New Legal Product Releases - May 2025

This month's legal product release includes the following new feature:

Witnesses Sublayout

We have introduced a Witnesses sublayout that will replace the existing Witness & Expert layout for all newly created matters. This change will also apply to all matter types and jurisdictions. The new layout features several advantages:

• Consistency across matter types
• Steamlined layout with fewer fields
• Improved association with parties

Important Notes

• Existing matters created before this release will still display the previous Witness & Expert layout.
• No automatic changes will be made to data on existing matters.
• The new Witnesses sublayout is optional for new matters and is enabled per party in Matter Settings.
  • It is also available for any party that can be selected as a client when you open a new matter.
• Redundant matter contact cards such as judge, courthouse, witness, and expert have been removed. You can instead enter these contacts under Case Details and the Witnesses sublayout.
• Outbound Referral Details has been added as an option to remaining matters. 

Witnesses Sublayout and TemplateLab

• The automation table cannot combine witness data for multiple parties. To give one example, if a matter has two plaintiffs and each has their own witness sublayout, then these cannot be merged into a single witness list.
• We recommend entering all witnesses that need to be included on a witness list on the same sublayout.
• Any forms automated with fields from older witness sublayouts will not function for new matters. These documents will need to be re-automated using fields from the updated Witnesses sublayout. Conversely, fields from the updated Witnesses sublayout will not work on older matters.
• We recommend creating a new form to use for new matters and preserve existing forms for older matters. 

Update to the Debt Collection Matter Type

We created two new layouts for the Debt Collection matter type:

• Petition /Complaint Details
  • Fields related to filing and service of a complaint are now stored in this new layout. This enables you to track the service of a complaint on multiple defendants individually. 
• Debt Details
  • All debt-related fields formerly located on the Case Details layout are now stored in this new layout. The new layout allows you to record additional information related to medical and foreign debts. 

Important Note: Extant debt collection matters will show the older Case Details layout in addition to these new layouts. Information previously entered will remain visible on Case Details. There may be unanticipated inconsistencies with document automation due to these changes. Should you experience these inconsistencies, modify the template from a new debt collection matter using the updated fields added in this month's release.