Frequently Asked Questions

A workspace for building a case from the record. It keeps four things apart: what is alleged, what is in the file, who knows what, and what is missing.

Its guiding rule is that the application never decides anything. It organises the record, proposes work, and leaves every determination to counsel.

1. An allegation is not evidence. Pleading text, documents, witness statements, attorney assessments and AI suggestions are stored and shown separately. Nothing ever merges one into another.
2. Originals are immutable. Each file is stored exactly as it arrived, and its SHA-256 fingerprint is taken before anything reads it. Extracted text and every note about the document are kept in separate layers. A filed pleading is never “corrected”; a suspected typo produces a flag for the attorney instead.

No. “Proven” isn’t one of the possible states. An element is always one of: Evidence needed, Partially supported, Supported, Contradicted or Attorney review. Only counsel moves an element between states.

Codira, Inc. The web app is at app.docketiq.xyz, and the website and downloads are at docketiq.xyz.

• The web app, which is the full workspace.
• Codira ESQ for Mac and Windows, a native desktop app.
• Codira ESQ for Word and Excel, the Office add-ins.
• Integrations with practice-management systems and Microsoft 365 mail.

Depose™ by Codira ESQ, for depositions.

Yes. The demo site holds Meridian Analytics v. Halvorsen Data Partners, an invented federal trade-secrets and contract case that looks as if it has been worked for months: a read complaint and answer, facts, a money trail, damages, interviews, witness statements, a Bates-numbered production and an audit trail. Every name, figure and allegation is made up, and the demo resets each time it restarts.

You can also request a demo and we will walk you through it on a case like yours.

Use the pricing calculator on docketiq.xyz, which takes you to app.docketiq.xyz/start. Enter your name, email, firm name and practice area, accept the terms, and pay by card through Stripe. Once the payment is confirmed, Codira ESQ emails you a link to set your password. The link lasts 48 hours.

$395, which covers your own attorney seat. The calculator shows the monthly total for the whole team you’re planning, but each other seat is billed when that person actually joins.

No. Self-serve sign-up has no trial period.

Cards only. Bank debits and wallets are turned off on purpose.

A firm owner with no cases yet goes to Welcome. A litigation firm gets a first-case wizard:

1. Drop in a complaint.
2. Confirm the caption.
3. Choose your side.
4. Watch Codira ESQ read the complaint live. It finds claims, elements, parties, people, sums, dates and allegations.

You can also click Try a sample complaint, which replays a recorded reading of the Meridian complaint and stores nothing. Firms in other practice areas get a simple form.

Yes. From the integration’s page, open an external matter as a new Codira ESQ case, or link it to a case you already have. See Integrations below.

• How do I (⌘/ in the Ask tray) answers product questions using only Codira ESQ’s own product guide, tailored to your role. Its Show me button walks you through the steps on screen. It opens panels and fills fields for you, but it never saves, sends, deletes, files, produces or pays; you press those buttons yourself.
• Guided tours cover every main area of the product.

Firm → Client → Case (matter). What you can see is decided by your membership of each case, not by your account. If you aren’t on a case, it behaves as though it doesn’t exist. That is also how ethical walls between cases work.

Yes. All cases lists everything you’re on, with totals and a “Needs attention” list, and the case switcher in the header moves between cases. In the web app you work in one case at a time, which keeps privilege, screens and evidence codes straight. The desktop app opens each case in its own window.

• Case details.
• Record completeness: six measures (evidence, witnesses, initial disclosures, damages documentation, documents referred to in the pleadings, and authentication readiness).
• The counts.
• Waiting on counsel.
• The most pressing gaps.

Completeness shows how much of the work is done. It never measures how strong a claim is.

All cases, Dashboard, Counts, Elements, Connections, Documents, Your story, Facts, Composer, Authority, Read a document in, Tasks, Deadlines, Time, Evidence, Witnesses, Affidavits, People, Timeline, Contradictions, Transactions, Damages, Discovery, Discovery requests, Disclosures, Productions, Pleadings, Issues & gaps, Case assistant, Strategy, Case theory graph and Reports. Other practice areas have their own screens.

Yes. ⌘K searches across people, documents, pleading paragraphs, amounts and fingerprints, and each result says why it matched.

No, deliberately. You enter each deadline together with where it comes from. A deadline counts only after an attorney confirms it, and a task can be created from it. Discovery due dates are also entered by the team.

Yes, from Admin → Close this matter. A closed case is read-only. You can still read it, export it and view its audit log, and you can reopen it later.

Any type. Every file is stored and fingerprinted. Text is pulled out of:

• PDF, page by page, so citations carry real page numbers
• Word (.docx)
• Excel (.xlsx/.xlsm), sheet by sheet
• plain text, CSV, Markdown, HTML, JSON, RTF, email (.eml), vCard and log files

A format Codira ESQ can’t read text from is still stored, fingerprinted and searchable by its details, and is marked Format not text-extractable.

Yes, 100 MB per file. This applies to web uploads, desktop uploads and email attachments alike.

1. The original is stored and its SHA-256 fingerprint is taken.
2. Codira ESQ checks whether the same file is already in the case.
3. Text is extracted, and images get a visual fingerprint.
4. The file gets an evidence code such as MERIDIAN-000014.
5. A rule-based scan looks for sensitive content.
6. The upload is written to the audit log.
7. AI reading of the document is queued in the background. If that reading fails, you lose only the suggestions, never the upload.

No second record is made. Codira ESQ tells you it’s a duplicate of the existing code.

They follow the pattern PREFIX-000001. The prefix is 2–12 letters, digits or hyphens, chosen when the case is opened. Codes are handed out one at a time, so two simultaneous uploads can never get the same number. Changing the prefix later starts a new series; existing codes are never renamed, because they’re citations.

Yes, when you ask for it. Press Read it with OCR on a scanned PDF or an image.

• Up to 50 pages per run.
• It runs on Codira ESQ’s own servers. Your documents are never sent to an outside OCR service.
• Real text layers are never overwritten.
• The result shows its confidence (overall and worst page) and is labelled Read by OCR — machine reading.

• PDFs, images, audio and video preview inline, and media can be scrubbed.
• Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, RTF and WordPerfect files are shown as a PDF preview generated on the fly. The preview isn’t stored.
• Anything that could carry script, such as HTML or SVG, is downloaded instead of displayed.

Every download link is signed for you personally and expires: standard links after 5 minutes, links from the Documents page after 30 minutes, and audio and video after 4 hours. You also need to be signed in and allowed to see the document. Every view and download is written to the audit log.

Run the integrity check on any document. Codira ESQ re-reads the stored file and compares it with the fingerprint taken on arrival. If they don’t match, the document gets a red banner and can’t be produced.

Yes, on the Documents page. Filing a document in a folder doesn’t change the original in any way.

Privilege

Non-privileged, Potentially privileged, Attorney-client, Work product, Common interest, Review required (the default). Only counsel decides privilege.

Confidentiality

Public, Confidential (the default), Highly confidential, Attorneys’ eyes only

Production stage

11 stages, from Collected to Produced, Withheld or Logged

Flag for counsel

Critical (“The case turns on this. Read it first.”), Important, Supporting. A Critical flag needs a note, and flagged documents sort first.

Yes, using rules rather than AI. Every upload is scanned for:

• personal data: Social Security numbers, card numbers, bank routing and account numbers, dates of birth, licence and passport numbers
• medical content
• privilege language, such as “attorney-client” or “prepared at counsel’s direction”

Each hit raises a review flag, with the sample masked to its last four digits. A document with an open privilege, personal-data or medical flag can’t be produced.

Yes, under Evidence → Find duplicates. It matches identical text, near-identical text, identical files, the same size and format, the same name once “copy” or “(1)” suffixes are removed, and images that look alike. Removal works in batches, requires a reason, and never deletes every copy in a group. Audio and video are matched by size and name only, not by content.

Only an attorney can, and only with a written reason. Produced or Bates-numbered documents can’t be deleted; withdraw them through the production log instead. Each deletion leaves a permanent record in the audit log: code, title, fingerprint, who removed it, when and why.

An email’s attachments are linked to it as a family, and discovery keeps families together. The same email filed from two mailboxes is recognised as one email.

Yes, with the firm drive in the desktop app. The original stays on your network share, and Codira ESQ keeps only the record: the name, custodian, fingerprint and path. Files on the firm drive can’t be downloaded or previewed from the web app, and AI can read them only if the firm turns that on.

It splits the pleading into numbered paragraphs and stores each one word for word. Page-number lines are skipped. Captions and headings are set aside rather than forced into paragraphs. If a paragraph number repeats, Codira ESQ keeps both and flags it.

An AI reading that works through the pleading in batches. You can watch it progress and stop it at any time. It proposes counts, factual propositions, documents the pleading refers to, and apparent defects. Every proposal cites its paragraph and goes to the review queue. A single paragraph can also be read on its own.

It reads a document already in the vault and proposes counts, elements, facts and people. Caption details fill only blank fields in the case. Nothing is written until you press Apply.

Yes, on Pleadings → Responses. Each response is read by rule, not AI, and labelled Admitted, Denied, Admitted in part, Lacks knowledge, No response required, Unclear or Not answered. Counsel can override any reading.

One row per allegation, showing its paragraph, count, element, supporting and contrary evidence, witnesses, authentication and disclosure.

A number, title, claim text, theory, the parties asserting and defending it, and optionally the count it is an alternative to. A new count starts with no elements, on purpose. Its workspace has 11 tabs: Overview, Elements, Allegations, Evidence, Witnesses, Publications, Damages, Questions, Gaps, Timeline and Attorney notes.

From the pleading, the attorney, or an AI suggestion. A default framework must be confirmed by counsel. Assess each element against the record proposes a status for each element; counsel decides.

A fact is a numbered proposition (FACT-001). Its status is Alleged (the default), Corroborated, Disputed, Admitted or Unresolved. The status describes the record, not the truth.

• Documents are linked as Supports, Corroborates, Contradicts or Context, with a pin cite.
• Witnesses are linked with a knowledge basis: Direct knowledge, Document-supported, Secondhand, Inference or Unknown.

The Without a supporting document filter shows what still needs proof.

A queue of people known only by initials or partial names. Marking someone Resolved requires their full name and the source that establishes it. A person can be set to show by initials in every export.

Five status markers (identity, contact, disclosure, testimony and statement) and 12 tabs: Overview, Knowledge, Counts, Facts, Evidence, Expected testimony, Contradictions, Deposition outline, Interview, Questions, Disclosure and Attorney notes. Addresses are checked against Postal Service data when saved.

It moves through three stages: AI draft — unconfirmed → Witness confirmed → Attorney approved. Changing the wording withdraws any confirmation or approval. “Will testify” language is refused on drafts that haven’t been confirmed.

Yes. Each witness has a deposition outline assembled by rule, with no AI, from topics, facts, contradictions, exhibits and prepared questions. Open it in Composer to edit it. Interview questions come in 13 categories, and they stay open-ended except under cross-examination.

1. You invite the witness, who gets a witness-only account.
2. They see only their own statement and a drafting assistant. The assistant receives no case material and never supplies a fact. If it introduces a name, date or figure the witness didn’t write, that wording is withheld and the witness is told why.
3. The witness submits the statement to counsel. Submission is one-way; the team can’t edit the witness’s words.
4. Counsel accepts it, or returns it for revision with a note.
5. The witness signs by typing their full name under a perjury declaration chosen for the court. The signed text is fingerprinted and frozen.
6. You download the signed declaration, or a version for notarisation.

The whole drafting conversation is kept.

Each date records how precise it is: exact, day, month, year or unknown. Events with no known date are held in their own list rather than placed at a guess. When sources disagree, the other dates appear under Also dated. Codira ESQ never fills in a date from surrounding events.

Each contradiction pairs Statement A and Statement B, each with its sources. It records why they conflict and a possible innocent explanation, plus a severity from Low to Critical. Its status (Open, Explained, Confirmed or Dismissed) is set by counsel, with a reason. Contradictions found by AI go through review like everything else.

The client’s own account of each document, in date order. It is labelled privileged, is never produced, and isn’t treated as evidence. The AI may read it for context but may never cite it.

It runs an AI read of strengths and weaknesses, for the whole case or one count. Every point is labelled: fact, evidence, inference, possible argument, attorney position or unknown. If a point overclaims, it is relabelled down. Results are saved and dated, and they don’t update on their own. Strategy never predicts a win or a loss.

A read-only picture answering “Why does this matter?”. It follows the chain from a person, to a statement or document, to a transaction, proposition, element, count and damages.

Codira ESQ’s own calculator, never the AI. You write a formula over named inputs. Each damages item shows four figures that are never added together:

Claimed

What counsel entered

Calculated

The formula applied to all inputs

Documented

The formula applied only when every input has a source document

Estimated

A range

A figure isn’t shown until its inputs are recorded. Marking it disclosure-ready requires a supporting document and attorney approval.

Each transaction is Documented, Asserted, Unverified or a missing link. It can carry wire, ACH, check, crypto and token details, including wallets and hashes. In a chain of transactions, a step with no record is shown as No record attached; it’s never filled in by inference. Financial findings, such as a rapid outflow or a missing invoice, are flagged as potential discrepancies, never as wrongdoing.

Things the record is missing: evidence, witness confirmation, contact details, support for an allegation, authentication, a referenced document, damages documentation, an identity, a transaction link, and so on. Draft requests from gaps turns gaps into a draft set of requests. Nothing is ever served from Codira ESQ.

Interrogatories, requests for production and requests for admission, each with its service method. Numbered requests pasted in are split automatically. More than 25 interrogatories triggers a warning citing FRCP 33(a)(1).

The Disclosures page covers categories A–E: people, documents and ESI, damages, insurance, and documents referred to in the pleadings. Build my disclosures is a checklist computed from your records, not ticked by hand. Draft initial disclosures creates a Composer draft that lists only documents determined Non-privileged.

1. Gather the documents into a production set.
2. Withhold any document, with a reason.
3. Stamp the Bates numbers.
4. Produce the set.

Numbering picks up after the highest number already stamped in the case. Each page gets one number, using the PDF’s real page count. Stamping is locked per case, so a number is never issued twice. Prefix and width are your choice.

Produce and Download both refuse if:

• the set is empty
• any document going out is unstamped
• a withheld document has no reason
• a document failed its integrity check
• a document has an open privilege, personal-data or medical flag
• any document going out isn’t marked Non-privileged (undetermined counts as not cleared)

Once a set is produced it’s closed: nothing can be added, withdrawn, restamped or deleted.

A ZIP of up to 400 MB containing Bates-stamped PDFs (with the confidentiality legend on each page), natives with slip sheets, extracted text, and a Concordance .dat load file. Withheld documents appear on the production log, not in the ZIP.

Yes. It’s a separate report, marked internal work product, and it’s the only report that lists withheld material.

Sixteen, each exportable to Excel, Word or CSV. PDF works through the print preview.

Producible

Initial disclosure — people; Initial disclosure — case-in-chief documents; Damages computation; Documents referred to in the pleadings; Production log

Internal work product

Witness directory; Expected testimony; Count-by-count evidence; Pleading-to-proof matrix; Missing evidence; Transactions; Blockchain transactions; Defamation publication matrix; Master chronology; Discovery collection status; Privilege log

Reports show the case caption, not Codira ESQ branding. People set to initials appear by initials. Every export is written to the audit log.

Yes, with Export case. You get every original you’re allowed to see, in ZIP parts of up to 250 MB. Part 1 includes an index.csv with each file’s code, title, part, custodian, privilege, confidentiality, SHA-256, size and date added. This works on closed cases and during the read-only period after a subscription ends.

• Case assistant (⌘J): ask questions about the case. Answers are split into answer, supporting and contradicting, with what’s missing and follow-up questions. It takes account of what you’re looking at, such as a witness, count, document or draft.
• Evidence report: what supports a statement, what corroborates it independently, what contradicts it, and what’s missing.
• Specialist agents for each part of the case, from pleadings and elements to witnesses, timeline, transactions, damages, contradictions, discovery, disclosures and authentication. Each practice area has its own.
• Reading on upload: new documents are read for dates, links and, for financial material, transactions.
• Strategy, senior review of drafts, discovery drafting from gaps, Composer drafting help, Authority research, and a witness affidavit helper that is walled off from the case.

No. Everything the AI proposes lands in AI recommendations, the review queue (J/K to move, A to accept, R to reject). Only a person’s acceptance puts anything into the record, and that acceptance is logged against the person.

The AI runs under house rules, among them: source everything, never fabricate, an allegation is not evidence, no findings of wrongdoing, label inference, never invent testimony or dates, and don’t suppress contrary material. Code then checks every answer before you see it:

• Every quotation must appear word for word in a cited record.
• Every date, dollar amount and number must appear in the cited sources. A simple calculation is allowed but must be named as one.
• A citation to anything outside the case is discarded.
• Wording that states a conclusion (“stole”, “embezzled”, “is liable”) is caught unless it’s framed as an allegation.
• Claims about testimony that hasn’t been confirmed (“will testify”) are caught.
• Figures you typed into your own question never count as verification.

A second, independent AI review checks each statement as well. It can lower a verdict but never raise one.

Verified

The quotes and details were found in the cited records. It does not mean the claim is true.

Verified with warnings

The checks passed, but the second review had doubts.

Unverified

It couldn’t be checked, for example because the source has no readable text or the answer was cut off.

Failed check

A quote or detail wasn’t found in the sources.

A suggestion that failed a check can only be accepted with a written reason, and that override is audited.

Yes. Firm owners set AI rules: Guidance, such as “Never estimate settlement value”, and Words to avoid, with a replacement, such as “Exhibit #” → “Ex. A”. Firm rules are added on top of Codira ESQ’s own rules and never relax them. Words to avoid are checked by code on every answer, draft passage and finding.

Yes, in Settings → AI record, for anyone with audit access. Every model call is recorded: the feature, the prompt version, the records it was shown, its output, the token count and which checks fired.

Only what retrieval pulls for the question, such as document excerpts, pleading paragraphs, facts and people. For people it sees only name, role, organisation and relationship; it never sees addresses, emails, phone numbers or counsel’s private notes. Documents you’re screened from are never retrieved. Text in a document addressed to an AI is treated as material, never as an instruction.

AI features pause until the 1st of the month, or until you buy more in the app. Everything else keeps working.

Codira ESQ’s legal word processor, connected to the record.

The core set covers Complaint, Answer, discovery requests, Initial disclosures, Discovery response, Motion, Opposition, Reply, Brief, Memorandum, Declaration, Affidavit, Notice, Proposed order, Settlement agreement and Custom document. Practice areas add their own, such as Motion to suppress, Parenting plan, Due diligence request list, Lease abstract and Cease-and-desist letter; these are drafted for attorney review before firms rely on them. Firms can also save their own templates.

Pick a court format from a library of 57 jurisdictions. Exports carry a real Table of Contents and Table of Authorities with page numbers.

• Draft, Rewrite, More persuasive, More concise and Footnote
• Find support, Find contradictions, Unsupported facts and Ask
• Deep Search, which ranks records as supports, contradicts or related

There are also optional suggestions while typing, which can be switched off for the firm or per person.

No. Drafting AI never cites a case, statute or rule. It writes [Authority: …] where a citation belongs, and [Evidence needed: …] where the record is thin. Anything shaped like a citation is struck out. Citations come from the Authority tools.

It carries an AI-origin mark on screen and in tracked-change history. The mark never appears in exports.

A draft moves through Draft → Attorney review → Partner review → Client review → Approved → Ready for filing → Filed. Only attorneys can mark a draft Ready for filing, and a Filed document can’t be changed. Readiness checks each factual sentence against the record, though Codira ESQ never decides whether a document is ready to file. Senior review gives a sceptical margin critique without editing anything.

One person edits at a time, and everyone else sees who is editing. Autosave runs continuously, with conflict protection.

Word (.docx), including a version with changes accepted; PDF; and a filing package ZIP with a SHA-256 manifest. You can also compare versions as a Word redline.

From Codira ESQ’s own hosted copy of the Free Law Project’s CourtListener public-domain bulk data: opinions with star pages, the citation map, and later courts’ parentheticals. It also includes the U.S. Code and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Evidence and Appellate Procedure.

The library is refreshed quarterly, so it can be up to three months behind, and every authority shows the date of its data. Your searches run against Codira ESQ’s own index, never an outside legal database.

Every state, at no extra charge. Each state brings its own courts, the federal courts sitting in it, its circuit and the Supreme Court. Courts are labelled Controlling, Potentially controlling, Persuasive, Out of jurisdiction or Not determined, using structured court data, never AI.

No. Codira ESQ has no citator. It shows how often a case is cited and later courts’ parentheticals, but it makes no treatment or “good law” claims.

Deep Search; Ask about this case and Summarise; Find authority for a sentence (in Composer); Contrary and similar cases; Compare to our facts; and Does it support this?, which answers Supports, Partly supports, Does not support, Says the opposite or Cannot tell.

• The AI sees only the passages it was given.
• Citations are written by Codira ESQ’s citation engine, never by the AI.
• Quotes are compared character for character.
• Sentences claiming certainty, such as “the law is” or “good law”, are never shown.
• Before a research question is sent to the AI, names of people and organisations in your case are replaced with their roles, and codes, emails and long numbers are removed.

Yes. Use folders and propositions, with visibility set to Only me, Legal team, Attorneys only or Shared with the client. There’s also a citation map, and a research trail is kept.

Nine today, all included in every subscription:

Litigation

Its own screens: Counts, Elements, Witnesses, Affidavits, Contradictions, Transactions, Damages, Discovery, Disclosures, Productions, Pleadings, Strategy, Case graph

Special rule: Never says an element is proven

Criminal Defense

Its own screens: Charges, Plea offers, Suppression

Special rule: The client is presumed innocent. Only attorneys record pleas.

Family Law

Its own screens: Property, Support, Children

Special rule: The AI never states a support or maintenance amount. Child support is recorded only with the official worksheet. Built for Colorado.

Transactions & M&A

Its own screens: Diligence, Deal issues, Closing

Special rule: Counsel’s judgement is never substituted

Corporate

Its own screens: Entities, Board actions

Special rule: Ownership is only what the records state

Commercial Contracts

Its own screens: Contracts, Obligations

Special rule: No date arithmetic on contract periods

Employment & Labor

Its own screens: Investigation, Policies

Special rule: —

Real Estate

Its own screens: Properties, Leases

Special rule: —

Intellectual Property

Its own screens: Portfolio, Licenses

Special rule: —

Every practice area shares the core: evidence vault, people, facts, timeline, Composer, Authority, tasks, deadlines, time, the assistant, review queue, client portal and audit trail. Estate & Probate, Regulatory & Compliance and Bankruptcy are coming soon.

No. The practice area is chosen when the case is opened and is fixed from then on.

Not yet. The support and maintenance rules and forms are Colorado’s. Other states need their own.

No. It’s native desktop software with its own windows, menus, tabs, keyboard shortcuts and drag-and-drop. It works on the same cases as the web app, live.

• Mac: macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later. One universal app for Apple silicon and Intel, installed from a .dmg.
• Windows: 64-bit, installed per user. The installer fetches WebView2 if it’s missing.

Yes. On Mac it’s signed by Codira, Inc. and notarised by Apple. On Windows it’s signed by Codira Inc through Microsoft’s signing service.

The app checks at most once a day. When an update is ready, you see Restart to Update, and nothing installs until you choose it. You can also use Settings → General → Check for Updates. If the server needs a newer version, the app says so before you sign in. Updates are cryptographically signed.

Click Sign in with your browser. Your normal Codira ESQ sign-in runs in your browser, so the desktop app never sees your password. Approve the device, and you’re in. The device is named after your computer and appears under Settings → Devices, and under Security on the web.

Attorneys, lead attorneys, paralegals and administrators. Clients, experts and witnesses use the web.

The long-lived token is kept in the Mac Keychain or Windows Credential Manager, and it rotates on every use. The short-lived token is held only in memory. If a token is copied and reused elsewhere, the whole device session is revoked.

No. Case data lives in memory only. Originals you open are downloaded to a temporary folder, which is deleted when you sign out or quit. The app works only while connected; the status bar shows Connected or Offline.

• Cases window: your case list, with New Case.
• Case windows: one per case, each with a Navigator on the left (grouped into Case, Proof, Discovery and Work), tabs that keep their place, an Inspector on the right, and a status bar showing connection, uploads, a running timer, firm-drive status and your role.
• Item windows: pop any item out (⌘Enter, or double-click its tab).

• Case: Overview, Counts, Facts, Issues, Contradictions, Review queue
• Proof: Evidence (with viewer), Witnesses, People, Affidavits, Timeline, Transactions, Damages, Case graph
• Discovery: Gaps, Requests, Disclosures, Productions, Pleadings
• Work: Composer, Authority, Time

Also available: Reports (with Print, Word, Excel and CSV), Export Case, and the Audit Log.

⌘ means Ctrl on Windows.

Find in case / jump

⌘K

Ask AI

⌘J

Settings (Mac)

⌘,

Cases

⌘⇧O

New Case

⌘⇧N

Reports

⌘⇧R

Print

⌘P

Undo / Redo

⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z

Refresh

⌘R

Close tab / window

⌘W / ⌘⇧W

Show/hide Navigator

⌘0

Show/hide Inspector

⌘⌥0

Overview, Counts, Facts, Witnesses, Timeline

⌘⇧1 to ⌘⇧5

Evidence

⌘⇧E

Next / previous tab

Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+⇧Tab

Open in new window

⌘Enter

Quick Look

Space

Tables also support ⌘A (select all), Shift-select, Enter to open, and right-click menus.

Yes, up to 50 per window. An undo sends the reverse change to the server and is audited like any other change. Actions that can’t be undone, such as deleting, sending or filing, ask for confirmation first.

Drag files onto a case window, or click Add files. Each file is fingerprinted, then uploaded in resumable pieces, retrying through dropped connections. The limit is 100 MB per file. A duplicate shows which evidence code it already has.

Yes, if your firm lets you open cases. Use File → New Case: drop in the complaint (PDF, Word, text, RTF or an image), confirm the caption, choose your side, watch the reading board fill with claims, parties, sums, dates and allegations, and open the case. You can also fill it in by hand. In an existing litigation case, Read In a Pleading previews everything before you choose what to add.

An option that keeps your originals on your firm’s own network share instead of in Codira ESQ’s storage.

• Codira ESQ stores only the record: name, custodian, fingerprint and path.
• Adding a file copies it into the case folder. The app never moves or overwrites the original.
• Opening a file checks the fingerprint again, and a mismatch is flagged.
• Firm settings decide where new files and drafts go, whether AI may read drive files, and how often fingerprints are checked.

The same assistant as the web, docked on the right. It shows trust labels: Checked, Not fully checked, Failed a check and Inference. Each answer can be copied, saved to Word or printed. The Agents tab runs the specialist agents and notifies you when results are ready for review.

• General: appearance, notifications, updates
• Account: your signature block for Composer
• Devices: sign out a device, or all others
• Firm: details, people and roles, seats and billing, ethical walls
• Files: case folders and firm-drive policy
• AI: usage by person
• Connections: integration status

Billing, passwords and connecting integrations open in your browser.

Two Office add-ins, installed separately: Codira ESQ for Word and Codira ESQ for Excel. Both open from a Codira ESQ tab on the ribbon.

• Link the document to a matter. The link is saved inside the file, and access is checked every time the file opens.
• Case info: insert the caption block, or single fields (court, case number, judge, parties, counsel of record and more) at the cursor.
• Deadlines: insert deadlines as a sentence, list or table, exactly as Codira ESQ records them. The add-in never calculates a deadline, and inserting an unconfirmed deadline needs a second tick.
• Refresh: see before → after for anything that changed in Codira ESQ and choose what to update. Removed values are never deleted automatically.
• Citations: check the case citations in the whole document or a selection. Each citation is marked Verified, Needs review or Unresolved, and you can add Word comments for the ones to review.
• Remove Codira ESQ data: strips the link and hidden markers before a document leaves the firm. Your text stays.

• Export live tables to a new sheet: deadlines for this matter, deadlines across all your matters, the docket (pleadings and motions), or all your matters. Status and Days-left columns are live formulas.
• Refresh a table from Codira ESQ. Columns you added yourself are never touched, and removing a row needs a second tick.
• Deadline summary: a sheet of formulas with a chart (open, overdue, due in 7/30/90 days, unconfirmed, by month) that updates with every refresh.
• Reports: insert any of Codira ESQ’s reports as an Excel table.

No. The citation check is deterministic. It checks that the case exists, that the reporter, volume and page agree, that the pin cite falls within the opinion, and that quotes and the case name match.

Only the text you choose to check for citations. Codira ESQ checks it and doesn’t keep it. Documents and workbooks are never uploaded, and the add-ins have no analytics.

Unresolved means Codira ESQ couldn’t find the case, not that the case doesn’t exist. Only full reporter citations to cases are checked; short forms, id., statutes and rules are not. It isn’t a citator.

Always. Every change to a file is previewed first, and you can untick items. Batch inserts happen all at once or not at all.

Word and Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows, Mac and the web. Office LTSC 2021 and 2024 work through admin deployment. iPad and mobile aren’t supported.

An IT admin adds them in the Microsoft 365 admin center (Settings → Integrated apps) and assigns them to users. It can take up to 24 hours for them to appear. They are also coming to Microsoft Marketplace.

Attorneys, paralegals and administrators on a matter, signed in with their Codira ESQ account. Each person’s role, ethical walls and firm standing are checked on every call.

They’re included with every Codira ESQ subscription, at no extra charge.

A separate application for depositions, in the Codira ESQ family: secure video examinations, real-time AI assistance, intelligent exhibits and transcript intelligence. The Depose page describes it.

$199 a month per user, with unlimited depositions. It’s added to the firm’s Codira ESQ bill: after sign-up, an administrator switches Depose on for each person who needs it, and each person switched on is charged like a seat.

Clio. MyCase, Filevine, Smokeball and PracticePanther are coming soon.

• Into Codira ESQ: link an external matter to a Codira ESQ case, or open it as a new case; bring in the matter’s contacts as People; bring in documents you pick, which are fingerprinted, coded and deduplicated like any other upload.
• Out to the practice-management system, automatically about every 10 minutes: approved time entries, filed emails, and confirmed future deadlines.
• Documents go out only when someone sends one. Screened documents can never be sent.

No. Each item is sent once. Nothing from before a case was linked is sent, so time already entered in Clio isn’t duplicated. Time entries are matched to the Clio user by email address.

Yes. Each Clio matter gets an Open in Codira ESQ action. It opens the linked case only for someone already on that case.

Someone with firm-management rights (a lead attorney or administrator). Each firm has one connection. Disconnecting keeps the case links, so reconnecting carries on where you left off.

Connect Microsoft 365 under Settings → Email. The connection is read-only: Codira ESQ can’t send, move or delete mail. You can connect your own mailbox, a shared mailbox, or the whole firm with admin consent.

By default, a folder called Codira ESQ. You can add others. Until a message is filed, only its envelope (sender, recipients, subject and date) is copied.

1. Your own rules (by sender, domain or subject), which file the message automatically
2. An earlier message in the same conversation
3. The case number in the subject
4. A participant who appears in only one case
5. The sender’s domain

The whole message is stored as an unalterable .eml original. Each attachment becomes its own linked document. The email is marked attorney review required for privilege. New outside participants are offered as possible witnesses.

No. Microsoft 365 only.

It drafts time for you. While a case is in front of you, Codira ESQ notes which screen you’re on, never its content, and combines those notes with your activity into draft entries in 6-minute units. Nothing bills itself. You approve your own day, and approval freezes the minutes, the narrative and the rate.

Yes. Use the start/stop timer, add entries for past days, or record expenses with receipts from the vault. Rates can be set for the firm, a person, or a person on one case. UTBMS task, activity and expense codes are supported.

Yes. Mark month billed locks the entries. Invoices are numbered per case per month and output as PDF. Voiding an invoice frees its entries and keeps the number.

A CSV of hours and expenses across the firm’s cases, and LEDES 1998B with one invoice per case. Approved time also syncs to Clio.

Lead attorney

Everything an attorney can, plus manage people, cases and the firm

Attorney

Everything a paralegal can, plus counts and elements, privilege decisions, approving testimony, damages and productions, confirming deadlines, approving drafts, deleting evidence, and the audit log

Paralegal

Evidence (upload, edit, download, flag), facts, people, timeline, damages, gaps, AI, reviewing AI suggestions, Composer, Authority, time, tasks and deadlines

Administrator

Runs the firm: people, cases, billing, the audit log, hours, tasks and deadlines. No evidence, AI, work product or legal decisions.

Expert

Reads the case, downloads and flags evidence, uses AI, and works on damages and transactions. Never sees potentially privileged material.

Client

Works through the client portal only

Witness

Writes their own statement, and nothing else

Per case. The same person can be an attorney on one case and an expert on another.

The client portal shows upcoming confirmed deadlines, drafts sent to them for review (where they can comment), research folders shared with them, and an uploader plus their own recent uploads. Clients don’t see the case file, evidence, analysis or AI.

Screens that block a named person from one document, or from a whole confidentiality level (which also covers future documents). Each screen requires a reason. A screened document is left out of that person’s vault, search, reports, exports and AI. The person can still see that the document exists where other records cite its code.

Not a full search. Codira ESQ refuses to create two clients with the same name, so they can always be told apart in a conflicts check.

The second save is refused with a message that someone else changed it, and your wording is kept, so nothing is silently overwritten.

Data is encrypted in transit, with HTTPS everywhere. It is stored with hosting providers that encrypt data at rest. The Security page has more detail.

In the United States.

Passwords need at least 12 characters, with no composition rules. They’re hashed with scrypt, and comparisons are constant-time. Changing your password signs out every other session and device. The sign-in page gives the same answer and the same timing whether or not an account exists.

Web sessions last 12 hours. Desktop and add-in sessions use 15-minute access tokens with rotating refresh tokens. You can see and end every signed-in device and connected app under Settings → Security.

Too many failed sign-ins or reset requests are throttled. Accounts are never hard-locked, because a lock would let anyone shut a colleague out.

Yes, an append-only audit log. It records sign-ins, uploads, views, downloads, edits (with old and new values), exports, AI overrides and administrative actions, each tagged with the channel (web, desktop or Office) and the device.

The operator console shows firms, accounts, billing and system health. For case content it shows counts only. Operator accounts can’t open cases, and sensitive operator actions need a written reason and are audited.

Codira ESQ is working toward SOC 2.

Yes. The database is backed up nightly. A restore test runs every week: it restores the backup into a temporary database and checks the schema, row counts and a sample of file fingerprints. Backups are kept for 35 days, and the team is alerted if a backup or restore test is late or fails.

After the paid period ends, you get 30 days of read-only access to open, search, download and export everything. Then the workspace closes. To request your data or a deletion, contact support.

Attorney (attorney or lead attorney)

$395 per month

Paralegal

$199 per month

Depose™ (per user, unlimited depositions)

$199 per month

Administrators and staff

Free

Clients, experts and witnesses

Free

Unlimited cases, every practice area, every state’s case law, the desktop app, and the Word and Excel add-ins.

By person, not by case. Anyone who is an attorney on any of the firm’s cases takes an attorney seat. A person who is only ever a paralegal takes a paralegal seat. Deactivated people take no seat. Every firm pays for at least one attorney seat.

Adding: the seat is charged straight away for the rest of the month. Removing: there’s no credit; the next bill is simply lower. Removing and re-adding in the same month isn’t charged twice.

A monthly AI allowance that grows with every paid seat and resets on the 1st, with a much larger allowance in a firm’s first month so you can bring in existing cases. You can buy more in the app, and Settings → Usage shows usage by day, by feature and by person.

Under Billing → Manage billing, through Stripe’s billing portal. Card details never touch Codira ESQ’s servers.

The firm keeps working while Stripe retries, and the owners are emailed with the amount and the retry date.

From Billing. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period, with no partial refund, and you can undo it until then. Afterwards the firm has 30 days of read-only access. You can renew from the app at any time.

Codira ESQ can set up a firm by hand, invoiced by agreement. Contact the team.

• Email support@codira.com.
• For privacy questions, email privacy@codira.com.
• In the app, use How do I (⌘/) and the guided tours.