Tip #76 - How To Automatically Enter The Default Defendant In Your New Cases

Did you know that you can have the known defendant(s) automatically inserted in your cases when a case of that type is entered in SmartAdvocate? This feature is especially useful for Mass Tort cases where you are potentially dealing with large numbers of plaintiffs against the same defendant(s). This is common with toxic torts for example, where you have identified the manufacturer of a particular chemical who will be the defendant in the action. Please note that the individual who will be making the change to implement the automatic entry of the defendant must have Admin privileges in SmartAdvocate. We also recommend that only staff members who have had Admin training and are authorized to make modifications to SmartAdvocate in your firm perform any changes to your Case Type setup.

Let’s say your firm has started a new campaign in the Roundup litigation or 3M Earplugs litigation for example, you may want Monsanto (in the case of Roundup) and Aearo Technologies LLC (in the case of the 3M Earplugs litigation) to be entered as the defendants in those cases respectively, without your staff having to make the entries on a case-by-case basis.It is important to note that if a contact is set as a default defendant for the case type, users should be careful never to add that contact as a defendant manually when creating cases of that case type – if they do, they will likely get an error when trying to generate the case when the system finds that the defendant it’s trying to add is already on the case.

Here are the steps to implement the automatic entry of the default defendant in your cases.

First, use contact search on the tool bar to search if the defendant already exists in the database as a contact (go to Contacts > Contact Search)
If the defendant has not been entered in SmartAdvocate as a contact, use the ‘Add Contact’ to create the contact information for the defendant (Note: The contact type should be entered as ‘general’)
Click on the ‘Admin’ tab on the tool bar
Click Case Type on the drop down menu
Locate the Case Type you want to work with (e.g., 3M Earplugs)
Click the SOL icon (little clock) in the far right column under Actions

7. In the bottom left section of the dialog box you will see a button labeled ‘Add Default Defendant’ (The section below Defendant Name, Address, Role and Actions will be blank if no default defendant has been assigned to this Case Type)

8. Click the button for ‘Add Default Defendant’. The ‘Edit Form’ dialog box will appear.

9. Click the drop down to reveal the filter option to search the database for the defendant’s name, e.g., Monsanto. (See steps 1 and 2 above).

10. Select the appropriate defandant’s name. The name will populate in the field for ‘Defendant Name’ on the Edit Form.

11. Select the appropriate Role from the drop down in the box below Defendant Name, e.g., Manufacturer. (The Roles available here would have been designated when the Case Type was created)

12. Click the Update button on the Edit Form dialog box

13. Repeat steps 8 thru 12 to add any additional default defendant(s) to this Case Type

14. Click the ‘Close’ button located at the bottom right of the dialog box to save your selection(s) and update your Case Type (note – there is no ‘save’ or ‘update’ button to save your selections, simply click the close button and your entries will be automatically saved)

The defendant(s) set here will now be automatically populated to your cases of this type going forward.
Please note – default defendant(s) are not automatically added to your cases retroactively. You can use Case Browse and Mass Update to add the defendant to your existing cases in bulk, or manually add the defendant to those cases that were created previously on a case-by-case basis.