Parties and conflicts
A party exists once at the firm
A party is an entity the firm knows — a person or a company — attached to a matter in a role. The same company can be the opposing party on one matter and a witness on another without becoming two records, and its history follows it.
When you type a name the firm already knows, you are offered the option to link rather than create. Linking reuses that party’s history everywhere it appears. Nothing is merged for you: if they are genuinely different entities, keep them separate.
The roles a party can hold
Client · Plaintiff · Defendant · Opposing party · Opposing counsel · Counsel · Insurer · Employer · Witness · Expert · Judge · Court · Other
The conflict check
Every add and every removal re-runs the check against every party on every matter the firm has ever opened, as the system rather than as you.
That distinction matters: it sees matters you cannot open. A match on a walled or unassigned matter is reported as a match, but the matter is not named and nobody on it is named. A match you cannot see is still a match.
Three results:
| Result | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Clear | Nothing matched. |
| Possible | Something matched and needs a judgement. |
| Conflict | A direct match. |
For each match you are told the role the party held and whether the other matter is live or closed — and, where you have access to it, which matter.
Clearing a match
An attorney has to clear it in writing before the matter can leave draft. The reason field is required, and the clearance is recorded with your name and the time. It is kept permanently, whether the check came back clear or not.
The check is recorded, not decided. The product can make a firm write down why it is proceeding; it cannot make that a good reason.
Parties the analysis finds
Once documents have been read, the analysis proposes parties it found in them — under Found in the documents on the Parties tab. Each proposal tells you whether the firm already knows that name, how many other matters it appears on, and how many documents on this matter mention it.
Nothing joins the matter until you accept it. Accepting adds the party to the firm’s records and re-runs the conflict check.
Where the documents do not make clear which side you act for, the proposal says so and you switch the role yourself.
Aliases
A party filed under more than one spelling is shown with also filed as on the intake screen, and the analysis’s knowledge-base stage resolves the same party spelled several ways into one entry before any other stage reads it.