Overview
Clients who register get a home at /portal — a single place to see their open intakes, keep their profile up to date, upload documents, and talk to your firm. When your firm archives a client, that client can’t sign in to the portal until the firm restores them. Instead they see “This account is closed” with your firm’s name.What clients can do
- Continue intakes — pick up any in-progress questionnaire where they left off.
- Edit their profile — keep personal details current; changes flow into future forms.
- Upload documents — respond to rejections and add supporting files.
- Message the firm — a single conversation thread per client, with file attachments.
- Sign retainers — review, sign and pay a retainer your firm sent them.
- See their tasks — items the firm has assigned to them.
- Download forms — published form versions your firm has shared with them.
- Download packets — published filing packets your firm has shared with them.
Use the iPhone app
Clients can also use the Lexfill iPhone app, the same app your attorneys use. They sign in with the same email and 6-digit code they use on the web, choosing Client on the sign-in screen, and the app opens their side of Lexfill. An attorney’s account always opens the attorney side; nobody switches between the two. The client side has these tabs:- Home — the case’s status and progress, what your firm needs from them, each form with Start or Continue, retainers to sign, payments due, the published form and packet versions you’ve shared, and their lead attorney with a Message button. A client with more than one case picks the case at the top, and the app remembers the choice.
- Documents — the case’s document checklist (needed, sent, approved, or rejected with your note) and their other files. They can upload from the camera, scan several pages into one PDF, or pick from Photos or Files, and send a new copy of a rejected document. Photos have their location removed before upload.
- Messages — their thread with your firm. See Messaging.
- Payments — appears only once your firm has sent them an invoice or a retainer. It shows the balance, the next amount due, the payment plan with each installment’s status, every invoice, and the payment history. Pay opens your firm’s own pay page in Safari inside the app; nothing is paid in the app itself. If your firm hasn’t set up online payments, the app asks the client to message you about how to pay instead.
- Profile — their personal details (the same sections as the portal profile), their preferred language, notifications for that phone, a Face ID lock, and sign out.
Retainer to sign
When your firm sends a retainer to an existing client, it also shows up on their portal home under Retainer agreements, with its title and total:- Retainer to sign — sent and not yet signed. Review & sign opens the agreement, with the date it must be signed by.
- Payment pending — signed but not yet paid. Pay now picks up at payment. A signed retainer stays payable after the signing deadline.
Forms in the portal
Clients answer questionnaires, but they never see the filled PDF your firm is working on. They only see one once you publish a version of it and turn on Visible to client:- A read-only Forms section (“Prepared by your legal team”) sits below Documents on the case page. It lists only the versions your firm made visible, newest first — each with the form name, session label, version number, your note, and the date it was shared. When no version is visible, the section doesn’t appear.
- Download on demand — Download fetches a short-lived link (five minutes) and saves the file as
<Client>-<Form>-v<n>.pdf. - Hiding takes effect immediately — once you turn Visible to client off, the version disappears from the portal and can no longer be downloaded.
- Documents copies follow the version — if the version is also saved to Documents, its copy shows in the client’s document list only while the version is visible, and clients can’t delete it.
Packets in the portal
Clients never see a packet while you’re assembling it. Once you publish a packet version and turn on Visible to client, it appears on their case page:- A read-only Packets section (“Filing packets prepared by your legal team”) sits after Forms. It lists only the versions your firm made visible, newest first — each as Case packet with its version number, the date it was shared, the page count and your note. When no version is visible, the section doesn’t appear.
- Download on demand — Download fetches a short-lived link (five minutes) each time and saves the file as
filing-packet-v<n>.pdf. - Hiding takes effect immediately — once you turn Visible to client off, the version disappears from the portal and can no longer be downloaded.
Translations in the portal
Machine translations your firm is still working on stay out of the portal entirely:- Draft translations never appear in a client’s document lists — neither do translations still in progress. A client only ever sees a translation once your firm has certified it.
- Direct links don’t leak drafts — a client opening a draft translation’s link gets a not-found response, for downloads and previews alike.
- Clients can’t delete translations — certified ones included. Translations are managed by the firm; a client attempting to remove a certified one is told it’s managed by their legal team (drafts simply don’t exist as far as the portal is concerned).