The DIY export guide
What you can export from PCLaw and Time Matters yourself, step by step — free, even if you never call us.
Read the guide →
Rescue Kit — legal practice management
The PCLaw & Time Matters Rescue Kit
The vendor isn't switching PCLaw and Time Matters off. It's ending support version by version — support for the 2023 R1/R2 versions ended December 31, 2025, and the 2024 R1 versions are supported only through December 2026. Firms on older versions are running software the vendor itself warns is vulnerable to data corruption, broken links, and integration issues
— that's the vendor's own End of Version Support FAQ describing its own unsupported installs.
This kit gets everything out while the system is still healthy: matters, documents, billing, general ledger — and the trust ledgers your bar rules likely require you to keep long after the software is gone.
Fixed price from $12,500. Quoted within 48 hours of scoping. (Support dates: vendor End of Version Support FAQ — verified 2026-08-12.)
Extraction manifestlegal — illustrative
matters9,214 → 9,214 ✓
documents (incl. unattached)143,882 → 143,882 ✓
time & billing entries611,047 → 611,047 ✓
general ledger318,596 → 318,596 ✓
trust ledger entries84,412 → 84,412 ✓
trust balances per matterreconciled ✓
exceptionslogged & explained
Illustrative manifest — not a client engagement. Every rescue ends with a real one: reconciled, spot-audited, signed.
VENDOR SUPPORT HORIZON: 2024 R1 versions supported through December 2026
vendor source
This is the vendor's published end-of-support date for the 2024 R1 versions, per its End of Version Support FAQ — it is not a shutdown of the software. PCLaw and Time Matters keep running after their support dates; they run unsupported. Earlier versions have already passed their dates — see the ladder below.
The version ladder
Support ends one rung at a time. Find yours.
There is no single sunset date. The vendor's End of Version Support FAQ ends support version by version, and most rungs have already passed.
| Version | Support ended / ends | Status today |
|---|---|---|
| Time Matters 16.0–16.3 | 2022-06-30 | Unsupported for 4+ years |
| Time Matters 16.4–16.6 | 2022-12-31 | Unsupported for 3+ years |
| 2022 R1 | 2024-12-31 | Unsupported |
| 2023 R1 / R2 | 2025-12-31 | Unsupported since last December |
| 2024 R1 | through Dec 2026 | The live cliff — supported, for now |
Dates: vendor End of Version Support FAQ, verified 2026-08-12. Find your version: in either product, Help → About shows the version and release number. If yours is above the bottom row, the vendor's corruption warning quoted at the top of this page is describing your install.
The inventory
What's actually inside a PCLaw or Time Matters system
Billing and trust accounting are why firms bought PCLaw in the first place — which makes the ledgers the crown jewels of the extraction, and the focus of our validation.
| Record type | What's at stake | Why it's easy to lose |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts & matters | Every client and case, with relationships between them | The part every importer gets — the baseline, not the finish line |
| Calendar & appointments | Deadlines, hearings, statute dates, years of scheduling history | Often flattened or truncated to upcoming events only |
| Notes & correspondence | The narrative record of each matter | Long histories get clipped; formatting and authorship metadata drop |
| Documents — attached AND unattached | Every file the system manages, whether or not it's linked to a matter | LEAP's published transition scope excludes documents not attached to matters — see the next section |
| Email links | Messages filed against matters over years of practice | Links break silently when the store moves; nothing errors, mail just vanishes from the matter |
| Billing & time entries | Every hour recorded, billed, written off, or outstanding | Importers commonly carry balances forward, not the entry-level history behind them |
| General ledger | The firm's full books inside PCLaw | Opening balances travel; transaction detail is where scope varies |
| Trust ledgers | Per-matter client-fund records your bar likely requires you to keep for years | The one record type where "close enough" is not an option — it must reconcile to the penny, per matter |
| Custom fields | In Time Matters especially, this is where firms built their practice | Per Universal Migrator, a migration tooling vendor: in Time Matters, just about every field is a custom field— see below |
| User & audit data | Who did what, when — where the system kept it | Rarely on any importer's list at all |
The official path
What the official transition covers — in the vendor's own words
The published transition path is to LEAP's cloud platform, and LEAP publishes its scope. It's a reasonable switching scope. It is not a complete copy of your system — and LEAP says so itself.
What LEAP's published scope includes
Per LEAP's own transition FAQ: contacts, matters, client and staff details, correspondence, opening balances, and transaction history.
What it excludes — again, per LEAP's own FAQ
Documents not attached to matters are excluded. And for PCLaw, LEAP states the scope varies by version and data-entry habits
— meaning what carries over depends on how your firm used the system, and you find out when it happens.
Then there's the custom-field problem. Universal Migrator, a vendor of legal migration tooling, puts it plainly: in Time Matters, just about every field is a custom field
— and firms transitioning are asked to complete a custom-field mapping spreadsheet themselves. The fields your firm invented over twenty years are precisely the ones no importer's default mapping knows about.
Five questions to ask in writing before any transition
- Which of our documents are not attached to matters, and what happens to those files?
- Do our custom fields carry over — and who does the mapping, us or you?
- Does the trust ledger come across entry by entry, or as opening balances only?
- What happens to email filed against matters — do the links survive the move?
- Will we receive a record-by-record reconciliation of what transferred versus what the source held?
Whoever moves your data — us, LEAP, or anyone else — these five deserve written answers. Our answers are this page and the sample validation report. Sources: LEAP transition FAQ (community.leap.us) and universalmigrator.com, both verified 2026-08-12. Successor platforms are described here factually, from their own published materials.
The trust-accounting angle
Retiring the software doesn't retire the record-keeping duty
State bar rules commonly require trust-account records to be kept for years after the representation ends — Washington and New York, for example, each require seven. Those records live inside PCLaw or Time Matters right now: the per-matter client ledgers, the disbursements, the reconciliations.
When the software is decommissioned, the duty doesn't go with it. A firm that switches systems and lets the old server go dark may have discarded records it was required to keep — without anyone deciding to.
This kit treats the trust ledgers as the validation centerpiece: extracted in full, reconciled per matter against the source system's own balances, and — if you take the hosted archive — kept searchable and exportable for as long as your retention clock runs.
Not legal advice. Retention periods and record-keeping requirements vary by state and situation. Check your state bar's rules or ask your counsel what applies to your firm — then make sure your migration plan satisfies it.
Kit contents
What's in the kit
PCLaw & Time Matters Rescue Kitcontents
extraction — Time MattersSQL Server (its engine since v10)
extraction — PCLawolder c-tree file format via specialist drivers; SQL editions natively
documentsattached AND unattached, checksummed
trust ledgersreconciled per matter — the validation centerpiece
custom fieldsinventoried & mapped with you
validationsample deliverable
destinationsLEAP / Clio / CosmoLex import sets · CSV/SQLite · hosted archive
Both product lines, both database engines, any version. The first scoping question is which engine you're on — PCLaw v14 and earlier use the older FairCom c-tree format; later editions and all modern Time Matters run on SQL Server.
The number
Fixed price, from $12,500
from $12,500
Fixed once quoted — it doesn't move without a change order you sign. Trust-ledger reconciliation and PCLaw's mixed database engines are why this kit's floor sits where it does. Larger document stores and multi-database firms move up-band; see pricing. For context: this work is otherwise bid hourly — commonly $100–$200/hr with no fixed ceiling, running against your deadline. Our number is fixed before work starts and includes the signed validation report.
Typically 3–5 weeks
The trust reconciliation is what earns the extra week on the long end — every matter's ledger balanced against the source before you sign. If your support date is inside 30 days, rush scheduling is available at 1.5x.
50 / 40 / 10
50% to start, 40% at validation sign-off — after you've seen the reconciliation — and 10% at delivery. Your quote arrives within 48 hours of the scoping call.
The process
Five steps, a named deliverable at every one
Preserve
Full snapshot of the system while it still runs — database, document store, and the trust ledgers first. Two copies, one offline. You keep your originals until final sign-off.
Preservation Manifest
Extract
Every table from either engine — SQL Server or PCLaw's older c-tree files — plus documents attached and unattached, custom fields, and email links.
Extraction Manifest
Validate
Source counts against extracted counts, checksums on every document, per-matter trust reconciliation, and a 50-record spot audit we walk through with you.
Validation Report
Land
Import sets built for LEAP, Clio, or CosmoLex — mapped field by field, custom fields included, with a post-load reconciliation. Or open CSV/SQLite if you're keeping options open.
Load Report
Archive
What doesn't belong in the new system — the full trust history above all — stays searchable in a read-only archive for as long as your retention duty runs. First 90 days included.
Your archive + credentials
Questions firms ask
PCLaw & Time Matters rescue FAQ
Is PCLaw or Time Matters shutting down?
No — and we won't tell you otherwise. Both products are still sold, and new Time Matters releases exist. What the vendor does, per its published End of Version Support FAQ, is end support version by version: support for the 2023 R1/R2 versions ended December 31, 2025, and the 2024 R1 versions are supported only through December 2026. The software keeps running after its support date. It just runs without patches, fixes, or vendor help — which is the vendor's own stated concern, not ours.
We're on an old version and it still works fine. Why act now?
Because the vendor itself warns that unsupported installations are vulnerable to data corruption, broken links, and integration issues
— that's a direct quote from its End of Version Support FAQ, describing the software you're running. A system that opens today is the best possible starting point for an extraction: every week it keeps working is a week the preservation snapshot is easy. The hard, expensive rescues are the ones that start after something breaks.
Do you handle trust ledgers?
Yes — trust accounting is the center of this kit, not an add-on. Trust ledgers are extracted in full, reconciled per matter against the source system's own balances, and delivered with the reconciliation in writing. And because state bar rules commonly require trust-account records to be kept for years after the fact — Washington and New York, for example, each require seven — retiring the software doesn't retire the record-keeping duty. The hosted archive exists for exactly that. This isn't legal advice; check your state's rules or ask your counsel what your retention period is.
Which versions and database engines do you cover?
All of them, across both product lines. Time Matters has run on Microsoft SQL Server since version 10 (2009), which is standard database territory. PCLaw is mixed: version 14 and earlier use the older FairCom c-tree file format, which we extract with specialist database drivers, while later SQL Server editions of PCLaw read like Time Matters does. The first scoping question we ask is which engine you're on — it changes the extraction path, not the price structure or the deliverables.
What does it cost and how long does it take?
From $12,500, fixed once quoted — the quote arrives within 48 hours of a scoping call and doesn't change without a change order you sign. Typical timeline is 3 to 5 weeks; the trust-ledger reconciliation is what earns the extra week on the longer end. Payment is 50% to start, 40% at validation sign-off, 10% at delivery. If your support date is inside 30 days, rush scheduling is available at 1.5x.
We haven't chosen a new system yet. Should we wait?
Don't wait — but you don't have to decide either. Extraction and destination are separate steps. We extract and validate everything now, while the system is healthy, and park it in the hosted archive: read-only, searchable, exportable in full at any time. When you choose LEAP, Clio, CosmoLex, or anything else, we build the import set from the validated archive — no second extraction, no re-scoping. The deadline pressure applies to getting the data out, not to picking its destination.
The Software Graveyard
Every sunset, end-of-support, and shutdown date we track, with sources — across every industry we cover.
Browse the Graveyard →Running IntraVet?
Veterinary practices face the same pattern with IntraVet. There's a rescue kit for that, too.
See the IntraVet kit →Facts on this page. Version end-of-support dates (16.0–16.3 → 2022-06-30; 16.4–16.6 → 2022-12-31; 2022 R1 → 2024-12-31; 2023 R1/R2 → 2025-12-31; 2024 R1 → through Dec 2026) and the "vulnerable to data corruption, broken links, and integration issues" warning: vendor End of Version Support FAQ, community.pclawtimematters.com — retrieved 2026-08-12. LEAP transition scope (contacts, matters, client/staff details, correspondence, opening balances, transaction history), the exclusion of documents not attached to matters, and the "varies by version and data-entry habits" statement on PCLaw scope: LEAP transition FAQ, community.leap.us — retrieved 2026-08-12. "In Time Matters, just about every field is a custom field" and the custom-field mapping spreadsheet: universalmigrator.com — retrieved 2026-08-12. Time Matters on SQL Server since v10; PCLaw c-tree format in v14 and earlier: Universal Migrator documentation, corroborated — retrieved 2026-08-12. Washington and New York seven-year trust-record retention: WSBA guidance and New York sources — retrieved 2026-08-12; retention requirements vary by state and are not legal advice. Successor vendors are described from their own published materials.
The next step
Thirty minutes. Bring your version number.
Book a 30-minute rescue call
or send details first
Thirty minutes. Bring your version number.
Leave with a plan and a fixed price.
Book a 30-minute rescue call
or send details first
Help → About shows your version. The call, the scoping, and the 48-hour quote are free — so is the export guide, even if you do it yourself.