This article breaks down the Case page for an individual case.

Let's start with the top section. This section keeps track of the basic settings for the Case.

The top section of the Case page shows some overview information, like the Billing Panel and the client's contact information.

At the top of each Case page is the Billing Panel, which shows the current state of the case finances.

The Billing Panel is a reminder for employees working on the case that funds are limited, or have been exhausted. If they encounter these messages, they should check with the owner of the firm before proceeding on additional work.

The name of the case is used both in the Cases page, as well as on the client invoices. As such, it is best practice to put the type of case as the case name.

Choose the type of case that best matches what the client needs help with. This was originally set in the Lead, if one was created. Selecting a Case Type will automatically fill in the Minimum Trust field if a minimum trust was set, and the Fee Type(s). You can change these presets by clicking on the icon to the right of the Case Type field.

New case types can be created in the Case Types page of the Configuration tab.

Put the names of your clients here. This will present a drop-down list of existing contacts that you can select from. If the client is not in the list, you may type the name here and a contact will be created for you. You may entry the name as First Middle Last, or Last, First Middle.

Once you have saved this Case, you will be able to edit the contact details further in theContacts page.

Each case has a unique code that can be used for your reference. It is created when a Lead is converted to a Case, specifically when the Lead is marked as Won (Retainer Paid) in the Milestones section of the Lead.

A popular naming scheme is [year]-[case type code]-[serial number], e.g. 2022-D-0002. In this case, the year is 2022, the case type is D (for Divorce), and the 0002 means this is the second Divorce case in 2022. This is the default scheme used when a Lead is converted to a Case. You can set this field to whatever you want, as long as it is unique within your cases.

The case type part of a case code is part of the configuration of the Case Type, which can be set in Configuration / Case Types.

The disposition, or status, of the case.

Outlaw Practice supports hourly, flat fee and contingency billing method.

​Hourly billing tracks time worked on each time entry, rounding it to the nearest time interval, as set in the Configuration / Invoicing settings.

Flat Fee billing assigns each time entry to a flat fee bucket, as set up for the case type in the Configuration / Case Types page, or in the Flat Fees tab on this (Case) page.

Contingency billing works the same as hourly billing, but the invoice is only generated when needed for court. You can keep track of the contingency parameters for the case using the Contingency tab at the bottom of the Case.

Multiple Fee Types may be combined for a single case. For example, you may charge hourly for a case, but include some flat fee items as well.

Fee types can be changed until an invoice for this case has been finalized, although flat fees can always be added to a Case (although not removed once used).

Each fee type has its own configuration panel in the Case. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see them.

This field keeps track of the team assigned to the case. This will usually be an attorney and a paralegal, but for larger cases you can add as many team members as necessary.

The initials of the team members will show in the Team column of the Cases view:

Links this Case to the related Lead (if any).

To link a Lead to this Case, you can choose a Lead in the dropdown list. It shows the Lead name, followed by the client names. You can search in this (or any other) drop-down field by just typing in either the Lead name or a client name.

If no lead exists yet, you can create a new lead in the Sales page, then come back and choose it here.

If there is a maximum amount of funding available for this Case, specify it here.

This could be due to limited funds available to the client, or this could be due to the funding source, e.g. a legal insurance provider.

For example, if you are working on a case that has a maximum payout of $5,000 from the legal insurance company, you would enter $5000 here.

Another example would be a limited-scope engagement, where the client has decided to engage you for services up to $2,000.

This information is used to alert users that they are working on a Case with restricted funding, and that their efforts must be constrained by the money available. Tasks and Time Entries will show a yellow background when editing them, and will state that this Case has limited funds, and the case will be highlighted in yellow on the Cases page as well.

Here is an example of the Billing Panel on a task for a case that has spent more than 80% of the funds specified in the Max Funding field:

See the Billing Panel section at the top of this article for more information.

Specify the minimum amount of money the client must keep in trust at all times.

This informs several parts of the product:

If this case was imported from another system, how much had been billed before being imported into Outlaw?

This number is used when calculating analytics, specifically for recovery rates (how much of what you billed did you collect?).

If this case was imported from another system, how much had been collected before being imported into Outlaw?

This number is used when calculating analytics, specifically for recovery rates (how much of what you billed did you collect?).

This field keeps track of the court that has jurisdiction over this case (where this case is being heard). You can edit the list of possible courts by clicking the Configure button to the right of the dropdown.

Depending on your location and the court, this is the case number or docket number for this case.

Time entries (tasks) related to this Case.

Transactions consist of Payments, Withdrawals, Transfers, and Adjustments.

Payments include funding a trust, making a payment from a trust to operation, and making a payment directly from a client to operating.

Withdrawals include refunding money from a trust to the client, refunding money from operating to a client, and disbursing funds from a trust to a person other than the client.

Transfers are simple transfers between clients or case trusts for the same client.

Adjustments include manual adjustments to a case balance, starting amounts for a trust, or starting balance due for a client.

The Transactions section has two ledgers: Account and Trust. You can toggle between these views by making a selection in the dropdown on the right.

The Account view shows invoices, adjustments, and payments to balances. This is a quick way to see what the current balance is.

The Trust view shows all transactions related to client and matter trusts. Outlaw Practice supports a blend of client and matter trust(s) in the same case. For example, if there are two clients, Bob Doe and Linda Doe, you will see columns for Bob Dole, Linda Doe, and one for the case trust (which will usually have a code like 2022-A-0001).

Once connected to lawpay, this section will appear in Contacts, Leads and Cases.

It will show the payment methods for the client or clients related to this Contact, Lead or Case.

Two types of payments are accepted, credit card and eCheck.

These payment methods will then be available whenever you take a payment or replenish a trust.

This section lists participants of this case, and their relationship to the case.

There are both Familial and Legal relationships in the lists of available relationships.

Familial relationships include labels like "Mother", "Brother" or "Baby Mama".

Legal relationships include labels like "Opposing Party", "Judge" or "Co-Counsel".

The Checked column indicates if the participant has been conflict checked yet. Once a conflict check has been run, the date of the conflict check will be added to this column. Until then, an X will be placed in the column to indicate that a conflict check needs to be run.

The Description field enables you to add more context, such as "first wife", without haveing to create a new Relationship type of "First Wife", "Second Wife", etc.

If the relationship is Familial and bi-directional, e.g. husband/wife, then creating a new relationship will prompt for the creation of the opposite relationship on save. For example, if we add "Jane Doe" as a relationship for "John Doe" and specify the relationship "Wife" for Jane, when we save we will be asked if we would like to add John Doe with a relationship of "Husband" to Jane Doe.

Participants are a key part of thorough Conflict Checking. By adding participants, Outlaw Practice is able to accurately portray conflicts when checking Leads and Cases.

This section is used to fill in intake questions (custom fields) that you created in the Intake section in Configuration.

To set up intake questions, click on the Configure button on the right side of the title bar.

Encrypted fields will have a icon next to them to indicate that they are stored encrypted in the database.

This sections documents events related to the contact.

Events can include historical data, such as birthdays and wedding dates.

Events can also include legal dates, such as hearings and deadlines. All events in this section will show up on the Task Calendar.

Overview

Private Discussions can be used for notes that you do not want in the client record.

These could be status updates, or other notes that would help another user understand what is going on.

Private discussions are available for all major sections in Outlaw Practice (e.g. tasks, contacts, campaigns, leads and cases).

The Private Discussion area will pull discussions from related areas into one spot. For example, if you are in a case, the Private Discussion area will include discussions from the case, tasks related to the case, the lead related to the case, and clients related to the case. If you are in a Contact, it will include discussions related to the contact, including tasks, leads and cases.

It is easy to tell where a discussion originated based on the icons, formatting and title added to these messages. For example, the money bag icon means the comment was made in a Lead.