Text Messaging

MyCase text messaging provides your firm the ability to quickly connect with clients & leads through 2-way SMS text messages.

Lisa Myers avatar
Written by Lisa Myers
Updated over a week ago

MyCase text messaging allows your firm to quickly connect with clients & leads via SMS, collect important photos via MMS, and view saved conversations within MyCase- all without providing your cell phone number. Text messages are best suited for brief updates, reminders, and requests for case-related photos or screenshots. Examples include: confirming appointment/court hearing attendance and location, scheduling follow-up meetings, asking one-off questions, reminding clients about document requests or deadlines, or requesting a photo of a client’s driver’s license or an important document.

How to Send Text Messages to Your Clients Using MyCase

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Please be aware that your firm's text messages to clients and leads may be subject to regulation under, among other things, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (the "TCPA"). We recommend that you (i) consult with an attorney to understand your obligations and liabilities under the TCPA, and (ii) obtain the appropriate consent required under the TCPA, prior to sending any text messages to clients or leads. Your firm is responsible to ensure that your text messages comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.


Viewing Text Message Conversations

Text Message conversations can be found in Case, Lead & Contact Details pages as well as the Text Message Inbox in the main Communications tab.

When a contact has a phone number with a text conversation, that conversation can be found in both the main Text Message Inbox page as well as the Contact Details page. Whenever that contact is linked to a case, the text conversation is automatically linked to that case and can be found in the Text Messages section of the Case Details page.

Let's take a close look at the Text Messaging window:

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Compose SMS Message: Used to begin a brand new message with a client/ lead or direct phone number.

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Firm's specific Phone Number: This is the number that all messages will be sent from. Clients can also compose a SMS text message directly to this phone number.

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List of Messages: This is a list of a previous messages sent or received by the firm. You can control the conversations that display in the main Inbox page (on the Communications tab) via the icons within each conversation (see "Managing Notifications & the Inbox" section for more information).

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Message Composition: Use this space to write what you would like to communicate to your client.

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Send Message: This button will send the SMS text message to its intended recipient. The return key on your keyboard can also be used.

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Images: Once you receive an image, you can enlarge it. Click on the image from the text conversation, opening a new tab where you can download, copy, or save the image.


Sending/ Receiving Text Messages

Anyone at the firm with the Add/Edit Text Messaging permission can read and send text messages from the main Communication Tab. To send a text message to a lead, contact, or direct phone number click on the Compose button in the upper right hand corner.
A new window appears, prompting you to search for a client that exists in the database or to type a new phone number that is not saved in MyCase. You can search by your client's name or phone number. Once selected, compose your message in the space at the bottom of the screen and then click send. All responses will show within the same message thread that you just created.

Clients can send SMS and MMS texts, including photos and GIFs under 5mb. Supported file types include JPG, JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Click on the image from within the text conversation to enlarge an image. *MMS texting is one-way: clients can send images to your firm, but you cannot send images to your clients. Conversations are automatically linked to any case that is linked to a contact.

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Conversations are automatically linked to any case that a contact is linked to.


Managing Notifications & the Inbox

Whenever a user starts a conversation or replies to a conversation, they will get teal bubble notifications for any incoming messages from that number. This notification will not appear for outgoing messages from a different user in the firm. If an incoming message is received from a number that the firm hasn't communicated with before, any firm user with the ability to Add/Edit Text Messages will receive the notification.

You may also receive email or desktop notifications for text messages from clients, other firm members or both. Visit the "My Notifications" section of Settings to opt-in. When you click to enable a desktop notification for the first time, your browser will prompt you to allow notifications. If you previously blocked notifications from your browser, you will need to enable them in your browser settings before MyCase can send them.

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Block this number: The conversation will be removed from the Text Messages inbox, and firm users will no longer be notified of incoming texts. The number can be searched and unblocked by sending an outgoing message.

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Print the conversation: You may print any conversation. The printed portion of the conversation is limited to the part of the conversation that is loaded in the page. To print the entire conversation, scroll through the entire conversation to load it and print.

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Notifications: Mute or enable notifications for a conversation by clicking the Bell Icon within any text conversation to change its notification status. Participating in a conversation will automatically enable notifications for you.

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Leave Conversation: Leave a conversation to remove it from your Inbox while allowing it to remain for other firm members. Do this when you are not interested in an on-going conversation.

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Archive Conversation: Archive a conversation to remove it from everyone's inbox, including yours. Do this when no further communication will take place (e.g. closed cases).

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Stop searching through text messages to find unread messages. Enable the “Show only unread messages” toggle in your Text Message Inbox in the Communications tab.


Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is there an extra fee for using the text messaging feature?

No! MyCase Text Messaging is included with your monthly MyCase subscription.

2. Can clients send multiple images per text?

Clients can send up to 10 images per text (*total size must be less than 5mb).

3. What happens when a client tries to call our SMS text number?

Incoming calls to your firm's text message number will be disabled.

4. Why is this a different phone number than Event & Invoice reminders?

Automated Text Event & Invoice Reminders will be sent from a different phone number that is not dedicated to your firm and does not support recipient responses.

5. What if my client doesn’t want to receive text messages from our firm?

Your client simply needs to reply “STOP”, and they will be removed from texting capabilities.

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