DefenseDesk
The defense file, searchable from the indictment to the appeal.
DefenseDesk keeps each client's discovery, recordings, court dates and billable time in one place. It reads every PDF, transcribes body cam and jail calls, and drafts timelines that point to the exact page and second each fact came from.
Built in Ohio, for criminal defense.
In the Court of Common Pleas
Cuyahoga County, Ohio
State of Ohio,
Plaintiff,
v.
Marcus Delaney,
Defendant.
Case No. CR-26-712345-A
Judge Patricia Okafor
What DefenseDesk did on this file
| Oct 14 | Indictment read. Two counts, the judge and the arraignment date pulled from page 1 for you to confirm. |
| Oct 15 | Body cam, Officer Brandt, 30 minutes, transcribed. Every line jumps to its moment in the video. |
| Oct 15 | Incident report, 14 pages, made searchable. |
| Oct 16 | Timeline drafted: 22 events, each tied to the page or second it came from. |
| Oct 21 | Clerk's notice forwarded in. Pretrial Nov 3, 9:00 AM, added after review. |
| Nov 2 | Reminder sent: pretrial tomorrow, Courtroom 15-B. |
Sample case. Names are invented.
Built around how a defense case moves
-
Intake
Every client, co-defendant and complaining witness is checked for conflicts against all your past cases. Upload the charging papers and DefenseDesk reads the charges, court, judge and dates for you to confirm. Bring existing cases over from Clio, MyCase or a spreadsheet.
-
Discovery
PDFs and photos are read with OCR. Body cam, dash cam and jail calls are transcribed. Search every word across every case, and click a transcript line to jump the video there.
-
Building the defense
Draft a timeline or a strategy review of the whole file. Facts cite the page or second they came from, every quote is checked against the file, and nothing is added until you approve it.
-
Court dates
Every court date and deadline on one calendar, on your phone, with reminders by email or Telegram. Forward clerk notices and the dates are read out for you to apply.
-
Hearing and trial
Build numbered exhibit packets as one PDF, with clips cut from the video to the second.
-
Appeal and after
Follow the case to the court of appeals, the Supreme Court of Ohio, back on remand, and into post-conviction, with each court's dates and outcome.
Time and costs, ready for the fee bill
Log time on each case or run a timer. Ohio appointed-counsel fee bills ask for in-court and out-of-court hours separately, so DefenseDesk keeps them separate and the export adds them up. Retained work gets your hourly rate. Investigator, expert, transcript and filing costs are tracked on each case too.
Confidential by design
Your files hold privileged communications and discovery under protective orders. Here is exactly how they're handled.
- Firms are walled off
- Every case, file and search is scoped to your firm. No other firm can see them, and the platform's own admin console shows usage, never case contents.
- Two-step login
- Sign in with your password and a code from an authenticator app. Owners can require it for everyone in the firm.
- Every action is logged
- Uploads, downloads, edits, logins and AI requests are recorded in the firm's audit log.
- Encrypted nightly backups
- The database and every file are encrypted on the server and copied to separate storage each night.
- Where AI runs
- Transcription runs on DefenseDesk's own server. Timelines and strategy reviews send document text to Anthropic's Claude API, and only when you start them.
- Discreet alerts
- Reminders by email or Telegram show case numbers, not client names, unless you choose otherwise.
Switching from Clio, MyCase or a spreadsheet
Export your data and upload it. DefenseDesk matches the columns, shows a preview of every case, time entry and court date it will create, and lets you leave out practice areas that aren't criminal. Documents come over as a ZIP of case folders. If anything looks wrong afterwards, one click undoes the import.
Pricing
One monthly price per firm, set by the number of attorneys. Everything is included: transcription, AI drafting, alerts, the calendar and time sheets. Request a demo and we'll walk you through it and send a quote.
Request a demo
We'll show you DefenseDesk on a sample case, answer questions about moving your files over, and send pricing. We reply within one business day.