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Now you're probably wondering what's so special about linking information to issues -- after all it's a common feature, and that's true: linking is common. However, being able to instantly review what's linked to an issue or topic at a glance is not -- especially not with just two mouse clicks. When it comes reviewing, MasterFile steps away from the crowd, letting you effortlessly browse documents, extracts, facts by issue or topic. It's so transparent and natural, no thinking is needed and you can focus all your attention on your work -- not your software.
"Last, but not least, "Issues and Topics", a feature MasterFile offers but should more aggressively highlight, has been invaluable. Using this feature, the firm integrates its own "case file" materials into the litigation case database while simultaneously segregating those internal "case file" materials from case-preparation materials for easy reference and uses. This really allows the firm's lawyer, when out of the office, to access everything that relates to the case – case papers (such as letters to opposing counsel, experts, and third parties), papers filed in or with the court,
discovery documents, deposition transcripts … and the case analysis of the facts developed during discovery." -- John J. Mueller
In this article we'll show you why Issues and Topics are one of MasterFile's best kept secrets and how to get the most from them.
Here's what we'll cover:
What are issues and topics?
Issues and topics are categories, which you define, that let you organize the documents, extracts, facts and players in a MasterFile database -- much like a book's index. And, like a book's index, if you link an item to several issues or topics, it will appear under each. To help management, large collections of issues and topics can be organized into a hierarchical outline upto three levels deep -- i.e. Section, subsection and issue/topic.
Issues and topics are almost identical; they are defined the same way and appear in all the same views; however issues can be assigned an impact assessment of how the issue affects your case -- is it for you or against you, etc. An issue appears under a category heading with the word "Issues" in it (as shown below) and is linked using the "Link to issue" buttons. All other topics are linked using the "Link to topic" buttons.
Below is an example of a small issue and topic list:
MasterFile's exclusive, live, "by Issue/Topic" outline views show you everything
MasterFile is unique because it stores all your litigation and work-product documents, the facts and events of your case, as well as the players in one database. This gives MasterFile several unique advantages:
- You don't need to keep copies of your topic and issue list synchronized in two or three separate systems -- which is sometimes impossible if one system uses a one level issue list and another uses a multilevel outline issue list.
- Only MasterFile's "by Issue/Topic" views let you review everything (documents, extracts, facts, events, players) linked to the issue outline, live, as shown below, live -- without printed reports (of course if you want a printed report you can do that too, as we show later in this article). And, as we mentioned, information linked to multiple issues or topics shows up under each, just as you would expect.
Notice how everything is kept automatically sorted and categorized for ready reference -- you're just two mouse clicks away from seeing anything related to an issue. Searching becomes rapid, effortless browsing. Double click on a row to see the document, fact, etc.
Even CaseMap®, which specifically advertises it "makes it easy to ... explore the facts, the cast of characters, and the issues in a case", doesn't let you browse or review everything "by Issue" -- you have to print and keep a paper report next to you to use side by side with CaseMap.
Although you can search by full content for any information in MasterFile, linking to issues and topics has several advantages over content searching:
- Searching for critical material is not always reliable as searches often return many dozen or hundreds of hits, all of which must be reviewed again for relevance.
- If you don't use the correct search terms, or if others search with different terms, many items may be missing from the results.
- If you've uncovered half a dozen or more important pieces of evidence on a topic, and have several dozen topics or issues under investigation, you will most likely forget many of the items and so critical evidence, although present in the database, is for all practical purposes "lost".
MasterFile's unique, new Issue Cross-Table -- when issue outlines are insufficient
MasterFile's "Issue/Topic cross-tab" is an industry first and is designed specifically for situations when a set of issues applies to many entities and eliminates the need to create and maintain duplicate sets of your issue outline for each topic, as shown below.
For a complete information about the Issue Cross-Table see our related article:
MasterFile's unique Issue Cross-Table -- when issue outlines are insufficient
MasterFile's unique Document Binder view -- for when you prefer a case binder
Because of the unique nature of MasterFile's issue/topics, how you use the issue/topic view is virtually limited only by your imagination -- it's what makes MasterFile act like putty you moulded to fit your needs. In particular, besides letting you create an outline of issues and topics relevant to your case, as above, you can use issue/topics to categorize, classify or group together documents, extracts, facts and players to mimic the other divider tabs (such as those related to administrative matters) of your hardcopy case binder or even just creating corporate records binders.
For those that do like a binder concept, MasterFile provides a specific "Document Binder" view, shown below, that's very appropriate for the smaller case in particular, mimicking the the case binder, by first listing the documents by type and then listing the binder tab issue/topics you've created and used.
One of our customers uses MasterFile's binder tab view to create their electronic corporate records binders. A MasterFile database for each binder holds scanned copies of the corporate records, categorized by appropriate document types and topics. Click here to see how.
For a complete information about the document binder tabs see our related article:
Document binder tabs - Replace or enhance paper tabs with MasterFile's views for instant organization
Incomplete topics, hidden topics and required issues/topics
As invaluable as MasterFile's "by Issue/Topic" views are, three features dramatically enhance the functionality of issues and topics:
- Incomplete topics -- topics you complete "on-the-fly" when they're used.
- Hidden topics -- topics that don't appear in the "by Issue/Topic" views.
- Required issue/topics -- issue/topic categories that must be linked to new documents, extracts, facts and/or players.
Incomplete and hidden topics
Incomplete topics are similar to regular topics, but are completed when used. You define an incomplete topic by simply ending the topic with "??". For example:
In the above example, two locations have been defined, but the third is incomplete. You might wish to do this if you know most of your information will be about the two locations relevant to the case, but you might also get some information regarding other locations. When you link a document or fact, for example, to "Locations\??" you'll be prompted for the location's name.
In the next example, a category "Player Info" is used to collect additional relevant information about players.
When these topics are linked to players, the value you provide to complete the topic again replaces the "??" and allows players to be categorized by these additional characteristics as shown below.
Notice again how MasterFile's views automatically keep everything pre-categorized for ready reference. You don't have to learn search tools or understand the database design to make new views which use the additional information.
If a topic contains "...." (4 periods) it becomes a "hidden topic" and will not appear in any "by Issue/Topic" view. For example, the "Spouse .... ??" topic above can be used to record a spouse's name, but none of these names will appear in views. They stay in the list of linked issues and topics within the player's form together with other such hidden topics -- it's as though you've just customized the database design to hold additional information.
"I began to see that MasterFile is as fully customizable as were the earlier database products I have used. And, all without having to know technical programming languages!" -- Ed Fauance
You'll find incomplete and/or hidden topics useful when you need a few "custom" text fields to record additional information. Although not the same as custom database programming, with just a "??" you can quickly and easily capture a few bits of additional information and have them automatically categorize the database -- no need to understand database design, learn customization tools, or design new views. And like all information in MasterFile, the topics are indexed so you can also full-text search them if needed.
Required issues/topics
The benefits of linking information by issues or topics are obvious, however if not used consistently the value is lost.
For example, if you are dealing with case involving accidents at several locations, you would naturally want to be able to locate all information related any one location so you would simply link documents, etc. to a topic for each location. However, since it's easy to forget to link new information as it is added to the database, MasterFile lets you specify the "Locations" topic category as a "required topic". Once a topic category has been made "required", new documents, extracts, facts or profiles (or any combination you choose) must be linked to a topic in the category before they can be saved.
Printing categorized issue/topic reports and pasting views into Word or Excel
Printing a report from MasterFile is as simple as printing a view -- what you see is what you get! For example, below the "everything: by Issue/Topic" view has been printed. Notice by simply expanding or collapsing sections in the view you can control what's shown in the printed report . Alternatively, you can just select specific rows (with or without section headings) and just those rows will appear in the report. And, since any of MasterFile's views can be printed the same way, you've got over 60 pre-sorted and categorized reports, including:
- documents by date, by author, recipient, document type, production run, hearing,
- facts by relevance, status (disputed, stipulated, etc.), impact (for you, against you, etc.),
- chronology events by date, by issue/topic, by tally per month,
- facts, documents, extracts with outstanding questions or action items pending,
- authorities by date, by issue, topic,
- etc.
If you need more information, you can print a digest report which prints a small predefined digest of the information in the view or in selected rows.
Or, use our unique Grab n Go Briefs to quickly produce polished Word or PDF reports. See our related article for more information:
Grab n Go Briefs -- Fast, polished, custom Word or PDF report sets from MasterFile for client or internal use.
And finally, you can copy selected rows from a view which can be pasted directly into Excel or a Word as a table
"Global add/remove" for bulk updates to issues and topics
Making bulk changes to issues and topics, such as linking or un-linking batches of documents to issues or topics, creating and adding new topics or issues to batches of extracts or facts, etc., are all easily done with MasterFile's "Global add/remove" function. (If you need to rename an issue or topic, use the "Revise database to new value" button on the Issue/Topic form).
For more information about "Global add/remove", see our article:
Maintenance -- Power Assisted Revision, Global replace, Global add/remove
Drag and Drop Issue/Topic folders for rapid issue tagging
Tagging documents, extracts and facts with issues and topics can be a time consuming task, so MasterFile provides many tools that help make the process quick and easy: Global add/remove, Drag and Drop Issue/Topic Folders and Issue/Topic Revision.
With Issue/Topic Folders let you simply drag and drop any document, extract or fact profile into folders that have names that match your issue and topic. Teams, even mobile members, can now rapidly review and collect documents into the issue folders they are responsive to. Then, one command lets you select the folders to process and have the issues/topics coded into the documents, extracts and facts with the corresponding issues so all information now appears in the MasterFile views. The process can be repeated as needed when new documents are received.
Creative uses for topics and introducing MasterFile's unique structured folders
You'll find that MasterFile's pre-categorized views, topics, incomplete topics and hidden topics along with "Global add/remove" let you collect and organize documents, extracts, facts and players in many useful ways that may not be immediately obvious. For example you can create topics to categorize or group information by:
- case elements such as location, suspects, physical evidence, etc.,
- administrative topics such as disclosing party, party taking a deposition, etc.,
- other case related matters which are not issues to the case,
- etc.
In addition to tagging information with topics and issues, you can also use MasterFile's folders.
MasterFile's folders are unique and exceptionally powerful. Unlike conventional folders, which are simply tables listing the folder contents, MasterFile's folders mimic the structure of MasterFile's views -- they look and feel like views. For example, if you create a folder to hold documents, extracts, facts and players using the "everything: by Issue/Topic" view as the folder's template, the contents of the folder will be displayed in the same format as the "everything: by Issue/Topic" view. There are over 60 view designs to choose from and of course you can print a folder just like a view, as described above.
For temporary collections, such as preparing a witness kit from extracts and facts, selecting documents for a "Global add/remove" bulk update or amassing documents for production, you'll find MasterFile's folders quicker and simpler to use than topics and issues. When you drag documents, extracts and facts to folders, they are not removed from the views or other folders -- they are retained in those locations and added to the new folder so you don't end up making copies to keep track of.
Further information
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