much control over the data fields and how they want to use the program. If you are happy with the spreadsheet style software that costs a fortune to modify or customize, AA is not for you. You can do as much or little work on it as you like.

Connected and all inclusive solution. AA syncs up well with MS office products like Outlook and Word and plays nicely overall. You can use the AA calendar and email if you like, but if you're used to Outlook, no problem. AA gives you everything you need to run your practice with the case management, billing, reporting, email, and document generation. For a modest amount you can add the accounting to it.

Easy to use. I have tried other programs but haven't found anything that is as easy and intuitive. There are certainly more powerful programs out there and the Amicus Online edition we use definitely has its limitations when it comes to a web browser based system.

Cons

It's not meant for more than 3 or 4 attorneys. If you need something more robust go with the hosted environment where AA runs on their servers in a dedicated environment. AA Online is a great solo/small practice, starter software.

WARNING: Bear in mind that much of what you set up in AA Online will NOT transfer over to Amicus Premium in the hosted environment. If you are thinking of ever switching over to the full version of AA rather than the web version, do not spend a lot of time/effort with templates and workflows as very little of that will carry over.

Pros

TIME & MATTER MANAGEMENT: Timers and time entries are pretty simple. Knowing all people involved in a matter all in one place; engineers, judges, etc. is a great feature. Adding emails to a file is a good idea but time-consuming. Having all the data for a client in one place is good.

BILLING: I like that the Billing and Attorney sides are separate. Billing and accepting payments works quite well. Amicus can do split billing which is important to us. The interface with Quickbooks is quirky but after 1.7 years of working with it we've figured out most of the issues and found workarounds. Reports can be downloaded to Excel which is vital to my managing the firm.

Cons

CONS:
The end-user learning curve is huge and not intuitive which has led to a lot of attorneys entering time and not using Amicus for anything else. Text onscreen is exceptionally small, and for most users, problematic. The interface is not intuitive and takes a lot of trial and error to find the best ways to find what you want or report on the issue. We were lead to believe that the document management interface would work for us, but upon trial found out it would not work with our setup. So we're still dealing with Microsoft Explorer for managing documents, which is problematic. Overall our approval level with Amicus is likely only around 50%. There are so many features that we liked in the concept that has been difficult to get attorneys to do because the interface is not user-friendly.

TIME & MATTER MANAGEMENT: Data for our conflict database did not translate well from our previous system so conflicts checks take too long. Adding emails or files to the matter is very clunky. Ticklers are quirky and hard to work in Outlook. Tickler Reports are too limited events with no date range, or date range but no file selection. Running tickers for only one matter is impossible. Need more filters.
BILLING: Reports downloaded to Excel are impossible to use due to all the merged fields and lack of use of tables. We have to download Reports to CSV and spend time figuring out what the column headers actually are. I use the selection tools to view onscreen matters or time entries by

Pros

Amicus Attorney Premium is a reliable product. Once it's up and running correctly, there are few bugs. It is a highly flexible program chock full of more options than anyone could ever use. I prefer to avoid the cloud, too much risk of privacy issues, so even though an in-house server is old school, I prefer it this way. MS Exchange sync which gets calendars and contacts to the cell phone is excellent since 2015, best it's been since the old days of synching to the Palm Pilot. While I am listing a number of cons below, this software is the center point of our practice.

Cons

Since this software was purchased by Abacus Corp in 2016, the price has gone up 75% --
what a sticker shock! IMHO, the tech support under the new owner is no better or worse.
As for improvements to the product, the new owners seem to be focused only on selling their own add-on products --- the announcements tout how AA Premium now links to Abacus Product XYZ, but AA Premium has received any new features. They promised a cell phone app for remote access as part of the February update to AA 2017 and it still has not been released. They have added links to their add-on extra accounting and law products, but not updated any features of the core Amicus Attorney program. There is still no iPhone or Android app for remote access, one still has to use a browser on the cell phone to reach AmicusAnywhere. The process for writing SQL reports is complex! Also, the move from WordPerfect to Word (a necessary evil in today's world) meant losing the highly flexible document merge abilities of WordPerfect. I've been with AA since 2001; if Abacus doesn't produce new features, however, I will look to move my office to another product that seems more modern even at the risk of going to a web-based product when my two-year contract expires.

Pros

Their support is fantastic. Very little wait time. The support people are courteous, knowledgeable. and patient.

Cons

In many ways, the program is overwhelming for some of our staff. It takes a lot of time to train new staff members on the program. Also, there are many things that the program does that I haven't been able to use because it takes a lot of time to set up those things. This is probably more of a problem with smaller firms that don't have staff who just handle equipment use. In addition, we're WordPerfect users. I feel that the program works slightly better with MS Word.

Pros

Amicus has allowed my firm to be at the forefront of our industry by enabling us to be completely paperless and meet the Federal and State efiling requirements. The automated document control features saves time by allowing us to skip the scan, save, move, paste, and name, routine of saving documents to locations where they can be found. Amicus does all those steps automatically, and in addition, has the capability of allowing you to preview documents in the Amicus file without even having to open them!

The customization features allow you to make Amicus look and do the way you want tasks done. You do not have to conform to it, Amicus will conform to you.

The creation of timeslips and billing will shock you in its ability to capture all your time. Reviewing and editing time entries is fast and easy. The publishing them to a bill is seamless and fast. The ability to preview and edit bills is efficient as well. And of course, you can customize your billing templates to make your bills look the way you want.

The Client Portal is another firm saving feature. It allows you to give access to Clients to view documents, events, messages, that you select. I view it as a malpractice insurance feature! All communication is open to the Client. They can view their documents, their appointments, and can message you. It totally eliminates the complaint that, "I can't reach my lawyer." Everything is there for them to see. And again, only what you allow.

Cons

Amicus is a really great product. Little issues such as the Client Portal is a little finicky can be improved. It is a new feature and needs to allow Clients the ability to reset their password and to log on easier.

Pros

The best feature of this program is that it links all information to the client file. You click on the client's file and you can look up all timesheets, communications, appointments, events, tasks, deadlines, etc. This is an invaluable tool in the legal field!

Cons

The main complaint I have about this software is that it requires periodic updates which is fine in and of itself, but it is a huge process to update. Customer service gave me an instruction sheet on how to update the software and stated they do not help with the update. When I reviewed the instructions, they were only something an IT person could do. We are a small firm and I'm the one who does the computer work. I would say I'm fairly knowledgeable when it comes to computers, but the upgrades are extremely technical and definitely require IT. They did eventually do the updates for us after we called and complained and asked how they thought regular office people (not IT) could get through the instructions. This was my biggest issue with them.

Pros

It allows the members of my office to act as wild ducks flying more or less in formation, i.e. it provides a common path for all of us to stay organized and communicate regarding information in our system.

Cons

I would switch to CLIO if I did not have so much data that would need to be replicated. (History creates inertia.)CLIO has so many good features and provides such good training

I don't like Microsoft exchange and several features require Microsoft exchange. I don't like it that the process of exiting the software changed in the last upgrade - I have been using the software for 20+ years and suddenly the way of minimizing the program has become the way of closing the program -,my muscle memory tells me to do it one way and some bright techie has decided that what I have been taught through year of use is no longer correct.

I don't like it that there is no free training module for users we bring onto the team. Booking a private training is too pricey.

Tech support is spotty. Sometimes you get a poor techie who cannot help with the problem- in such cases we call in again and hope we get a good techie (we frequently get someone on the 2nd or 3rd call who can solve our problem.

Upgrades are buggy and it takes several patches to get things right.

Abacus has an immigration module that is not available for Amicus.

I get way too many sales calls and e-mails for Abacus Cloud. I am not paying the company to be a marketing prospect.

Pros

I have used this software for over two years at the law firm I work for. Ultimately, the software does everything we need it to do and them some: track case development, client information, time spent, etc. The software served its purpose well and has kept our firm organized and up to speed with all our cases.

Cons

While we have a large database of clients and still depend upon Amicus day-to-day for our older cases, we ultimately made the switch for other case management software a year ago, for one sole reason. Price. While Abacus decided to go the route of so many other similar products and only offer a subscription-based model, this was not something that ultimately suited our needs, and we had to cut ties.

Pros

Product is generally intuitive. Email, phone, task, calendaring, contact management, and document management, time keeping, expenses and billing are well integrated. New client portal is very usual.

Cons

Client portal features need to be expanded to allow cases (files) to have finer level of access control when multiple clients within a file require different levels and different document access. We would be more inclined to use document templates if we understood them better, in particular setting up logic driven variable paragraphs. Security controls relative to document folders need to be expanded to allow different levels of access for different levels of users. E.g. I should be able to delete and rename folders I create, but without admin privs, not delete/rename folders created by others. Would like to see editors incorporated into document management instead of requiring that these be done off line and then uploaded.

Pros

It is intuitive and easy to use. The interface is logical and pertinent to lawyers and law practice. No special training or programming is necessary to use the system. Because it links to Outlook, all emails, contacts, etc. are instantly synchronized with Outlook and smart phones.

Cons

The word that best describes this software is SLOW. It operates by linking to Outlook, and you will frequently sit there watching the hourglass swirl waiting for the task to complete. Because the software is not a stand-alone product, it is limited in what it can do. It does not really integrate documents , and the only way to manage or track work flow is via Outlook tasks. It keeps track of emails only so long as the email address is active with Microsoft Exchange - if you ever deactivate an email address, you lose access to all emails associated with that address. Abacus Law bought Amicus, and it seems that Abacus has little or no interest in maintaining much less improving this product.

Pros

Have small 1-2 attorney firm, used Premium. Lots of features, many of which I haven't used due to learning curve and pace of daily practice. As I have integrated QuickBooks and Outlook I have found it more useful, but doing this was tricky and frustrating. It was recommended by WSBA Law Practice Management staff over using Outlook alone for case management. The phone notes feature has proved very helpful and wasn't really available in Outlook when I first invested in the software. Technical support, once paid for the subscription, has been very good and responsive. I like that they take remote control and help quickly to solve problems.

Cons

I have reconsidered whether to keep Amicus many times; but once invested in such software, there is a high price to switch products. It has improved over the years. I don't use the Tasks feature the way it is designed, because it involves too much data input. I have modified a system that seems to work well enough and involves less data input but still tracks upcoming deadlines and target dates.

Pros

I appreciate that the calendaring, client management, and billing are on the same platform. There is good accessibility to functions such as inputting time and accessing bills from the same windows as the viewing of matters.

Cons

The software is probably much more functional than what we use it for. Our office has not been able to complete any training or improve the way we use the software because of time constraints. I wish there were short tips provided on an ongoing basis. Something like an email that was sent out with a time saving tip. Just 1 quick tip for improving how we use the software. For example, an email that explained, Did you know that you can edit time entries after the entry has been posted? Followed by how to edit time entries.
I would like to have better understanding of how to efficiently and effectively use the software, if possible, learning the software in short ongoing tips would make it convenient.

Pros

Amicus Attorney is a very robust case management program with tons of beneficial features. It has the ability to streamline repetitive tasks and entries.

Cons

We deployed Amicus Attorney almost twenty (20) years ago. A lot has change over the years, some good, some bad. The decline in tech support has been the most unfavorable change.

Pros

The best thing about Amicus Attorney is that everything about my practice is in one place: my contacts, my files, my calendar, my time, my emails and my documents - and I can access it all in my office, in my car, or half way around the world, as I did last March while in Australia (and the customer support is awesome!)

Cons

Frankly, there is nothing I am unhappy about with Amicus.