Fax From Clio — Court Filings and Client Documents via the API or Email-to-Fax
Law firms on Clio still fax courts, opposing counsel, and agencies that will not take email. Send FAX Mail has no listing in the Clio App Directory, and we do not claim one. What works is faxing the documents Clio manages: pull a document from a matter and either post it to our REST API from a small integration, or download it and send by email-to-fax. Clio's own API and webhooks supply the document side; ours supply the fax.
Plan requirement
The scripted route uses our REST API and webhooks, part of the Business ($79.99/mo) and Enterprise ($169.99/mo) plans — both of which include HIPAA terms if your practice handles health records. The email-to-fax route works on any paid plan. Reading documents from Clio requires a Clio developer app and OAuth token, which is a Clio-side setup.
How it works
You register a developer application in Clio to get OAuth access to a firm's matters and documents. A small service you run lists or downloads the document a paralegal flags for faxing — a motion, a discovery response, a lien release — then POSTs it to /v1/faxes with the destination number. Clio can also fire a webhook when a document is added to a matter, which your service catches to trigger the send. The fax id comes back so you can log it as a matter activity, and a registered fax webhook records delivered or failed against the matter. For quick, human-driven sends, downloading the document and emailing it to your alias needs no code.
What you can do
- ✓Fax a document from a Clio matter to a court, agency, or opposing counsel
- ✓Use Clio's API and OAuth to pull the document, then POST it to /v1/faxes
- ✓React to a Clio document-added webhook to trigger the send
- ✓Log the returned fax id back as a matter activity for the file
- ✓Send a one-off by downloading the document and using email-to-fax
- ✓Keep HIPAA handling for practices that manage protected health records
Setup steps
- 1Put the account on Business or Enterprise (sign the BAA if you transmit PHI)
- 2Create an API key at /dashboard/developers with faxes:send
- 3Register a Clio developer app and authorize it for the firm's documents
- 4Have a service pull the flagged document and POST it to /v1/faxes with the number
- 5Record the returned fax id as a Clio matter activity
- 6Register a fax webhook to log delivered or failed against the matter
Example
POST /v1/faxes
Authorization: Bearer sfm_live_xxxxxxxx
Idempotency-Key: matter-3391-doc-motion
Content-Type: application/json
{
"to": "+15551234567",
"document": { "content": "JVBERi0xLjQK...", "content_type": "application/pdf" }
}Clio Fax — FAQ
It is not, and we would rather say so than imply a listing. You connect by registering your own Clio developer app for document access and calling our REST API from a service you run. Nothing is installed from Clio's directory — the firm controls both the Clio app credentials and the fax key.
Flag the document in Clio — a custom field, a document category, or a matter status your service watches. When Clio fires a webhook or your service polls for that flag, it pulls the document over Clio's API and posts it to /v1/faxes. The human decides what to send; the service handles the transport.
Yes. Take the fax id from the API response and write it back as a Clio matter activity or note, then update it when the fax.delivered or fax.failed webhook arrives. That gives the matter file a dated record of exactly what was faxed and whether it reached the destination.
Choose a Business or Enterprise plan, which includes HIPAA terms, and sign the BAA at /dashboard/compliance before sending if your practice transmits PHI. Inbound fax PDFs are then never emailed — they stay in the authenticated dashboard — so a personal-injury or medical-records matter is handled within those controls.
Build with the Clio Fax
API access and webhooks are included on the Business and Enterprise plans. Create a key at /dashboard/developers and start sending.
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