Aug 13, 2025·8 min
Build a Law Firm Web App for Cases, Docs, and Deadlines
A practical guide to planning, designing, and building a secure case management web app for law firms: matters, documents, tasks, and deadline alerts.
A practical guide to planning, designing, and building a secure case management web app for law firms: matters, documents, tasks, and deadline alerts.
A law firm app succeeds when it solves a specific, painful problem better than email threads, shared drives, and spreadsheets. Start by writing a one-sentence promise, such as: “Give everyone a single place to see matter status, find the latest document, and trust that deadlines won’t be missed.” That promise keeps features from drifting.
Most firms feel the pain in three areas:
Be explicit about what you will not solve in v1 (billing, accounting, e-discovery), so the app stays focused.
List users by what they need, not their job titles:
Write 5–10 workflows your app must make easy: open a matter, upload a document, assign a task, file/add deadlines, share updates with the team/client.
Then decide how you’ll measure success:
These metrics will guide every product decision that follows.
A clear data model is the foundation of law firm case management and matter management web app features. If the objects and relationships are messy, everything downstream—permissions, search, reporting, and deadline tracking for lawyers—feels inconsistent.
Define the primary records your app will revolve around:
A practical rule: most activity in a legal app should attach to a matter (and inherit the matter’s client and permissions).
Once the main objects are stable, model the “attachments” that make the product useful:
Keep these as separate objects rather than stuffing everything into a single “activity” table; it makes filtering, reporting, and permissions clearer.
Matters usually move through a small set of stages, for example:
Store both a simple status (for fast filtering) and optional detailed fields (practice area, case type, jurisdiction, court, matter owner).
Search drives daily use. Make sure the following are indexed and filterable: client name, matter name/number, contacts, key dates, and document metadata. For closed matters, prefer an archive flag over deleting—especially if you later need an audit trail for legal apps or to reopen a file.
Great legal apps feel “quiet”: staff can move a matter forward without hunting for buttons or re-entering the same information. Start by identifying the few screens people will live in every day, then design each around the decisions they need to make.
Make the matter overview a single page that answers three questions at a glance:
Keep it scannable: use clear labels, avoid dense tables, and default to the most common view. Advanced details can live behind “View more” drawers.
Intake should be fast and forgiving. Use a step-by-step flow:
Even if your first version doesn’t implement full conflict checking, include the placeholder so the workflow matches real office behavior.
Create matter types (templates) with pre-filled fields and default task lists. For example: “Uncontested Divorce,” “Personal Injury,” “Commercial Lease Review.” Templates should set:
Use plain language (“Assigned to,” “Due date,” “Upload document”), consistent buttons, and minimal required fields. If users can’t complete a screen in under a minute, it’s probably doing too much.
Document management is where many legal apps win or lose adoption. Lawyers won’t change habits for a “nice” interface; they will change if the system makes it faster to find the right file, prove who did what, and avoid sending the wrong draft.
Keep the default structure simple and consistent across matters (e.g., Pleadings, Correspondence, Discovery, Research, Client Materials). Let firms adjust templates, but don’t force them to invent a taxonomy.
Add lightweight tagging that supports common legal needs:
Uploading should work from drag-and-drop and mobile. Include a clear progress indicator and a retry path when connections fail.
Decide file limits early. Many firms store large PDFs and scanned exhibits, so set a generous default (e.g., 100–500 MB) and enforce it consistently. If you need lower limits, explain them at the moment of upload and offer alternatives (split files, compress, or upload via desktop sync).
Previews matter: inline PDF viewing and thumbnailing reduce “download-check-delete” cycles.
Support both patterns:
Show a clear version history, and restrict who can upload new versions to avoid accidental overwrites.
Capture and display key metadata:
This metadata enables quick filtering and later supports defensible review if something is questioned.
Deadlines are the part of a law firm web app that people will either trust instantly—or never trust again. The goal isn’t just to “add a due date.” It’s to make sure everyone understands what the date represents, who owns it, and how the firm will be reminded in time.
Not all deadlines behave the same way, so make the type explicit. Common categories include:
Each type can have its own defaults: required fields, reminder timing, and visibility. For example, a court date may require a location and assigned attorney, while an internal reminder may require only an assignee and notes.
Law firms often operate across jurisdictions. Store all deadlines with:
A practical approach: store timestamps in UTC, display in the matter time zone, and let each user choose a personal display time zone. When a deadline is “date-only” (common for filing deadlines), render it clearly as such and schedule reminders at a consistent firm-wide time (e.g., 9:00 a.m. local).
Recurring work keeps matters moving: “check service status weekly,” “follow up with client every 14 days,” “review discovery responses monthly.” Support recurrence patterns (weekly/monthly/custom) and make them editable per occurrence. Lawyers frequently need “skip this week” or “shift just this one.”
Also consider follow-up chains: completing one task can auto-create the next (e.g., “File” → “Confirm acceptance” → “Send client confirmation”).
Offer in-app + email by default, with optional SMS for truly urgent items. Every notification should include: matter name, deadline type, due date/time, and a direct link to the item.
Add two behaviors that users quickly expect:
Make reminder timing configurable (firm-wide defaults + per-deadline overrides). That flexibility is what lets the app fit different practices without becoming complicated.
Permissions are where a law-firm app either earns trust quickly—or creates daily friction. Start with a clear role model, then add matter-level access so teams can collaborate without oversharing.
Create a small set of default roles that cover most firms:
Keep permissions understandable (“Can view documents”, “Can edit deadlines”) rather than dozens of tiny toggles that no one can audit.
Firm-wide roles are not enough. In legal work, access often depends on the specific matter (conflicts, sensitive clients, internal investigations). Support matter-level rules such as:
Default to least privilege: a user shouldn’t see a matter unless they’re assigned or explicitly granted access.
Log security-meaningful events, including:
Make the audit log easy to review: filters by user, matter, action, date range, plus an export (CSV/PDF) for internal reviews and compliance requests. The log should be append-only, with timestamps and the acting user recorded consistently.
Legal apps handle highly sensitive information, so security needs to be a first-class feature—not a “later” task. The goal is simple: reduce the chance of unauthorized access, limit damage if something goes wrong, and make safe behavior the default.
Use HTTPS everywhere (including internal admin tools and file download links). Redirect HTTP to HTTPS and set HSTS so browsers won’t accidentally fall back to insecure connections.
For accounts, never store passwords in plain text. Use a modern, slow password hashing algorithm (Argon2id preferred; bcrypt acceptable) with unique salts, and enforce reasonable password policies without making logins miserable.
Case files are often more sensitive than metadata. Encrypt files at rest, and consider separating file storage from the primary app database:
This separation also makes it easier to rotate keys, scale storage, and limit blast radius.
Offer multi-factor authentication (MFA), at least for admins and users with access to many matters. Provide recovery codes and a clear reset process.
Treat sessions like keys: set idle timeouts, short-lived access tokens, and refresh tokens with rotation. Add device/session management so users can sign out of other devices, and protect cookies (HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite).
Plan for data retention rules early: exporting a matter, deleting a user, and purging documents should be explicit tools—not manual database work. Avoid claiming compliance with specific regulations unless you’ve verified requirements with counsel; instead, document what controls you provide and how firms can configure them.
A law firm app is only as useful as its ability to find information quickly. Search and reporting aren’t “nice to have” features—they’re what users rely on when they’re on a call, in court, or trying to answer a partner’s question in two minutes.
Start by being explicit about what search covers. A single search bar can work well, but users need clear scoping and results grouping.
Common scopes to support:
If full-text document search is too heavy for an MVP, ship metadata search first and add full-text indexing later. The key is not surprising users: label results like “File name matches” vs “Document text matches.”
Filters should reflect real workflows, not technical fields. Prioritize:
Make filters “sticky” per user where it helps (e.g., default to “My open matters”).
Keep reports short, standard, and exportable:
Provide one-click exports to CSV (analysis, backups) and PDF (sharing, filing). Include the filters used in the export header so reports remain defensible and understandable later.
A law firm app rarely lives alone. Even small teams expect it to fit into the tools they already open all day—calendar, email, PDFs, and billing. The key product decision isn’t “can we integrate?”, it’s “what level of integration is worth the complexity for our MVP?”
Start by deciding whether you need one-way or two-way sync.
One-way sync (app → calendar) is simpler and often enough: when a deadline or hearing date is created, the app publishes an event. The calendar remains a “view,” while the app stays the system of record.
Two-way sync is more convenient but riskier: if someone edits an event in Outlook, should it change the matter deadline? If you go two-way, define clear rules for conflict resolution, ownership (which calendar?), and what fields can be edited safely.
Firms want to attach emails and attachments to a matter with minimal effort. Common patterns:
For shared inboxes (e.g., intake@), teams often need triage: assign an email thread to a matter, tag it, and track who handled it.
Most firms expect sending documents for signature without leaving the app. Typical flow: generate a PDF, select signers, track status, then automatically store the signed copy back to the matter.
For PDFs, “table stakes” often includes merge, basic editing, and optional OCR if you handle scanned documents.
Even if you don’t build billing, firms want clean exports: matter codes, time entries, and invoice data that can be pushed to (or pulled by) accounting tools. Define a consistent matter ID early so billing systems don’t drift from your records.
A law firm app lives or dies on reliability: pages must load quickly, search must feel instant, and documents can’t “go missing.” A simple, well-understood architecture is usually better than a clever one—especially if you expect to hire new developers later.
Start with three clear layers:
This keeps responsibilities clean. Your database handles structured data (matters, clients, tasks), while a dedicated file store handles uploads, versions, and large PDFs.
Pick technology with strong libraries for auth, security, and background jobs. A common, team-friendly setup is:
What matters is consistency and hiring availability—not chasing the newest framework.
If you want to validate your architecture quickly before investing in a full dev cycle, a vibe-coding platform like Koder.ai can help you scaffold a React UI with a Go + PostgreSQL backend from a structured chat brief—useful for prototyping matter screens, permissions flows, and deadline rules. (You should still review security, tenancy isolation, and audit logging carefully before production.)
If multiple firms will use the product, plan for multi-tenancy from day one. Two common approaches:
RLS is powerful, but adds complexity; tenant IDs are simpler but require disciplined coding and testing.
Choose managed hosting where you get:
This is the foundation for everything that follows—especially permissions, document storage, and deadline automation.
A law firm app can grow endlessly, so you need a clear “first useful version” that helps a real firm run matters next week—not a feature catalog.
Start with the smallest set of screens that supports daily work end-to-end:
If a feature doesn’t directly support “open matter → add docs → track work → hit deadlines,” it’s probably not MVP.
If you’re trying to get to a pilot quickly, consider building the MVP as a thin, end-to-end slice first (even with placeholders), then hardening. Tools like Koder.ai can be useful here because they support “planning mode” for scoping and can accelerate basic CRUD + authentication scaffolding—while still letting you export source code when you’re ready for a traditional engineering workflow.
Push these to later releases unless you have a paying pilot firm demanding them:
Adoption often fails at setup. Include:
A practical roadmap: MVP → security/permissions → search/reporting → integrations. For the full guide, aim for ~3,000 words so each milestone gets concrete examples and trade-offs. If you want, you can map these milestones to specific sections like /blog/testing-deployment-maintenance for easy navigation later.
Shipping a legal case management app isn’t just “does it work?”—it’s “does it work under pressure, with real permissions, and with time-based rules that cannot slip.” This section focuses on the practical steps that keep you out of trouble after launch.
Start with a small set of workflows you can run repeatedly on every release:
Use realistic fixtures: a matter with multiple parties, a mix of confidential docs, and a few deadlines across time zones.
Add a lightweight checklist your team must sign off each release:
If you maintain an audit trail, include tests that validate “who did what, when” is captured for key actions.
Use a staging environment that mirrors production settings. Practice database migrations on staging with a copy of anonymized data. Every deploy should have a rollback plan (and a defined “no-downtime” expectation if firms rely on the app during business hours).
If your platform supports it, snapshots and rollbacks can reduce operational risk. For example, Koder.ai includes snapshotting and rollback features in its workflow, which can be helpful while you iterate rapidly—though you should still treat database migrations and restores as first-class, tested procedures.
Operational basics matter:
Write a one-sentence promise that names the outcome and the pain it removes (e.g., “one place for matter status, latest docs, and reliable deadlines”). Use it as a filter: if a feature doesn’t directly support that promise, push it out of v1.
Define “primary users” by needs, not titles:
Then pick 5–10 must-win workflows and track metrics like time saved, fewer deadline errors, and weekly active usage.
Start with the “big four”: Firm (tenant), User, Client, Matter. Then attach what lives on a matter:
A good rule is: most activity should attach to a matter and inherit its permissions to keep access control and reporting predictable.
Ship a “Matter Overview” that answers three things fast:
Keep advanced details behind “View more,” and ensure common actions take under a minute.
Use consistent defaults (folders + tags) across matters so teams don’t reinvent structure. Keep tagging lightweight:
Pair that with frictionless upload/preview (drag-and-drop, clear progress, inline PDF viewing).
Support both workflows:
Always show a version history and capture “who/when/source.” Limit who can create new versions to prevent accidental overwrites and make accountability clear.
Treat deadline types differently (court dates vs filing deadlines vs internal reminders). Make time unambiguous:
Also add recurrence with “edit this occurrence” support so real-world exceptions don’t break the system.
Default to in-app + email, and reserve SMS for truly urgent items. Each reminder should include matter name, deadline type, due date/time, and a direct link.
Add:
Keep firm-wide defaults, but allow per-deadline overrides for edge cases.
Use simple firm roles (admin, attorney, paralegal, billing, client) plus matter-level access control (“ethical walls”). Default to least privilege: users shouldn’t see a matter unless assigned or explicitly granted.
Log security-meaningful actions (permission changes, downloads of sensitive docs, deletions, failed logins) in an append-only audit trail with filters and export (CSV/PDF).
Cover the basics early:
For retention/deletion, provide explicit tools (export, purge) and describe controls honestly rather than claiming compliance you haven’t verified.