Matter intake without the document chase.
Every matter opens the same way: a document request, and then weeks of chasing it. Vault reads what arrives, knows what's still outstanding on the file, chases it by name, and hands your team an organised matter instead of an inbox.
Live in two to three weeks · Priced per firm, billed annually
The shape of itWhat changes
2–3 wks
Scoping call to firm-wide rollout
18/24
Docs in — and it knows which six aren't
0
Passwords for your client to remember
5→1
Disconnected tools replaced by one workspace
The platform handles the file. Your fee-earners handle the matter. That line doesn't move.
In short
Document automation for law firms takes the intake side of matter work — collecting documents, knowing what's still outstanding, chasing it, filing it and pulling the detail out — and hands it to software. Vault is the platform I built for it: it reads uploads, classifies them correctly, tracks the outstanding list per matter, and surfaces extracted detail with provenance a fee-earner can check in a click. Advice, drafting and privilege calls stay entirely with your professionals.
- Every file classified on arrival, whatever it's named
- Outstanding items tracked and chased per matter
- Extraction with confidence scores and page-region provenance
- Role-scoped access, per-firm keys, exportable audit log
The platform this runs on — Vault
This isn't a concept deck. Vault is live, it's the system I built and operate for firms doing document-heavy client work, and you can look at it before we ever get on a call.
vault.ritiktechs.com
The AI operating system for client document work
Vault reads every file a client sends, classifies it regardless of filename, catches duplicates and superseded versions, and keeps a per-matter list of what's still outstanding. It chases the specific missing items by name, parses statements, schedules and invoices with field-level confidence and page-region provenance, and routes anything uncertain to a person. Clients upload through a branded secure link, by replying to an email, or by photographing the document on a phone — no account, no password.
2–3 wks
Scoping call to firm-wide rollout
SOC 2
Ready controls, per-firm keys
0
Passwords for your clients
5→1
Disconnected tools replaced
The work between opening a matter and being able to work it
Not the advice, and not the drafting. The requesting, chasing, renaming, filing and reading that fills a paralegal's week and decides how many matters the firm can carry.
Classification on arrival
Clients send scan-2.pdf and a photo called IMG_4471. Vault reads the contents and files it as a passport page, a deed, a bank statement or a signed engagement letter — regardless of what it was called.
An outstanding-items list per matter
Each matter carries its own list of what's needed. Vault ticks off what's arrived, catches duplicates and superseded versions, and shows the gap plainly instead of leaving it in a paralegal's head.
Reminders that name the item
'Please send your documents' gets ignored. 'We still need your marriage certificate and the 2023 bank statement' doesn't. The chase runs on its own until the file is complete.
Detail extracted, with provenance
Statements, invoices and schedules parsed to the line, with field-level confidence and page-region provenance — so a fee-earner sees where a figure or a date came from rather than trusting a summary.
Templates for matter types you repeat
Editable flows for intake, onboarding and recurring matter types, with conditional routing by document type or confidence, and tasks and key dates created automatically as the file fills up.
A portal clients actually use
A branded secure link — no account to create, no password to reset. Upload through the portal, reply to the email with an attachment, or photograph the document on a phone. That's the whole ask.
One workspace, not five tools
Portal, outstanding items, document store, tasks and staff assignment in one place — so where a matter actually stands isn't spread between an inbox, a spreadsheet and the DMS.
A fee-earner on every call
The platform organises and surfaces; it doesn't advise, draft or decide privilege. Low-confidence fields route to a person, and nothing leaves the firm without a qualified person signing off.
The questions your partners will ask first
Client files are the most sensitive thing a firm holds, and confidentiality obligations are not negotiable. These are the answers, stated plainly rather than buried in a trust page.
Encrypted, separated, never pooled
AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, and a separate encryption key per firm. Client data is never used to train models and is never pooled with another firm's — the first question any partner asks.
Access scoped to the matter
SAML sign-in with granular role-based access, so staff see the matters they're on and nothing else. Client history stays with the file when people move on, instead of leaving with them.
A complete, exportable audit log
Every upload, view, edit and export recorded and exportable in full — a materially stronger trail than an email thread and a shared drive, which is the honest comparison for most firms.
Retention and legal hold
Configurable retention, legal hold and deletion, so the platform matches your firm's obligations rather than imposing its own. SOC 2-ready controls throughout.
Where the line is
It organises the file. It doesn't practise law.
I'm a developer who runs document and automation infrastructure for a living, not an attorney — and that's the right person for this job. The platform collects, classifies, chases and extracts. Advice, drafting, strategy and privilege calls never leave your fee-earners, and the system is built to stop at that line rather than blur it.
It connects to practice management, document storage, e-signature, email and calendar and your SSO, with a REST API and webhooks for the rest — so it sits in front of the systems you already run instead of replacing them.
Straight about scope: if a matter type shouldn't be automated, or your volume doesn't justify it, I'll say so on the scoping call rather than take the work and find out in month three.
Where document automation pays for itself
It earns its keep wherever document volume is high, the same requests repeat on every file, and the people chasing paperwork are people you'd rather have working the matter.
Matter intake at any firm
Every matter opens with a document request and stalls until it's satisfied. It's the most repeated, least judgement-heavy process in the firm — and the first thing worth automating.
Estate planning practices
Deeds, titles, account statements, beneficiary details, prior wills. High document count, low variation between files, and a checklist that's the same every time.
Immigration law firms
Long evidence lists, documents arriving in batches over months, and clients photographing paperwork on a phone from another timezone. Missing-item tracking is the entire job.
Family law practices
Financial disclosure means chasing statements, payslips and valuations from someone who is not enjoying the process. Named, automatic reminders do that better than a person can.
Discovery & disclosure
Classification, deduping and superseded-version detection across a document set, with an exportable trail of who touched what and when.
Firms wanting one intake process
The same documented intake regardless of which fee-earner opens the matter — and visible workload instead of a guess at who's buried.
Email vs a DMS vs a system that knows what's outstanding
Most firms are choosing between an inbox and a document store. The gap isn't storage — it's whether anything tracks the request list for you and chases it without being asked.
| Email & a checklist | Your DMS or portal | Vault | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knows what a matter still needs | A paralegal tracks it | Shows what was filed | Outstanding list per matter |
| Files land named correctly | Whatever the client called it | Filed manually by staff | Classified by contents |
| Pulls detail out of the document | Read by a person | No — storage only | Fields + confidence + provenance |
| Chases the client | If someone remembers | Generic reminder | Names the missing item |
| What the client has to do | Reply, and hope it sends | Create an account | Open a link |
| Audit trail | Scattered across inboxes | Partial | Complete & exportable |
Comparison reflects typical July 2026 law-firm setups · Your baseline depends on which systems you already run
Scoped, piloted, rolled out — two to three weeks
No firm-wide cutover on day one. The pilot runs on live files so your team judges it against how they work now, not against a demo.
Scoping call
We go through your matter types, the intake checklists behind them and the systems they live in — practice management, document storage, e-sign, email. You leave with the price, the integration list and an honest read on fit.
A configured pilot
One matter type, set up with your checklists, templates and branding, running on live files. Your team uses it alongside the current process so the comparison is against how the firm actually works.
Firm-wide rollout
Once the pilot has earned it, the remaining matter types go live with dedicated onboarding for your staff. Two to three weeks end to end, scheduled around your filing calendar.
Tuning as the firm changes
New matter types, a changed checklist, a new practice management system, another integration. The setup gets adjusted as the firm moves, so it stays accurate instead of drifting out of date.
Priced per firm, and never per upload
No self-serve tiers, because a two-partner family practice and a mid-size immigration firm need genuinely different setups. Annual billing, one number, agreed before anything starts.
What the price is built from
Staff headcount
How many fee-earners and support staff work in it day to day.
Annual document volume
What actually moves through intake across a year.
Matter complexity
How many matter types, and how varied their document lists are.
Integration scope
Which of your existing systems it has to read from and write to.
Firms in this bracket typically land in the $3,000–$7,000 a month range depending on those four inputs. Judge it against what intake currently costs in fee-earner and paralegal hours — that time bills at your rate, not mine.
Never metered
A heavy filing month shouldn't cost more
Usage pricing punishes you exactly when the tool is most useful. None of this is metered:
- Platform features
- Client accounts
- Staff seats
- Document uploads
- Support
Dedicated onboarding is included. Third-party software you already run stays billed to your own accounts.
Document automation for law firms, answered
It's automating the intake side of matter work — collecting documents from a client, knowing what's still outstanding, chasing it, filing it correctly and pulling the detail out of it. In most firms that's manual: a paralegal keeps a checklist, sends 'please send your documents' emails, renames whatever arrived, and reads through statements and exhibits by hand. Document automation hands that mechanical layer to software. It does not draft, advise or make a call on privilege or strategy — that stays with your fee-earners.
A DMS is where documents live once you have them. It doesn't know what a matter still needs. Vault tracks an outstanding-items list per matter, classifies each file by reading it rather than trusting the filename, catches duplicates and superseded versions, chases the specific missing items by name, and extracts detail with field-level confidence and page-region provenance. It sits in front of your DMS and feeds it, rather than replacing it.
Access is scoped by role through SAML sign-in, so staff see only the matters they're on. Each firm gets a separate encryption key, data is AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit, and client data is never used to train models and never pooled across firms. Every action is captured in a complete, exportable audit log, and retention, legal hold and deletion are configurable to your firm's policy. Privilege calls themselves are a professional judgement — the platform surfaces and organises, it doesn't decide.
Treat it as a fast, traceable first pass rather than a finding. Every extracted field carries a confidence score and page-region provenance, so a fee-earner sees exactly where in the document a figure or date came from instead of taking it on trust, and low-confidence fields route to a person automatically. It makes checking quick and auditable; it does not remove the check, and anyone telling you otherwise is overselling.
Vault is priced per firm and billed annually rather than sold in tiers, because a two-partner family practice and a mid-size immigration firm need very different setups. Pricing comes from staff headcount, annual document volume, matter complexity and integration scope. Platform features, client accounts, staff seats, document uploads and support are never metered, so a heavy filing month doesn't cost more. You get the number on the scoping call.
Two to three weeks from scoping call to firm-wide rollout, with dedicated onboarding included. In between is a configured pilot: one matter type, set up with your intake checklists, your templates and your branding, running on live files so your team judges it against how they work now rather than against a demo.
It connects to practice management systems, document storage, email and calendar, e-signature platforms and SSO, with a REST API and webhooks for anything not covered off the shelf. The specific systems your firm runs get confirmed on the scoping call before you commit to anything — I'd rather tell you an integration needs custom work up front than discover it during rollout.
It changes what they spend the day on rather than removing them. The chasing, renaming, filing and manual reading goes; the review, the exceptions, the client contact and the judgement don't. Most firms I speak to aren't trying to cut headcount — they're trying to stop paying trained people to rename PDFs and re-send the same document request for the fourth time.
How many matters are waiting on a missing document right now?
Tell me your matter types, roughly how many client documents you handle a year, and which systems they live in. I'll tell you what Vault would take on, what it wouldn't, and what it would cost your firm.