CoCounsel is Thomson Reuters' Westlaw-grounded legal AI for research memos, document review, and drafting — reported plans run $220–$500 per month with no evidence-media review, while Evidence Copilot is a grounded evidence-review workspace built for criminal-defense discovery at $39/user/mo (Solo). If your bottleneck is 40 hours of bodycam, jail calls, and scanned police reports rather than case-law research, Evidence Copilot is the alternative that transcribes, cites, and redacts the actual evidence.
Bottom line: CoCounsel is strong for Westlaw-grounded research and memo drafting, but it has no transcription, bodycam review, or redaction workflow. For criminal-defense discovery review, Evidence Copilot's cited, moment-level evidence review at $39/user/mo fits the actual workflow.
TL;DR
- CoCounsel Legal is a research and memo AI that reasons from Westlaw and Practical Law — it does not transcribe or review bodycam video, jail calls, or 911 audio.
- Reported CoCounsel plans: Basic Research at $220/mo and All Access at $500/mo (TrustRadius); On Demand runs $50–$75 per service.
- Evidence Copilot publishes its pricing: Solo $39/user/mo (15 media-processing hours), Firm $99/user/mo (60 hours), PD Office $750/attorney/yr (100 hours).
- Evidence Copilot's AI agent answers questions with citations that seek the exact second of video or page of the PDF; CoCounsel links to document pages and legal authority.
- CoCounsel claims adoption by 85% of Am Law 100 firms and more than 20,000 law firms and legal departments — it is built for large-firm workflows.
- Evidence Copilot includes frame-accurate video, audio, image, and PDF redaction with an audit trail; CoCounsel has no redaction capability.
- CoCounsel offers SOC 2 and ISO 42001 certification; Evidence Copilot does not claim security certifications.
Head-to-head
| Dimension | CoCounsel | Evidence Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Reported $220–$500/mo (TrustRadius); On Demand $50–$75 per service; no published pricing on vendor site | Solo $39/user/mo, Firm $99/user/mo, PD Office $750/attorney/yr — published, no sales wallwinner |
| Evidence-media review | None — works on uploaded documents and legal databases only | Bodycam, interrogation footage, jail calls, 911 audio, photos, scanned PDFs up to 2 GB per filewinner |
| Legal research & memos | Deep Research, Westlaw Brief Builder, jurisdiction-specific guidance, 75+ criminal defense workflowswinner | Case briefs, cross-exam drafts, suppression motion prep playbooks — no case-law research |
| Citations | Linked citations to document pages and legal authority | Citations that seek the exact second of video or page of the PDF |
| Transcription | None | Deepgram Nova with speaker diarization and word-level timestamps; one-click speaker renamingwinner |
| Redaction | None | Frame-accurate video, word-level audio, image, and PDF redaction; originals immutable; auditedwinner |
| Integrations | Microsoft Word, Outlook, Teams, iManage, NetDocuments, SharePoint, HighQ, Claude (MCP)winner | MCP server to Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor; two-way email intake; per-case inbound email |
| Trial & guarantee | Free trial available on request | 7-day full-access trial, no card; 14-day money-back guarantee on every paid planwinner |
| Fit for small defense practices | Enterprise-oriented; 10+ attorney firms routed to sales reps | Defense-only by design with Solo, Firm, and PD Office tierswinner |
Scores
CoCounsel is Thomson Reuters' legal AI assistant, marketed as Fiduciary-Grade AI built to the standard the legal profession demands. It reasons from Westlaw and Practical Law content curated by 1,500+ attorney editors, handling research, analysis, and drafting from a single query with linked citations for verification. Capabilities include Deep Research, Westlaw Brief Builder, Tabular Analysis (up to 10,000 documents against 100 questions), timeline extraction, deposition prep, and discovery request drafting. Thomson Reuters reports deployment across more than 20,000 law firms and legal departments, including 85% of Am Law 100 firms, and claims a 33% average reduction in time spent on document review, research, and drafting per a commissioned Forrester study. For criminal defense it markets 75+ prebuilt workflows and jurisdiction-specific guidance. However, it works on uploaded documents and legal databases — there is no transcription of bodycam, interrogation, or jail-call media, and no video or audio redaction workflow.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| CoCounsel On Demand | $50/one-time per service | $50–$75 per service pricing |
| Basic Research | $220/mo | Cloud plan; research-focused tier |
| CoCounsel All Access | $500/mo | Cloud plan; full access tier |
Pros
- Reasons from Westlaw and Practical Law rather than generic internet training data, reducing hallucination risk in legal research
- Every output carries linked citations you can verify before relying on it
- Deep integrations into Microsoft Word, Outlook, Teams, and major document management systems
- SOC 2 and ISO 42001 certified; data never used to train underlying models
- Broad market validation — 85% of Am Law 100 firms and 20,000+ law firms and legal departments
- Strong for cross-exam outlines, deposition prep, and summarizing dense documents like police reports and transcripts
Cons
- No transcription or review of bodycam video, interrogation footage, jail calls, or 911 audio — document analysis only
- No video, audio, or image redaction capability
- No published pricing on Thomson Reuters' own site; plans page routes to a sales rep, and firms with more than 10 attorneys are pushed to sales
- Reported pricing ($220–$500/mo) is steep for solo defenders and small firms
- Enterprise-oriented feature set (contract playbooks, deal proof, compliance) that much of a defense practice will never use
Evidence Copilot
evidencecopilot.com ↗Evidence Copilot is a grounded evidence-review workspace built specifically for US criminal-defense attorneys, law clerks, defense investigators, and public-defender offices. Upload the discovery dump — bodycam video, interrogation footage, jail calls, 911 audio, police-report PDFs, photos, and scanned documents up to 2 GB per file — and get timestamped diarized transcripts (Deepgram Nova with word-level timestamps), OCR'd document text, and an AI evidence agent that answers questions with clickable citations into the exact second of video or page of the PDF. Every AI output is marked AI-generated and pending human review, and originals are immutable. Auto-signals compare each new file against earlier evidence in the case and surface candidate inconsistencies — report vs bodycam, statement vs call audio — before anyone asks. Agent playbooks cover suppression motion prep, Miranda timelines, and exhibit list building. Frame-accurate video redaction, audio redaction by spoken word, multi-camera sync, and two-way email intake round out the workflow. Every action is audited, and an MCP server connects cases read-only to Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Claude Code, or Cursor.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Solo | $39/mo | Per user; 15 media-processing hours included |
| Firm | $99/mo | Per user; 60 media-processing hours included |
| PD Office | $750/yr | Per attorney; 100 media-processing hours included |
Pros
- Purpose-built for criminal-defense evidence review — transcription, diarization, and moment-level citations on the actual media in discovery
- Published pricing with no sales wall: Solo $39/user/mo, Firm $99/user/mo, PD Office $750/attorney/yr
- Overage is metered and hard-capped at 3x included hours, so runaway intake cannot overbill
- Every AI output is marked AI-generated and pending human review; the product never makes legal conclusions
- Full redaction suite (video, audio, image, PDF) with immutable originals and a complete audit trail
- 7-day full-access trial with no card, plus a 14-day money-back guarantee on every paid plan
Cons
- No case-law or statutory research — it does not replace Westlaw-grounded research memos
- Defense-only by design; not usable for prosecution or law-enforcement workflows
- No SOC 2 or security certifications claimed
- Media-processing hours are metered per plan (15/60/100 hours), which requires attention on very high-volume cases
Pricing compared
What each tool actually does with your discovery
Citations, verification, and ethics posture
Which should you pick?
FAQs
Can CoCounsel transcribe bodycam video or jail calls?
No. CoCounsel Legal works on uploaded documents and legal databases — it summarizes police reports, builds timelines from documents, and drafts research memos grounded in Westlaw. It has no transcription, diarization, or video/audio review capability, so evidence media has to be handled by a separate tool.
Is CoCounsel or Evidence Copilot cheaper?
Evidence Copilot publishes its pricing: Solo at $39/user/mo, Firm at $99/user/mo, and PD Office at $750/attorney/yr. CoCounsel does not publish pricing on its own site; third-party reporting lists Basic Research at $220/mo and All Access at $500/mo, plus an On Demand option at $50–$75 per service. At the entry tier, Evidence Copilot is the lower-cost option.
Do both tools cite their sources?
Yes, but at different granularity. CoCounsel links every output to legal authority and document pages so you can verify before relying on it. Evidence Copilot's AI agent answers with citations that seek the exact second of video or page of the PDF, and every output is marked AI-generated and pending human review.
Can I use both together?
Yes, and many defense teams reasonably would. CoCounsel handles the law — research memos, jurisdiction-specific procedure, brief drafting. Evidence Copilot handles the evidence — transcription, inconsistency signals between the police report and bodycam, redaction, and exhibit packs. They solve different halves of case preparation.
Does Evidence Copilot have a free trial?
New accounts verify their email and start on a 7-day full-access trial at Firm level with no card required, then pick a plan. If a trial lapses, processing pauses but cases and files stay accessible. Every paid plan also carries a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Which one is built for criminal defense specifically?
Both market to criminal defense, but differently. CoCounsel offers 75+ prebuilt criminal defense workflows on top of a general legal AI platform used by 85% of Am Law 100 firms. Evidence Copilot is defense-only by design — it will not serve prosecution or law-enforcement use cases — and its features (Miranda timelines, suppression prep, discovery redaction) map directly to defense workflow.
Sources
- Explore Plans - CoCounsel Legal | Thomson Reuters
- CoCounsel Legal - AI Legal Assistant | Thomson Reuters
- CoCounsel Pricing 2026 - TrustRadius
- Explore Features - CoCounsel Essentials | Thomson Reuters
- AI for criminal defense lawyers with CoCounsel Legal | Thomson Reuters
- How CoCounsel Legal delivers AI legal research you can trust
- AI for criminal law practitioners
- Legal AI in 2026: Why CoCounsel thrives while others fold
- Evidence Copilot — grounded evidence review for criminal defense