Stop Paying Your Lawyer $400/hr to Sort Through Your Screenshots

The end of the month arrives. You open the invoice from your law firm. You scan the line items, holding your breath.

*Email correspondence with client: 0.5 hrs - $200*

*Court filing fee: $150*

**Review and organization of client digital evidence: 6.0 hrs - $2,400**

Your heart sinks. You just paid $2,400 for your lawyer (or their paralegal) to sit at a desk, print out the hundreds of disorganized screenshots you emailed them, try to figure out which date belongs to which message, and staple them together.

You are paying a highly trained legal strategist to do the work of a filing clerk.

This is the most common—and most avoidable—financial mistake in divorce and custody cases.

The "Digital Shoebox" Problem

Lawyers call it the "Shoebox Effect." In the old days, clients would bring a literal shoebox full of crumpled receipts and letters. Today, clients hand over a USB drive full of 5,000 random screenshots, or worse, they forward 50 separate emails with subject lines like "Look at what he said today!!!"

When you do this, your lawyer has an ethical obligation to review everything. But since the data is chaotic, they have to bill you for the time it takes to make sense of it.

**Messy Data = High Billable Hours.**

**Organized Data = Efficient Legal Strategy.**

""Your lawyer wants to argue the law, not collate papers. Giving them a disorganized mess is the fastest way to burn through your retainer.""

Be Your Own Paralegal (For a Fraction of the Price)

Imagine walking into your next attorney meeting not with a mess, but with a Professional Legal Exhibit.

ScanMyChat allows you to do the "grunt work" automatically in minutes, saving you thousands of dollars in billable hours.

Instead of emailing screenshots, you hand your lawyer a single, searchable PDF file that includes:

**Chronological Order:** Every message sorted by date and time.

**Bates Numbering:** Professional page identifiers (e.g., *DEF_001, DEF_002*) that lawyers require for court filings.

**Searchable Text:** Your lawyer can press "Ctrl+F" and find the word "money" or "threat" instantly.

The ROI Calculation: It's Simple Math

Let’s look at the numbers.

Option A: The Old Way

You take screenshots (5 hours of your time).

Lawyer organizes them (5 hours @ $400/hr).

**Total Cost: $2,000 + Stress.**

Option B: The ScanMyChat Way

You run the software (15 minutes).

Software Fee ($497 one-time).

Lawyer reviews the finished report (1 hour @ $400/hr).

**Total Cost: $897.**

You just saved over $1,000 on a single batch of evidence. And you can use the software again and again as the case progresses.

Keep Your Data Close (Local-First Privacy)

When you email screenshots to your lawyer, they often sit on unencrypted mail servers or get printed out and left on a desk in a busy office.

ScanMyChat puts you in control.

Because our software uses Local-First technology, the processing happens on your own laptop. You don't send your sensitive chats to us, and you don't send them to the cloud.

You generate the secure PDF on your machine, put it on an encrypted USB drive, and hand it physically to your attorney. This is the gold standard for data security.

From Chaos to Order

Spend Money on Strategy, Not Formatting

Your lawyer’s time is valuable. Use it to build a winning strategy, prepare for deposition, and fight for your rights. Do not waste their brilliance (and your money) on sorting JPEGs.

Hand them a winning hand. Hand them a ScanMyChat report.

Stop the Bleeding. Organize Your Case Today.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It is intended to help you manage legal costs efficiently. Always follow your attorney’s specific instructions regarding evidence submission.