Managing exhibits

Filing an affidavit, brief or other document and managing its related exhibits can be taxing -- especially when you need to keep track of the evidence release, how it was numbered, and so on. The Exhibit Briefcase manages that process for you.

Creating an Exhibits Briefcase

Selecting the exhibits

You often have to attach evidence to work-product such as affidavits, briefs, etc. Managing both in MasterFile simplifies your work.

The process is straightforward as we'll go through below and consists of three steps

  1. Work product and final versions in PDF are stored in MasterFile like any other document.
    See Document management and work-product in MasterFile
  2. Browse the database to add links to the exhibits in the order they are referenced into the document's attachment field.
  3. Create an Exhibits Briefcase in PDF or TIF format with the exhibit numbers required.
try it - Step 1: Creating exhibits for an affidavit

Here, work product in Word is being managed in MasterFile. A final signed version exists as a PDF and being the first document in the field, will be the one used in production, etc.

With the document profile open in edit mode ...

  1. Click on 'Insert doc-link'. The database browser is displayed.
  2. Select the documents to attach. Here I've selected the three reports that are exhibits.
  3. Click OK to link the exhibits in the attachment field.

Exhibits are numbered in the order you see in the field starting at the top.

If you insert doc-links one at a time, the new insertions are always inserted at the top of the attachment field. If the order is incorrect  you can simply highlight an entry as below, and cut and paste in the order you want.

You can also use the global 'Insert doc-link' command which inserts profiles at the cursor.

  1. Click the spot to insert the exhibit's link.
  1. Choose the global 'Insert doc-link' command. The database browser is displayed.
  1. Select the exhibit and click OK to insert its link at the cursor.
  1. Save the profile.
try it - Step 2: Creating the exhibit briefcase
  • Select the documents for which to generate exhibits. The exhibit profiles should already have been linked to the respective documents. We'll continue with the affidavit from Step 1.  
  • Click [R+ Create > Exhibits Briefcase].
  • On the next screen enter the description for the exhibits and click OK.
  • Click OK when asked for confirmation.
  • Click [R+ Document Services > Evidence Cruncher].
  • Complete the production parameters and click OK.

Production completes. You can see the numbered exhibits in the briefcase's [L+ Pleadings : Disclosures > by Production History] view.

When you choose PDF as the production format, exhibits are stamped in the above order too.

The case database's [L+ Pleadings : Disclosures > by Production History] view has a link to the numbered exhibits. However, you can add or replace the links in the parent document with those to the numbered exhibits if you prefer.

  • Select all the exhibits in the locked exhibit briefcase and click [R+ Doc-link functions > Doc-links to clipboard].
  • Click in the attachment field of the parent or source document, or other field shaded grey and press Ctrl-v or right click and choose Paste.