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.