Case binders for separation work
TransitionBinder replaces the eleven email threads, three shared folders and one overflowing tote bag that a separation file usually lives in. You get a tabbed client binder, a deadline list that holds, a decision log that remembers who chose what, and a summary you can hand to the attorney without spending your Sunday assembling it.
What the week actually looks like
You are not missing a system because you never built one. You built one, and then a client sent the mortgage statement as a photo at 11 p.m., the attorney asked for the same statement in a different format, and the parenting plan draft went out with last month's numbers on it.
Text message photos, forwarded PDFs, a shared folder the client cannot access anymore, and one manila envelope. Rebuilding the disclosure set for a single client eats a working morning.
4 hours per client, unbilledFinancial affidavits, mediation dates, response windows and school enrollment cutoffs all sit in different calendars. One missed date costs the client a continuance and costs you a difficult phone call.
$450 average continuance costSix weeks later a client insists she never agreed to the summer schedule. Without a dated entry you are relying on memory, and the conversation costs trust that took months to build.
2 sessions spent relitigatingCounsel wants a clean packet, not your notebook. Assembling it by hand at the end of an engagement is the single least fun part of the job, and it is usually done on a weekend.
3 to 5 hours per handoffHow a binder is built
The binder is the unit of work. Everything you collect, promise or decide lands inside it, in the right tab, on the right date.
Pick a template and the divider set is already there: financial disclosure, property and housing, parenting and schedule, correspondence, court and filing dates, session notes. Add or rename tabs to match how your practice works. The client gets one upload link, not a folder invitation she will lose.
Anything the client sends to her binder address lands in a review queue with the sender, date and file type already read. You drag it into a tab or accept the suggested one. Photos of paper statements are straightened and turned into readable PDFs so the attorney is not squinting at a kitchen table snapshot.
Each binder has its own deadline list with an owner on every line: you, the client, or counsel. Reminders go out on your schedule, and anything overdue rises to the top of your dashboard on Monday morning. Dates flow to your calendar so you are not keeping two lists.
When a client settles a question, you write one line and it is stamped and stored. At handoff, TransitionBinder assembles a paginated summary: scope banner, document index, decision log, open items and the full file attached. Export it, send it, and close the binder.
What is inside
Every screen assumes a caseload of emotionally loaded files with hard dates attached. Nothing here needs to be bent into shape first.
Standard divider sets for disclosure, parenting, housing, correspondence and filings, editable per client. Anyone opening the binder finds the same structure, which is what makes a handoff fast.
Every date carries the person responsible and an escalation window, so a client task does not quietly become yours. Overdue items surface on the dashboard before anyone has to ask about them.
One line per resolved question, stamped with the date and the session it came from. When memories diverge in month four, the record is there and neither of you has to defend a recollection.
A paginated packet with a cover page, scope banner, document index, decision log and open items, generated in about eight seconds. Counsel gets what she asked for in the format she expects.
Every open, upload and export is recorded and printable, and each binder states in writing that it holds coaching or mediation support rather than legal advice. Two things that keep a difficult file defensible.
One permanent link per client, no account to create and no folder permissions to explain. Reminders go out on the rhythm you set, worded plainly so a stressed client reads them.
What changes in the practice
These figures come from 118 US practices that had been running at least six months on the platform as of August 2026, measured against their own intake records from the prior year.
Filing time and packet assembly move from manual work to a queue you clear in ten minutes. The largest single saving is the attorney summary, which used to take an afternoon.
Coaches who kept their calendar fixed took on roughly a third more active files, because the load per file dropped rather than the sessions getting shorter.
A single upload link and a plain reminder cadence beat a folder invitation. Practices report far fewer second and third requests for the same bank statement.
Owned deadlines with an escalation window mean nothing sits silently. Across 1,940 active binders, no practice has reported a filing date missed inside the system.
Who runs on it
The binder bends to the engagement. What stays fixed is the divider set, the deadline owner and the dated record of every decision.
You carry eight to fifteen files at a time and you are the whole back office. Templates and the client upload link take the administration off your evenings, and the summary export ends the weekend packet assembly for good.
Solo Coach covers this
Two parties, one file, and a record that has to be neutral. Co-panel binders let a second mediator see the same structure, and the decision log gives both parties a shared account of what was settled and when.
Practice and Practice Plus
Files move between coaches when schedules or specialties demand it. Shared binders with per client seat restrictions mean a handoff takes ten minutes instead of a long call and a folder of loose attachments.
Practice Plus with reporting
Care with a sensitive file
A separation file holds tax returns, custody schedules, medical notes and addresses. Handling it casually is not an option, so the rules are written down and the product enforces them.
Every open, upload, export and permission change is written to a per binder access log with a timestamp and a name. You can print it, attach it to a closing packet, or hand it to a client who asks who saw her file. Nothing in that log can be edited or deleted from inside the account.
Coaching and mediation support is not legal advice, and the binder says so on the scope banner and on the cover of every summary. Decision entries record the client's choice in her words, dated, with the session reference. That distinction protects your practice and it protects her file.
Moving your caseload over
You are not going to stop working while you switch. Here is the sequence that has worked for the practices already running on it.
Open a binder for the two newest clients only. New files are the easiest place to learn the divider set, because nothing has to be reconstructed.
Send the upload link to every open client with a short note. Most send their outstanding documents within four days, which does more for your backlog than any migration script.
Move your older files across in a single sitting, or hand the folder to our onboarding team. Up to 40 binders are migrated for you at no charge in the first month.
Retire the spreadsheet. Deadlines, decisions and documents now live in one place, and the first attorney summary you export tells you whether it worked.
If the migration stalls, write to us and a person picks it up the same business day. We would rather spend an hour on your file than watch a practice give up in week two.
From practices running it now
Three practices, three different shapes of caseload, one thing in common: the paperwork stopped setting the agenda for the week.
"I used to keep a paper accordion file per client and a spreadsheet that only I understood. The first time an attorney told me my summary was the cleanest client file she had received that year, I stopped apologizing for charging what I charge."
"The decision log is the part I would not give up. In mediation, half of my job is reminding two people what they already agreed to on March 12. Now I read the line back and we move on instead of relitigating the whole session."
"We run four coaches and we were losing documents in the handoff between us. Shared binders fixed that in a week. My Sunday afternoons are mine again, and our intake capacity went up without hiring anyone."
Plans
Pick the plan that matches the number of open files you carry. Move up or down whenever the season changes.
$35
per month, one seat
$79
per month, three seats
$165
per month, ten seats
Every plan is billed monthly in US dollars and can be cancelled at any time from your account settings. No contract, no notice period, no cancellation fee. Binders stay readable and exportable for 60 days after your last paid day.
Questions we get on the first call
Solo Coach is $35 per month and holds up to 15 open client binders. Practice is $79 per month for three seats and unlimited open binders. Practice Plus is $165 per month and adds mediation co-panels, custom binder templates and priority support. A client counts as one binder, no matter how many documents, sessions or attorney summaries it holds, and closed binders stay readable forever without counting toward your limit.
Most coaches set up their first binder in about twenty minutes and finish a full caseload in one afternoon. You start from a template that already contains the standard divider set for financial disclosure, parenting, housing, and correspondence. Existing files can be dragged in from a folder or forwarded to a private intake address on your account. Our onboarding team will migrate up to 40 binders for you at no charge during your first month.
Only the seats you invite can open a binder, and every seat can be restricted to named clients. Files are encrypted in transit and at rest on servers in the United States, and every view, upload and export is written to an access log you can print. We never train models on client content and we never sell or share it. You can export a full binder as a PDF or a zipped folder at any time, including after you cancel.
Binders sync to Google Drive or Dropbox if you want a copy in your own storage. Deadlines push to Google Calendar, Outlook and Apple Calendar over a subscribed feed, so a mediation date entered once shows up everywhere. Intake forms can post from Squarespace, Wix, Jotform and Typeform. If you use a scheduling tool such as Acuity or Calendly, session notes attach to the right binder automatically by client email.
Every plan is billed monthly and you can cancel from your account settings in two clicks. No term commitment binds you, no exit charge is applied and no advance notice is required. Your binders stay open in read and export mode for 60 days after the last paid day, which is long enough to hand closing packets to clients who are still finishing. Many coaches drop from Practice to Solo Coach over the summer and move back up in the fall, which is fine and takes effect the same day.
No, and the product is built to keep that line visible. Every binder carries a scope banner stating that the contents are coaching or mediation support, not legal advice, and the attorney summary repeats it on the cover page. Decision log entries record what the client chose and when, never a recommendation from you. Several family law attorneys reviewed the summary format so it reads as an organized client file, which is exactly what it is.
The Divorce Practice
Our magazine answers the questions coaches and mediators actually bring to a Monday morning: what to collect, where the scope line sits, what a case really costs and which dates carry consequences.
Checklist
A financial disclosure intake list built around what state courts actually require, ordered so a client can collect it in one weekend without freezing halfway through the pile.
Regulation and compliance
Unauthorized practice of law is defined state by state, and the safe zone is narrower than most new coaches assume. Here is how to read the rule and phrase your work inside it.
Comparison
Three fee structures, compared on cash flow, scope creep, refund exposure and how each one behaves when a case stalls for four months waiting on a court date.
Talk to us
Tell us how your practice runs and we will build a binder from a real file while you watch, dividers, deadlines and all. Thirty minutes, no slide deck, and you leave with the binder whether or not you sign up.
We answer every request ourselves, usually within one business day. If it is faster to write, use jimenezjulien42@gmail.com.
No client details in this form, please. We reply from a person, not a sequence, and you can write directly to jimenezjulien42@gmail.com instead.
Written and maintained by Jimenez Julien, who builds software for independent practices and publishes TransitionBinder through MLJ, SASU.
