Should a Needles firm move to Neos or to something else?

If your team likes how Needles works and you practice PI across several states, Neos is the shortest path, and Assembly moves the data. If you're a California firm that also handles workers' comp or employment, or you want every app on one per-case price, compare PlaintiffStack.

How much does Neos cost?

Assembly publishes Essentials at $109 and Premium at $139 per user per month, billed yearly. Platinum, with NeosAI, is quoted, and Demands Plus is an add-on whose cost scales with caseload. PlaintiffStack is $250 per case with every app included, plus AI usage billed separately.

Does Neos read scanned records? Does PlaintiffStack?

Neos Premium and Platinum include OCR on every document. PlaintiffStack doesn't read scans or faxes yet; its agents read searchable PDFs, Word and text files.

Can PlaintiffStack migrate our Needles data?

Yes. We move your cases, contacts and documents from Needles and check the result with you before you switch. Timing depends on your caseload; after the demo we send a plan with dates.

Does Neos handle California workers' comp?

Neos is built for personal injury, and we found no California comp features described. Amber Legal, a California comp AI agent, connects to Neos. PlaintiffStack ships California comp built in.

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Case managementReviewed October 21, 2026

PlaintiffStack vs Needles and Neos

PlaintiffStack vs Needles and Neos: Assembly's PI case management with tiered NeosAI, or one California plaintiff record at $250 per case.

The short answer

Assembly has built PI case management for over 40 years, and Neos gives Needles firms a familiar path to the cloud, published prices for its first two tiers, OCR and an AI tier with cited chronologies and demands. PlaintiffStack is younger and narrower: California PI, workers' comp and employment on one record, with every app in one per-case price. A national PI firm that likes how Needles works will feel at home in Neos.

Personal injury case management from Assembly Software: on-premise Needles and its cloud successor, Neos

Needles and Neos

Personal injury firms, including the large base of firms still running Needles or TrialWorks on their own servers

Company: Assembly Software, building PI case management for 40+ years
Customers: 1,450+ PI firms, per Assembly
Neos prices: Essentials $109 and Premium $139 per user per month, billed yearly; Platinum quoted
AI: NeosAI in the Platinum tier; Demands Plus (cited chronologies and demands) as an add-on
Upgrades: 440 Needles firms and 118 TrialWorks firms have moved to Neos, per Assembly

Case management and AI on one record

PlaintiffStack

High-volume plaintiff firms in California: personal injury, workers' comp and employment

Price: $250 per case, every app included, no monthly fee. AI usage is billed separately, with an estimate shown before each run.
Practices: PI, workers' comp and employment, on California rules
Security: A BAA with every firm; one US AWS account, models included. SOC 2 in progress

Side by side

PlaintiffStack and Needles and Neos compared
What	Needles and Neos	PlaintiffStack
What it is	Needles is Assembly's long-running on-premise PI system; Neos is its cloud successor with documents, intake, reporting and NeosAI.	Case management and AI on one record: intake, case work, records, drafting, the client portal and automation.
Built for	Personal injury firms of all sizes, nationwide, including firms upgrading from Needles or TrialWorks.	High-volume plaintiff firms in California.
Practice areas	Built for personal injury, with customizable checklists, dashboards and reports.	Personal injury, workers' comp and employment built in. Firms can add other practice areas in Customize, on California rules.
California workers' comp and employment	No California workers' comp or employment workflows described. Amber Legal, a California comp AI agent, connects to Neos.	Built in. Comp: benefits audit, QME cover letter and records index, WCAB petitions, IMR deadline checks. Employment: legal chronology, wage and penalty audit, right-to-sue deadline checks. No PD rating calculator or EAMS e-filing.
AI features and how they're priced	NeosAI (summaries, extraction to fields, document generation, case chat) in the quoted Platinum tier. Demands Plus builds cited medical chronologies and demands; an add-on priced by caseload.	Agents propose facts, deadlines and tasks; a person accepts each one, and drafts cite the page. Each run shows an estimated cost first (typically cents); usage is billed separately as part of your quote.
Medical records and OCR	OCR on every document in Premium and Platinum, plus PDF editing, redaction and Bates stamping. Records retrieval through HIPAA-compliant partners.	Reads searchable PDFs, Word and text files, and cites the page. No OCR yet: scans and faxes aren't read.
Client portal, texting and intake	Intake forms, intake CRM and lead tracking in every tier; dynamic intake and Neos Texting in Platinum; Premium Texting as an enhancement.	Client portal from a link in any phone browser; texts logged to the case. Intake tracks every lead to a next step, with no automatic capture from web forms yet.
Pricing	Essentials $109, Premium $139 per user per month, billed yearly. Platinum and Demands Plus quoted.	$250 per case, every app included, no monthly fee. AI usage billed separately.
Contract and implementation	Annual billing on published tiers. Every plan includes a dedicated CSM and white-glove implementation.	No long lock-in contract. After the demo, a switching plan with dates.
Migration	Assembly's own team moves Needles and TrialWorks firms to Neos; it reports 440 and 118 firms moved.	We move your cases, contacts and documents and check the result with you before you switch.
Security	Cloud-hosted Neos with 99.9% uptime claimed. We found no public SOC 2 report; ask Assembly.	BAA with every firm; one US AWS account, models included (Bedrock); no training on firm data; audit log. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 in progress, no report yet.
Integrations and accounting	Outlook, Word, QuickBooks, RingCentral, DocuSign, SharePoint and Teams; LawPay payments and digital disbursements.	Microsoft Word and Dropbox live; RingCentral in early access; Outlook, Gmail, Google Drive and QuickBooks coming. No trust accounting.

Choose Needles and Neos if

Your firm runs Needles today and wants the shortest path to the cloud, with the same company moving your data.
You need OCR on scanned records now; Neos Premium includes it.
You practice PI in several states and want a vendor with four decades in PI.
You want QuickBooks, Outlook, RingCentral and DocuSign connected today.
You want published per-user prices for the base tiers.

Choose PlaintiffStack if

Your firm also handles California workers' comp or employment and wants them built in next to PI.
You'd rather have every app, including the AI tools, available on every case than pay for a higher tier and an add-on to get AI.
You want one price per case, $250, instead of a per-user price for every seat.
You want morning checks for expiring offers, untouched record requests and treatment gaps on every PI case.

Needles, Neos and the upgrade question

Needles has run on PI firms' own servers for decades. Assembly Software, which makes it, now steers those firms to Neos, its cloud successor, and says 440 Needles firms and 118 TrialWorks firms have made that move. Assembly says it serves more than 1,450 PI firms and has built PI case management for over 40 years.

If you run Needles, the first question is usually whether to upgrade to Neos or look elsewhere. Assembly's pitch is familiarity: the same PI case logic, moved by the team that built the old system, now in a browser with no server or VPN. That is a real advantage, and it is why many Needles firms choose Neos. This page covers when PlaintiffStack is the better fit instead. For Neos against the largest cloud rival, see Needles vs Filevine.

What Neos does well

Published prices. Essentials is $109 and Premium $139 per user per month, billed yearly. Few PI platforms publish anything.
OCR. Premium and Platinum run OCR on every document and add PDF editing, redaction and Bates stamping. PlaintiffStack has no OCR yet, so for a firm whose records arrive as scans and faxes, this matters.
Integrations. Outlook, Word, QuickBooks, RingCentral, DocuSign, SharePoint and Teams, plus LawPay payments and digital disbursements.
Cited AI. Demands Plus builds a medical chronology from the case file and drafts the demand from it, with each fact linked to its source and an attorney approval gate before export.
Implementation. Every plan includes a dedicated customer success manager and white-glove implementation.

Where PlaintiffStack differs

AI on every case, not a tier. NeosAI sits in Platinum, which is quoted, and Demands Plus is an add-on on top of Platinum whose cost scales with caseload. PlaintiffStack includes every app in $250 per case. AI usage is billed separately: each tool shows an estimated cost before it runs, typically cents, and how usage is billed is part of your quote.

Three California practices. Neos is built for personal injury. PlaintiffStack ships PI with California phases, a missing records report, a treatment chronology and a policy-limits demand, and adds workers' comp and employment with California case tools and deadline checks. A PI firm that also takes comp or employment cases runs them on the same record.

Facts a person accepts. Agents propose facts, deadlines and tasks with the page they came from, and a person accepts each one. Morning checks flag offers and demands about to expire, record requests untouched for three weeks, and gaps forming in treatment.

Where we're behind. Besides OCR, PlaintiffStack has no trust accounting or QuickBooks connection yet, no SOC 2 report yet (Type II is in progress), and California rules only.

Price math

Neos prices by user. A firm with 20 people on Premium pays $139 x 20 x 12, or $33,360 a year, before Platinum, Demands Plus, texting or integrations. PlaintiffStack prices by case: a firm opening 150 cases a year pays $37,500, plus AI usage. Which is lower depends on your ratio of staff to new cases. Try your own numbers in the cost calculator, and read per-case vs per-seat pricing.

Moving off Needles

Leaving an on-premise system means exporting years of case notes, documents and custom fields. Assembly moves Needles firms to Neos with its own team. PlaintiffStack moves your cases, contacts and documents from Needles and checks the result with you before you switch; after the demo we send a plan with dates. Either way, start with the switching guide.

Questions to ask before you choose

Which tier do we need for the AI we want, and what does Demands Plus cost at our caseload?
How many of our records arrive as scans or faxes? If most do, OCR is not optional, and Neos Premium has it today while PlaintiffStack does not.
Do we handle any workers' comp or employment cases, now or in our plans?
How many people work each case? Per-user and per-case pricing reward different shapes of firm.
Who checks the migrated cases, and when?

Book both demos on your own case types. PlaintiffStack's is thirty minutes, booked straight from the site.

Questions firms ask

Sources

Needles and Neos is a trademark of its owner, named here only to compare. Facts come from the sources above as of the date shown; prices and features change. If something here is out of date, email privacy@plaintiffstack.com with the page and the source, and we'll correct it.

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