Depending on your area of law, you can utilize some of the best practices below when entering or adding contacts into a matter. More information added in a contact helps ensure that document automation is as smooth as possible.
Adding additional parties to a matter
You can add additional parties to any matter by right-clicking on an existing field under Matter Details. It is best practice to reserve this technique for litigation matters, such as when you need to include different parties in a lawsuit that share the same address.
- Note: The specific parties you can add will depend on the matter type.
- For example, right-click on one of the Child fields to add an additional child to the Pre Decree matter depicted below.
If the additional party shares the same address as an existing contact, and you wish to send correspondence to both parties at the same time, then double-click on the existing client and select Add Another Person in the Contact Details window.
Adding attorneys
There are special steps you should take when entering an attorney contact:
- Select the Firm/Organization/Business option.
- Note: You should choose this option even if the attorney is a solo practitioner. Under Business/Organization’s details section, enter their name as "Law Office of..."
- Add the attorney(s) individually under the Contact section.
- Once a firm/business/organization contact is created, you can add additional staff by selecting the Add Another Person link in the advanced view of the contact card.
- In the advanced view of a business or organization contact, there is a Branch field that can be used if a firm has multiple locations, and you need to have separate addresses for each one.
- Depending on your template automation preferences, you may wish to use this field for locations.
Create a Lead or Matter from a Contact
- Navigate to the Contacts view on Smokeball.
- Right-click on the contact you wish to convert to a lead or matter.
- Select Create Lead or Create Matter.
Note: You can also create a lead or matter from Contacts search results.
Address Lookup in Contacts
You can use Smokeball for suggested possible addresses when creating a contact.
Additional resources
- If you are looking for tips related to your specific area of law, review our contacts articles in the Area of Law Practice Center or reach out to your Account Manager.