Casewell
How to read this in the United States
Custody questions rarely have one US-wide answer. State law differs, and county rules differ inside a single state. Start with the order or parenting plan that actually applies to you.
Record each event with the date it happened and the date you wrote it down. Keep the whole message thread, bill or calendar item rather than a crop of it. A screenshot should never be your only copy.
A reader should be able to see what happened, when you recorded it and what changed afterwards. Take the legal questions to a family-law attorney licensed in your state.
Your state and county matter
Custody rules change from state to state, and sometimes from county to county. Put your state and county at the top of anything you share. Quote your custody order or parenting plan word for word. Keep court notices and portal downloads exactly as you received them. If a move, a new school or another state is involved, raise it with your attorney rather than guessing which rules apply.
Two different jobs
A shared co-parenting app is infrastructure between two people. It exists so that messages, schedule changes, and expense requests happen in one accountable place both parents can see.
A private custody journal is your own contemporaneous record. What actually happened at today's handover, the receipt for the school shoes, the screenshot of the message that matters, written down while the details are fresh. Casewell is deliberately the second thing.
It is built for one person. Nothing in it relies on the other parent, which is precisely what makes it work when cooperation is not available.
What shared apps do well
When both parents engage, shared platforms are genuinely useful. OurFamilyWizard adds ToneMeter to flag heated wording before a message sends, trades parenting time on a shared calendar, and routes expenses with payment splits. TalkingParents makes the communication record unalterable — nothing can be edited or deleted. And offers accountable calling with recordings.
AppClose covers messaging, calendars, and reimbursement requests in one all-inclusive plan from $7.99 a month. Family courts in the US regularly order parents onto these platforms specifically because the shared record reduces disputes about who said what.
Where shared apps stop working
Every shared platform has the same dependency. The other parent. If they refuse to join, respond off-platform, go quiet for weeks, or use the message feed to provoke, the shared record captures only a slice of your reality.
None of the between-parent tools document the things that happen outside the app. The no-show at the pickup point, the condition your child came home in, the expense you covered alone, the pattern across three months of Fridays. That documentation gap is the specific problem a private journal exists to close.
Where Casewell fits
Casewell gives you a structured private record with a category for every situation separated parents actually document. Handovers and missed handovers, parenting time, communication issues, expenses with reimbursement status, school, medical, safeguarding concerns, and general child wellbeing.
Each entry is timestamped, can carry attachments — screenshots, photos, receipts, PDFs, voice notes. And lives in an encrypted vault behind your passcode and Face ID. The optional neutral-rewrite tool suggests more factual phrasing for heated drafts, and you approve every word.
When it matters, you export a filtered PDF for your attorney or a mediator. It opens with an event index, totals your expenses and ends with an appendix of the attached files. Every entry shows when it happened and when you recorded it, and any entry you edited later is marked as edited.
Using Casewell alongside a shared app
This is not an either-or choice, and in higher-conflict situations it usually should not be.
If a court has ordered OurFamilyWizard or TalkingParents, keep using it exactly as directed. And keep Casewell as the private layer the shared feed cannot see. Your own notes on each exchange, evidence the platform does not hold, and the running expense record. The two records answer different questions.
The shared app shows what was communicated. Your journal shows what you experienced and can support with attachments.
Cost and commitment
Casewell is one subscription — $2.99/week or $49.99/year after a 14-day free trial — because there is only one user.
Shared platforms are typically priced per parent. So the real cost of a paid shared app is usually double the sticker price, and it recurs for as long as the court order or arrangement lasts.
AppClose's single all-inclusive price softens that math for basic needs. This is why it appears in our best custody journal apps comparison as the low-cost shared option.
How to decide
Ask two questions. First: has a court or agreement named a platform? If yes, use it — that decision is made. Second: does your documentation need survive the other parent's non-participation?
If what you need is a record that exists regardless of their cooperation, that is a private journal, and it is the job Casewell is built for.
If what you need is accountable communication both parents will actually use, pick a shared platform and hold the private journal in reserve for everything the feed cannot capture.
Before you share your record
Everything above is about keeping your own record. Before you show any of it to someone else, a few extra steps help.
Deal with one question at a time. Share the current order, a short timeline and the files that prove the point. Keep everything else safe in case it is needed later.
Court rules on redacting details, exhibits and deadlines vary from place to place. Check with a family-law attorney licensed in your state or your court's self-help pages before you file or send anything.
Write your state and county at the top and use the terms from your own order. A rule from one state may not apply in another.
What a coherent US record looks like
Casewell keeps the dated entry, its source file and any later addition together in one private timeline. When a review is needed, select only the records that answer the question in front of you and share those with a family-law attorney licensed in your state.
Try for freeDoes my co-parent need Casewell?
No. Casewell is for your own private records. Nobody else needs an account, and the other parent never sees your entries.
Is Casewell a replacement for OurFamilyWizard or TalkingParents?
Not when a court has ordered shared communication — keep using the ordered platform. Casewell replaces the scattered notes, screenshots, and spreadsheets you keep on your own side, and works alongside any shared app.
Why doesn't Casewell have messaging?
By design. A private journal that also messaged your co-parent would stop being private. Communication belongs on whatever channel you already use or a court directs. Casewell holds your record of it.
Can I use Casewell alongside another co-parenting app?
Yes. Many parents keep a shared app for communication and scheduling while using Casewell as the private documentation layer for events, expenses, and evidence.
Is Casewell cheaper than shared co-parenting apps?
Often, because it is one subscription rather than one per parent: $2.99/week or $49.99/year with a 14-day free trial. Compare current prices on each provider's site, since plans change.
Does this apply in every state?
No. Custody law, procedure and terminology differ by state and often by county. Use this page to keep your own record in order, and check legal questions with an attorney in your state.
Sources
Custody law, procedure and terminology differ by state and often by county. The official source provides orientation only. This page is a documentation guide, not legal advice.