AI for Criminal Defense Practices: Discovery, Research and Intake in 2026

14 of the 125 tools in this directory are listed for criminal defense practices: the vendor either names criminal defense on its own site or sells to every practice area. The defense-specific set is small: four of the 14 are built around the discovery a defense team actually receives — body-worn camera footage, jail calls, interrogation video and phone extractions — and they get their own section below. The rest of this guide draws on tools sold to solo attorneys and small firms generally.

This guide walks the criminal defense practices page in the order a case runs, from the call to the testimony. Every price is the vendor's own, read on the vendor's own site on October 31, 2026, and each links to the listing with the full price string and the check date.

The call that comes at night

Every receptionist here answers around the clock. Hona, whose site names criminal defense, answers, starts intake, routes and books in 31 languages for $200/mo plus a $500 one-time setup fee, and lists Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther and Smokeball among its integrations. Smith.ai has a free plan of 25 calls a month, a Pro plan at $150/mo for 75 calls and hybrid plans that route new-client calls to live agents. NextPhone posts a flat Pro plan at $199/mo with unlimited inbound calls and a 7-day trial. Alert Communications is a legal-only intake call center with an AI voice option, from $240/mo for 100 minutes. Tars puts an intake agent on the website that asks preliminary conflict-check questions, with a free tier of 50 conversations a month.

The intake behind the phone

Lawmatics and Law Ruler both name criminal defense on their sites and are quoted: Lawmatics syncs converted matters to Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther or Smokeball and scores leads with Merlin Qualify, and Law Ruler includes its ChatGPT-based assistant in every paid tier. Lead Docket, Filevine's intake product, scores lead viability with Leads AI; Intaker puts AI agents on website chat, texting and Google Local Services Ads; and Scorpion bundles the firm's website and advertising with 24/7 AI chat. All three are quoted.

Research with a citation you can check

Paxton, whose site names criminal defense, puts research, drafting and case-file analysis in one workspace at $499/user/mo, or $2,999 per user/yr, with a 7-day free trial; the vendor posts a no-training statement and names SOC 2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA. LOIS by Filevine checks each citation against a verification layer and flags the ones it cannot verify, with a free LOIS Explore tier; paid plans are quoted. CaseMine covers federal and all 50 state courts from $49/mo, Counsel Stack checks citations inside Claude or ChatGPT with a free tier of 25 research calls and an Unlimited plan at $199/mo, and Westlaw posts Westlaw Edge with AI-Assisted Research at $170.95/mo. Vincent AI, built on the vLex/Fastcase library, is quoted, with bar-association member discounts through 80+ bar partnerships.

The chronology and the brief

Casefleet, which has a use-case page for criminal practices, keeps the fact chronology, document review and transcript review in one place from $30 per user/month, with Casey, its AI assistant, drafting proposed facts on the Advanced AI plan at $140 per user/month; there is a 14-day free trial. Clearbrief cite-checks a Word draft against the authority and the record, builds the Table of Authorities and pulls discovery PDFs from Clio and MyCase, at $300/user/mo on its Solo plan; it posts a no-training statement and names SOC 2 Type II. Docket Alarm searches and monitors federal and state dockets with an AI Assistant that answers questions about any case or judge, with a free tier of 5 actions a week and a Flat-Fee plan at $99 per user/month. Trellis covers state trial courts with Judge Analytics and a Case Strategy Report, from $140.00/mo with a 14-day free trial.

The practice system

LEAP, whose site names criminal defense, builds Matter AI, LawY and a document Generator into its practice management and is quoted. Clio Manage starts at $49/user/mo with a 7-day free trial; Clio posts a no-training statement and names SOC 2 Type II. MyCase starts at $50/user/mo billed annually, and its Advanced plan at $130/user/mo billed annually adds a Discovery Assistant that OCRs 5,000 scanned pages per user a month. CosmoLex starts at $49/user/mo with trust accounting built in, and Smokeball, quoted, pairs 20,000+ document templates with Archie, its AI matter assistant.

Time and the bill

Lawgbook drafts time entries from email, calendar and meetings and files them to the right Clio matter at $29.99/seat/mo. LeanLaw is billing and trust accounting on QuickBooks Online from $55/user/mo, with a 7-day free trial. Ajax and LegalTime AI capture billable work from the screen and release the entries the attorney approves to Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther and others; both are quoted. Ajax posts a no-training statement and names SOC 2 Type II; LegalTime AI offers a 30-day trial.

The discovery: body-cam, jail calls and interviews

This is the defense-specific set, and it is four tools. JusticeText transcribes body-worn camera footage, interrogation videos and other recorded discovery into time-synced, searchable transcripts, summarizes the evidence and lets the team clip, redact and caption it for court; MirandaAI, its chat assistant, builds timelines and flags inconsistencies. It pulls discovery from Clio, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and Box and is quoted. Reduct does the same for body-cam, jail calls and police interviews, with a human-transcription upgrade for difficult audio, AI redaction of faces and names and translation in 90+ languages; it serves defense teams only and posts $40/editor/mo on its Professional plan, with legal and public-defense plans from $75/editor/mo. Reduct posts a no-training statement and names SOC 2 Type II. Rev lists criminal defense among its legal customers: a free plan with 45 AI transcription minutes a month, Essentials at $25.49 per seat/mo billed annually, legal-formatted transcripts from $2.25/page and Multi-File Evidence Analysis with citations; Rev posts a no-training statement and names SOC 2 Type II. Sonix Legal adds UFDR phone-extraction analysis and case-wide Q&A with citations, sends transcripts to Clio in one click, and posts Sonix Legal Pro at $880/yr billed annually or Pay As You Go at $10/hour; it posts a no-training statement and names SOC 2 Type II.

The testimony

Deposition and hearing transcripts have their own tools, all sold to small firms generally. SmartDepo returns a page:line summary, usually in under five minutes, with a legal professional checking each one: $85 each for one to nine summaries with no subscription, or $99/user/mo plus $25 flat/summary on the platform plan, with a 7-day free trial. Parrot by Filevine prices summaries from $30/summary through its Clio listing. Steno Transcript Genius comes with every Steno deposition at no additional charge and accepts uploaded third-party transcripts. Verbit adds Legal Visor, real-time AI insights with inconsistency detection during testimony, and Veritext Smart Summary's Smart Analysis highlights admissions with page-line citations; both are quoted.

Where to start

Six of the 14 tools listed for criminal defense practices post a price, LOIS by Filevine has a free tier, and the rest give a quote after a demo. The useful test is a demo with your own matters: an hour of body-cam footage with crosstalk, a jail call with poor audio, a transcript from the reporter you already use. Each listing linked above carries the full price string, the integrations the vendor names and the date we checked it.

Quick answers

Which AI tools transcribe body-cam footage and jail calls for defense attorneys?

JusticeText (quoted) and Reduct (from $40/editor/mo, with legal and public-defense plans from $75/editor/mo) both transcribe body-worn camera, interrogation and jail-call recordings into searchable, time-synced transcripts. Rev starts free with 45 AI minutes a month, and Sonix Legal posts Pay As You Go at $10/hour.

What does AI legal research cost for a criminal defense practice?

CaseMine posts plans from $49/mo, Counsel Stack has a free tier and an Unlimited plan at $199/mo, Westlaw posts $170.95/mo for Westlaw Edge with AI-Assisted Research, and Paxton, which names criminal defense on its site, is $499/user/mo.

Which of these tools say evidence and client data are not used to train their AI?

Reduct, Rev, Sonix Legal, Paxton, Clearbrief and Clio Manage each post a no-training statement and name a security standard such as SOC 2 Type II; the confidentiality column is on every listing.

Is there an AI tool that analyzes phone extractions?

Sonix Legal names UFDR phone-extraction analysis alongside case-wide Q&A with citations, at $880/yr billed annually for Sonix Legal Pro or $10/hour on Pay As You Go.

Which intake tools name criminal defense on their own sites?

Hona ($200/mo plus a $500 one-time setup fee for its Voice AI receptionist), Lawmatics and Law Ruler (both quoted) name criminal defense practices, and Lead Docket, Intaker and Scorpion sell to every practice area.