Document Collection Built to Live in Your Firm’s Own Storage
The document collection portal for family law attorneys who are tired of chasing clients for discovery — and tired of a vendor holding the files.
FileShark tracks every requested document against what’s actually been produced, and keeps every file inside your firm’s own document storage — SharePoint, Google Drive, Dropbox, or wherever your files already live — instead of a vendor’s server. One-time purchase. Not a subscription.
Drop in the Request to Produce. Get the checklist. Upload the actual PDF and FileShark reads it, finds the document items, and builds the request for you. No more typing a disclosure list by hand.
It Was Never About Storage. It’s About the Chase.
Clients send bank statements by text. Tax returns by email. Half a mandatory disclosure category shows up, then nothing for three weeks.
Somebody on staff has to build the tracker by hand — what came in, what’s missing, whose account is whose. That person is expensive, that work is invisible, and it’s wrong the moment the next attachment lands in somebody’s inbox.
FileShark is the portal that does that tracking for you, and keeps every file inside your firm’s own document storage instead of a vendor’s server.
It’s a Beta Run. There Will Be Kinks.
FileShark is in active daily use inside a real Florida family law firm, on real cases, right now. It is also a beta run, and we would rather say that plainly here than have you find out after you’ve already bought in. There will be kinks. That is what a beta is.
Here is what the beta actually buys you: a direct line to the build. Our own beta tester named PDF-to-checklist as the one thing attorneys would not switch without — on a Wednesday. It shipped the following Sunday.
The Gap Gets Named
Live financial-disclosure test with a stand-in client. PDF-to-checklist flagged as the one thing attorneys wouldn’t switch without.
It Goes to the Top
Prioritized above everything else on the build list, ahead of a dozen smaller UX fixes already queued.
Gap Closed
OCR plus AI rules auto-detect the items in an uploaded Request to Produce and build the template. Confirmed working on a live session.
That is the trade, stated honestly. You get beta pricing and a roadmap shaped by your actual complaints. We get ten firms willing to tell us what is broken while we are still fast enough to fix it in days rather than quarters. The monthly feedback call is not a favor we are asking for — it is the thing you are buying.
Not the Roadmap. What’s Running Right Now.
Everything below is confirmed working in the build that’s handling live matters at a Florida family law firm. Where something is still rough, we say so plainly.
Drop In a PDF, Get the Checklist
Upload the actual Request to Produce. OCR plus AI rules read it, detect the individual document items, and build the request checklist for you — then save it as a reusable template.
Mandatory Disclosure, Built In
Every client screen carries a dedicated mandatory disclosure section, so the Rule 12.285 categories aren’t something you rebuild by hand on every new matter.
Expiration Dates That Expire
Set a real expiration on a request, not just a reminder. When it lapses, it lapses — the same behavior you already rely on elsewhere.
No More Manual Tracker
Tracks every requested document against what’s actually been produced. The gap between “asked for” and “received” is visible at a glance, per client, per category.
Live Progress, Every 20 Seconds
The client’s progress refreshes roughly every twenty seconds. You see the upload land while they’re still in the portal — not the next time somebody checks.
One View Per Client
Discovery status, filed documents, opposing-party filings, and the client’s own to-do list pull into a single client view once your storage folder is connected.
Approve One or Approve All
Bulk batch review: selectively accept or reject individual items inside a batch when a file needs a real look — or wholesale-approve a whole section when a category comes in clean.
Send Files — and Retract Them
It runs two ways. Send documents out to the client from their profile, and instantly pull back anything sent in error before it’s opened.
Internal Notes That Stay Internal
Notes anchor to the exact line item they’re about — “this statement is missing page 3” sits on that statement, timestamped and attributed. Never visible to the client.
Your Storage, Auto-Routed
Nothing sits on a third-party server. Approved documents route straight into the folder structure your firm already uses — no downloading and re-filing by hand.
Antivirus on Every Upload
Built-in virus scanning runs on every file a client uploads, before it’s routed anywhere near your document storage. Plus a 12-character minimum on portal passwords.
Native Claude / MCP
Generate a trust token, paste it in, done — no Zapier, no middleman. Each client links to its own Claude project. And there’s no product key locking your own instance.
The Honest Comparison
We have used Pipefile for ten years and still pay for it every month. This is a fair accounting of where each one wins, including where we are still behind.
| FileShark | Pipefile | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | One-time purchase — $3,500 in beta, includes 6 months of service and updates | Monthly subscription, indefinitely |
| Published price | $3,500 one time in beta — the whole firm, however many people use it. $11,500 one time at target retail. | $14.99 per user / month (Standard) or $29.99 per user / month (Professional), per Pipefile’s published pricing as of August 2026. Enterprise is quoted privately. |
| What happens when you hire | Nothing. Seats are not metered — the purchase covers the firm. | Every new user adds another monthly line item, permanently. |
| Where client documents live | Your firm’s own document storage — SharePoint, Google Drive, Dropbox, or another system you already run | The vendor’s servers |
| Auto-routing to your folders | Approved files land in your existing folder structure automatically | Download and re-file by hand |
| PDF → auto-built checklist | Upload a Request to Produce; OCR + AI build the checklist. Closed August 2026. | Works today |
| Expiring requests | True expiration dates, not just reminders | Same behavior — we matched it deliberately |
| AI connection | Native Claude / MCP trust token, no middleware; per-client Claude projects | Nothing equivalent in our account |
| Internal notes on a line item | Anchored to the specific requested document, timestamped, internal-only | Nothing equivalent in our account |
| Retracting a file sent in error | Two-way — send from the client profile and instantly pull back | Nothing equivalent in our account |
| Maturity | Beta 1 — kinks today, structurally ahead | Mature, polished, and standing still |
The Pipefile column reflects our own account and ten years of daily use as of August 2026, plus Pipefile’s own published pricing page as of the same date. It describes what we have access to and what they list publicly — not a claim about their current roadmap, unreleased features, or privately negotiated rates. FileShark beta pricing applies to the first ten firms only.
It’s Your Data. You Own It.
We Never Touch It.
Most document collection services work by taking custody of your clients’ most sensitive financial records and holding them on infrastructure you don’t control. FileShark is built the opposite way around, on purpose.
In storage you already own
FileShark writes into the document storage your firm already runs and already pays for. There is no separate FileShark copy of your client files, because there is no FileShark server holding them.
Nothing gets held hostage
Stop paying, walk away, change your mind entirely — every document is still sitting in your own folders, in your own structure. It never left, so there is nothing to export, migrate, or beg for.
We don’t read it, mine it, or train on it
Nobody at Legal Authority Lab opens your client files. Your documents are not analyzed for our benefit, not used to improve a product, and not used to train any model. They are not ours to look at.
Privilege stays inside your walls
Bank statements, tax returns, retirement accounts — the whole financial picture of a client in a contested case. That material should not be sitting in a vendor’s database, and under FileShark it never is.
This is the same principle as the pricing, applied to the data instead of the money: you should own the thing your practice depends on. You already trust your storage with everything else your firm holds. FileShark just puts client discovery where it always should have been — and then gets out of the way.
The Real Cost of Renting Access to Your Own Client Files.
We are not guessing at this number. It is our own invoice, every month, for ten years — and it grew every time we added a person.
Per seat, every month, forever. It never becomes yours — stop paying and you lose access to the portal your clients uploaded their financial disclosures into. Ten years in, we own nothing.
Target retail after the beta round is $11,500 one time, plus an optional $500 installation if you’d like us to set it up. A monthly payment plan will be available — a way to spread the cost, not a subscription you can never finish paying.
The Firm Running FileShark Is the Firm That Cut Discovery From 40 Hours to 15.
The same firm running FileShark also runs LAL’s Discovery Core system. FileShark is the collection layer underneath that pipeline — the part that gets the documents in the door so the rest of it has something to work on.
Measured inside Family Matters Law Group, P.A. on live matters — not a demo environment.
Same firm, same caseload, same attorneys. The difference is the system, not the staffing.
FileShark, Answered Directly
Short answers to the things attorneys actually ask before they buy.
What is FileShark?
How is FileShark different from other document collection services?
Can FileShark build a document checklist from a Request to Produce PDF?
Is FileShark a subscription?
How much will FileShark cost after the beta round?
Who is FileShark built for?
Where are the documents stored?
Does FileShark connect to Claude or other AI tools?
Are client uploads scanned for viruses?
Is FileShark finished?
We’re on a Mission to Give Lawyers Back Their Time and Their Money.
Free from subscriptions that never end. Free from the tasks that should have been automated years ago. With an AI paralegal that actually works for you.
Free From Subscriptions
You shouldn’t have to rent access to your own client files. Every LAL system is built to be owned — installed in your infrastructure, paid for once, and yours after that.
Free From the Busywork
Chasing documents. Building trackers by hand. Re-filing PDFs one at a time. If a machine can do it, it should — so your people spend their hours on the work you actually bill for.
Your AI Paralegal, Working
Not a chatbot bolted onto a website. A native Claude connection that reads your matter, works from your files, and lives inside the system your firm already uses.
Four Attorneys Who Own Law Firms and Pay Their Own Software Bills.
Nobody on this list is a product manager who has never taken a deposition. That’s the whole reason FileShark works the way discovery actually moves.
Leisa Wintz, Esq.
FL Bar No. 64399
Runs FileShark on her own caseload every day. If it doesn’t hold up on a live matter, it doesn’t ship.
Cheryl-Dene Spring, Esq.
Fifteen-plus years as an attorney, licensed real estate broker, and paralegal. Florida Supreme Court Certified Civil Mediator.
Henry Wintz, Esq.
Builds FileShark. An attorney writing the code is why the workflow matches how a request to produce actually gets answered.
Nazarena Hauser, Esq.
Tests every build against live family law practice and reports what’s broken before a client ever sees it.
Ten Firms. One Price. Build It With Us.
We’re not looking for ten customers. We’re looking for ten firms that will tell us what’s wrong with it every month while we fix it. Ask the last one how long that takes.
Beta price for the first ten firms. After this round, $11,500 one time plus an optional $500 installation. A monthly payment plan will be available.
- One-time purchase. No subscription, ever.
- 6 months of service and updates included.
- 10 beta seats at this price. That’s the whole round.
- Runs in your own storage — your files never leave your tenant.
- Less than nine months of what we pay a document collection vendor. Then it’s yours.
Want More Info First?
Get on the FileShark list for build updates, answers to the questions attorneys ask most, and a heads-up if anything changes before you commit. No spam — one or two emails, max.
Email leisa@legalauthoritylab.com to get on the list, or check back shortly for the sign-up form.