Cases & court cases
Name your case, add each court file with its number, court, and judge, and use the case workspace and Overview to keep everything in view.
Your case is the umbrella for your whole situation; court cases are the individual court files inside it. If you haven't read it yet, How the app is organized explains the difference in a minute.
Name your case and set your role#
New accounts start with a case called "My Case". Give it a real name — the caption you'd see on court papers, such as Smith v. Smith, or just something you'll recognize — and choose your role: petitioner, respondent, plaintiff, defendant, or other.
- From Cases, use Name your matter (or Edit matter) at the top.
- Or complete the first step of the Quick Start checklist.
Your case name and role are filled into document templates, exports, and binder covers, so it's worth getting them right.
Add a court case#
- Open CasesClick Cases in the sidebar, then Add case.
- Enter the detailsCase label (a name you'll recognize, like "Custody"), Case number exactly as it appears on your court papers, the Court state, and a Type (pick a suggestion or type your own).
- SaveThe court case appears as a card showing its type and how many hearings, evidence items, documents, and to-dos it has.
You can still add a court case to organize around — use "Not filed yet" as the case number and update it once you have one. The setup wizard does this for you if you chose "Not yet / nothing filed".
Why the court state matters: it's used to decide which document features are available for that court. See Documents → Availability by state.
The case workspace#
Click a court case to open its workspace. The header shows the case title and number, an All cases link, and a Switch case menu to jump between court cases. The tabs are:
| Tab | What's there |
|---|---|
| Case home | Counts, the next open to-dos, Case information (case number, label, court, judge, court state, type), and Hearings. |
| Evidence | Import messages, upload files, browse evidence, or reuse evidence from your other court cases. Guide |
| Binders | Hearing binders for this case. Guide |
| Preparation | Hearing desks, facts, records, filing status, and backups. Guide |
| To Dos | Tasks for this case. Guide |
| Timeline | This case's dated history. Guide |
| Documents | This case's documents. Guide |
Case information fields save when you click away from them. At the bottom of the Binders, Preparation, and Documents tabs there's a link to the workspace-wide view, where you'll find older records that aren't attached to any court case.
Overview#
Overview in the sidebar shows your whole situation on one screen:
- Counts of court cases, evidence, documents, and open to-dos.
- Your court cases, each with a countdown to its next hearing or key date.
- Upcoming dates, linked to the timeline.
- Issues — your claims & defenses. You define these; the software never decides your arguments for you. Create issues with Add issue on the Evidence page.
- Quick exports: Export Evidence Index and Court-ready PDF. See Binders & exports.
Issues#
An issue is a claim or defense your evidence supports — for example, "Missed exchanges", "School involvement", or "Safety concerns". You create them with Add issue on the Evidence page, tick them on each evidence item, and filter by them anywhere evidence is listed. They're your labels: the app doesn't suggest or rank arguments.
Contacts#
People involved in your case — the other parent, their attorney, a mediator, a teacher — are kept in Comms Guard. Each contact can have a relationship, email, phone, notes, custom fields, and the court cases they're involved in. Contacts are also used to fill in names in document templates.
Good to know#
- Deleting a court case isn't available from the screen yet. If you added one by mistake, rename it (for example "Unused") or contact support.
- Key dates added through the API or assistant appear on Overview and your timeline.
- If you're viewing a case someone shared with you, the case name, role, and Quick Start are hidden — only the owner can change them.