Tip #123 - The Proper Procedure for Adding a Defendant to your Case

Rarely will you have the Defendant’s information at the time of intake (for most PI cases). In general, many firms have their case types configured to automatically add a “John Doe” or “Unidentified Defendant” as a place holder for the unknown Defendant. Also, it is recommended that you do not manually enter a name such as “Unknown” in place of the Defendant in Case Wizard – you should simply leave the name fields blank unless you are entering the actual name of the defendant.

When you have ascertained the identity of the actual Defendant, you will enter that Defendant’s name from the Defendant tab on the Summary screen. Here’s how:

Click Defendant Tab on the left menu.
Click ‘Summary’ under the Defendant’s Tab.

The Defendant’s Summary page may look like the following:

Here, “John Doe” is listed as the Defendant (this was configured and set as the default Defendant in case Type setup).

3. Click the ‘Action’ icon in the far-right action column and then click the ‘Edit’ option.

The ‘Edit Defendant’ dialog box will be displayed.

4. Delete the Defendant’s name (John Doe) from the field labeled ‘Defendant Name’.

A new dialog box will be display with a list of all contacts.

5. It is recommended that you first search all contacts prior to attempting to add the new defendant to ensure that the contact does not already exist in the database. To search for the contact, enter the name (or portions of the name) in the search area shown in the screenshot above (your search results will filter as you type). Should you find an existing match, and you have ascertained that it is indeed the proposed defendant – verify address, DOB, etc. – click on the name from the search result to populate the defendant field and continue with step number 10 below. If no match is found, continue with step number 6 below.

6. Click the ‘Add New Individual Defendant’ or ‘Add New Organization Defendant’ as appropriate.

7. A new (blank) contact card will be displayed.

8. Complete the actual Defendant’s information as appropriate. (In the example above, individual Defendant was selected). Select ‘General’ as the ‘Contact Type’.

[Note: If you did not do a search as outlined in step number 5 above, or your search did not locate an existing contact, the automated conflicts checker will also do a search in the background as you attempt to add the new contact name in step number 8 above. Should a match be found during this procedure, you will be presented with a ‘pop up’ dialog box with the list of contacts matching the entered name. If other biographic data you are attempting to add match one from the list (signifying it is the same contact), simply click the ‘select’ button to the left of the name for that contact and some of the remaining biographic data will be automatically populated on the contact card. Enter any remaining information as appropriate and continue with step number 9 below.

If the system did present you with a ‘pop up’ list of contacts, but it is clear that the name you have entered for this contact is a different person or entity (such as a person with a common name), simply close the ‘pop up’ dialog box, i.e., do not click any of the ‘select’ buttons, continue entering any remaining information for the new contact as appropriate, and continue with step number 9 below]

9. Click the ‘Save’ button to save the new Defendant’s information.

The newly added Defendant’s name will now appear in the ‘Edit Defendant’ dialog box.

10. Choose the correct role from the drop-down list if necessary.

11. Click the ‘Save’ button to save the new Defendant’s information to the case.

The resulting Defendant’s Summary Page will now be updated with the correct Defendant.