Firm-Branded Text Message Reports vs a Screenshot Binder
Reviewed by Jacob Reed, founder of Verity ·
Short answer
A binder of screenshots shows what someone chose to capture. A numbered exhibit of the whole conversation shows everything in order, makes gaps visible, and lets a filing point to message #1,482 while the context sits one page away. A separate pattern report then tells counsel where to look. Verity Pro builds both from the client's export in the browser, with the firm's name and details on the report, and keeps the exhibit plain so it can be filed.
The binder is what most clients arrive with. The question is what the firm hands the court.
What each one gives you
Screenshot binder
Selected moments, often undated or out of order; hard to cite; easy for the other side to call incomplete.
Numbered exhibit of the whole conversation
Every message in date order with a number, gaps of seven days or more flagged, and a SHA-256 fingerprint of the printed conversation, so a later copy can be checked against it.
Pattern report
Flagged wording and timing with dates, as a reading aid for counsel. It is a working copy, not a substitute for a qualified witness, and its checks miss things and flag ordinary messages.
What Verity Pro puts under the firm's name
- Firm settings carried into the PDFs: name, logo, address, phone, bar number and a watermark on the report.
- A case package in two parts: the complete conversation exhibit (sequential numbers, gap flags, the matter number and caption, no watermark, so it reads as a filing exhibit) and the pattern report as counsel's copy.
- Words or names to blank out of the exhibit.
- A client intake link that shows the client how to export the conversation from their app.
- A case dashboard, notes, a share link and pushing a case into Clio Grow.
The conversation is read in the browser and not uploaded; a saved report keeps only short excerpts of flagged messages. Pro is $299 a month after a 7-day free trial, with no card needed when you sign up with a firm email. PDFs made during the trial are stamped "TRIAL - NOT FOR FILING".
Getting the export in the first place: what to ask a client for; when there is none, a client with only screenshots. Other tools compared: e-discovery software for solo practitioners.
This is general information for legal professionals, not legal advice. What a court accepts as an exhibit is for the court and your local rules.
See the package before you try it
A sample built from a fictional conversation, then a 7-day trial on one of your own closed cases.