Choosing a co-parenting app to recommend: a checklist for lawyers, mediators and parenting coordinators

Some apps charge each parent and some charge one price per family. When one parent can’t afford their half, the app becomes another dispute. Compare the yearly cost for both parents, and ask whether there’s a fee waiver or hardship option.

• Can messages be edited or deleted after sending?
• Are read times shown?
• Is there any way to show an item hasn’t changed since it was saved, for example a fingerprint or an independent timestamp?
• Are imported items, like screenshots or emails, clearly marked as imports?

Look for access that both parents approve, that is read-only, and that logs each time you open the record where both parents can see it. Check what you can and can’t see: private notes and journals should stay private unless a parent chooses to share them.

• An export for a date range that a judge can follow: a summary first, then the detail.
• A chronology you can paste into an affidavit, rather than retyping screenshots.
• For coordinators: a way to record decisions that both parents see and acknowledge.
• A way to ask the family for documents without email chains.

In Ontario, the Law Society’s Rules of Professional Conduct restrict rewards for referrals and require disclosure of any compensation from anyone other than the client (see rules 3.6-1 and 3.6-7). Mediators have their own conflict-of-interest standards. The simplest position is an app that pays no referral fees at all. Check your own rules; this is not legal advice.

Ask where data is stored, whether it’s sold or used to train AI, whether photos have their location removed, and whether there’s a quick-exit button for parents who may be at risk.

Tandem is one price for both parents, seals every item with an independent timestamp, and gives professionals a free workspace once both parents approve: facts at a glance, a chronology for Word, a session agenda, document requests, time logging and a court-ready PDF. Coordinators can record decisions. Tandem never pays lawyers, mediators or coordinators for recommendations. It doesn’t yet have app-store apps or in-app call recording, which some other apps do.