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Managing Involved Parties

This article gives the information about how to manage the Involved parties in a matter.

Use the Parties page of a matter to manage the people or organizations that are involved in a matter, such as opposing counsel or jurisdictions.

Involved Parties are persons or companies that are involved in a matter and have roles such as witness, plaintiff, outside counsel, or opposing party. All roles can be selected or edited on the Involved Parties section tab.

By default, involved party records have the following additional pages:

  • Party Name—Displays general information about the involved party and includes contact information, a link to the contact record, involvement dates, notes, and the involved party's role in the matter.
  • Role—Displays the involved party's role in the matter.
  • Date Assigned—Displays the date signifying when this person was assigned to the matter.
  • Active—Displays whether this person's status is set to "Active".
  • Notes—Displays additional notes about the involved party or matter.
  • Phone Number—Displays the party's phone number.

Involved party records can only be created and viewed from within their related matters.

You can perform the following tasks to manage involved parties for a matter:

  • Adding Involved Parties—Add or change the people or companies who are involved in a matter.
  • Changing the Status of an Involved Party—Change the status of an involved party to Active or Inactive.
  • Changing an Involved Party Role—Add or change the role of people or companies who are involved in a matter. You can also assign and change a default role.
  • Relating Involved Parties—Define the relationship between involved parties.

Adding Involved Parties

Use the Involved/Assignees Summary page to add contacts who are involved in a matter.

To add an involved party

  1. Search for a matter and open it.
  2. In the left pane, click the Involved/Assignees link. The Involved/Assignees page opens.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. In the Involved Parties section, click New Involved Party.

    Involved Party Section
  5. The New Involved Party Wizard opens to the first page.
  6. Complete the following fields:
    • For the Contact field, select one of the following options:
      • If you know the contact name, enter the first few letters of the name in the Contact box. If one or more names appear in a drop-down list, select the appropriate name.
      • In the Contact field, click the search icon. On the search page, enter the appropriate search criteria, and then click Search. If you want to select an Outside Counsel firm for budgeting, the contact must have the External > Law Firm category. When the contact list opens, select the appropriate contact name, and then click OK.
        You are returned to the first screen and the selected name appears in the Contact box.
    • In the Default Role drop-down list, select the role that applies to this involved party. If you want to select an Outside Counsel Firm for budgeting, select Outside Counsel Firm as the role for matter type Dispute or Transaction.
    • Uncheck the Active box if you do not want this involved party to be active at this time. Check this box if you are ready to activate this involved party.
    • In the Notes section, enter any information that is pertinent to this involved party.
  7. Click Save & Close.
    For all other involved parties, this step will be skipped. The new involved party is added to the matter.
    Tip: If you cannot locate the appropriate contact, you may have to create it. Click New, select an option, and then follow the instructions to create a new contact. See "Creating or Editing Contacts" on page 131(link). When you are done, use the Recent Items drop-down list on the main page to return to the original matter.
  8. Click Save & Close.

Involved Party General Page Field Descriptions

The table below contains the default fields for the Involved Party General page. The fields that you see may vary based on your system settings and assigned rights. Field descriptions are listed in alphabetical order and may display in a different order in the application.

Involved Party General Page Fields

Field or control (* = required)

Description

*Contact

The name of the contact that you want to add to this record.

After the record is saved, the contact name is always displayed as a hyperlink to the contact's record.

Default Role

The role that usually applies to a contact in a matter, for example, Attorney or General Counsel. The role that you select is automatically added to the list and set as the default on the Roles page when you save the record.

You can add a contact to the same matter multiple times as long as each entry has a different role.

Is Active

The current status of the Involved party. Options are Active or Inactive.

Inactive Date

The ending date of this party's involvement in a matter.

Involvement Date

The beginning date of this party's involvement in a matter. By default, this is the date that the involved party is added to this Dispute matter, but you can change it at any time.

Notes

Notes that may apply to this involved party.

Editing Involved Parties

Use the Involved/Assignees General page to edit involved party records.

To edit an involved party record

  1. Search for a matter and open it.
  2. In the left pane, click the Involved/Assignees link.
  3. If necessary, in the Involved Parties section, in the View drop-down box, select All Involved Parties.
    A list of active and inactive involved parties is displayed.

    Involved/Assignees Page - Involved Parties Section
  4. Click the View Involved Party link next to the appropriate contact. The involved party record opens to the General page.

    Involved Party General Page
  5. Click Edit, and then edit the appropriate information.
  6. If necessary, click a link in the left pane to edit additional information. See Relating Involved Parties for more information.
  7. Select a save option.

Changing the Status of an Involved Party

Use the General page to change the status of an involved party. The options are Active or Inactive. To change the status of an Involved party

  1. Search for a matter and open it.
  2. In the left pane, click the Involved/Assignees link.
  3. If necessary, in the View drop-down list, select All Involved Parties.
  4. Click Search.
  5. Click View Involved Party Record next to the appropriate contact.
  6. Click Edit.
  7. In the Status drop-down list, select the appropriate status.
  8. Select a save option.

Evaluating Outside Counsel

TeamConnect Legal allows you to evaluate outside counsel and use this information to track their performance over time. Each time outside counsel is involved in a matter, you must complete an evaluation before you close the matter. This evaluation is incorporated into the outside counsel's overall score. You perform the evaluation in the involved party record of the outside counsel. The score can be viewed in the outside counsel's contact record.

To evaluate outside counsel

  1. Search for and open a matter in which an outside counsel attorney is selected as an involved party.
  2. In the left pane, click the Involved/Assignees link.
  3. In the Involved Parties section, click the View Outside Counsel link next to the name of the outside counsel that you want to evaluate. The involved party record of that individual opens. This link is not available if the involved party is a firm rather than a vendor.
  4. Click Edit.
  5. In the Involved Party Outside Counsel Evaluation section, select a rating for each item of the evaluation criteria.

    Involved Parties Outside Counsel Evaluation Section
    If the Outside Counsel Evaluation/Outside Counsel Attorney details section of contact records is not displayed, you may not have access rights to this feature. Likewise, this field will only be visible if the Involved Party's role is not an outside counsel role. Contact your TeamConnect Legal administrator if you need to evaluate outside counsel.
  6. In the Comments section, enter additional details if necessary.
  7. Select a save option.

The rating you select for Overall satisfaction with representation is used to calculate the overall performance of the counsel. This score is displayed on the Categories page of the selected counsel's contact record.

Changing an Involved Party Role

Use the involved party Roles page to change an involved party's role in a matter.

Typically, companies organize their Involved party contacts by categories or roles. Categories may be broad, or may include subcategories. Contacts may be involved in a matter in a number of roles such as respondent, claimant, or witness. One of the roles is always set as the default role for the selected contact.

To change an involved party role

  1. Search for a matter and open it.
  2. In the left pane, click the Involved/Assignees link. The Involved/Assignees page opens.
  3. If necessary, in the View drop-down list, select All Involved Parties.
  4. Click Search.
  5. Click View Involved Party Record next to the appropriate contact. The involved party General page opens.
  6. Click Edit.
    The General page opens in edit mode. Navigate to the Roles page in the left pane.

    Involved Parties Roles Page
  7. On the Default Role drop-down list, select the new role for this involved party.
  8. Select a save option.
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