Viewing and managing witnesses from depositions
Viewing and managing witnesses from timeline
Witness Management in Case Builder
Case Builder makes it easy for you to add and manage witnesses throughout the product. The Witnesses page in DISCO Case Builder allows you to create, view, search, and manage all the witnesses in your case in a single place. This page displays information about witnesses added in Case Builder and links to their depositions and associated timeline facts. The Witnesses page consolidates witness information into a single, easy-to-use list, but you can also view and edit your witnesses while you're working in depositions or on the timeline.
Witnesses page
You can navigate to the Witnesses page by selecting it in the Case Builder dropdown menu.
Creating witnesses
- To create a new witness, click on the Create witness button on the top right of the Witnesses page
- Enter the following information in the New Witness panel
- Enter First name
- Enter Last name* (required field)
- To add a picture to your witness, click the Change Profile Picture thumbnail. Then drag and drop your picture or browse your computer for an image and click Save picture
- You can also add fill in any of the following fields, and when you are done click Save
-
Select Party alignment
- Plaintiff
- Defendant
- None
- A custom value
- Enable Expert witness if applicable
- Enter a Brief description
- Select Case impact between -3 and +3 that represents the degree of helpful or harmful impact the witness has on a case
- Enter any additional witness Notes
Editing witnesses
- To edit any witness, move your cursor to their row and a set of icons will appear next to their profile picture, including an Edit pencil icon in the middle
- Click the Edit icon, and you will be shown the Edit witness panel where you can add or edit any witness information
- When you are done, click Save at the bottom of the panel. It may take a few seconds for the updated information to show up on the Witnesses page
Deleting witnesses
- To delete a witness, move your cursor to their row and a set of icons will appear next to their, profile picture, including a Delete trash can icon on the bottom (note: if your witness is attached to any depositions or facts, this icon will be grayed out and the witness cannot be deleted)
- Click the Delete icon on the bottom, and you will be prompted to confirm the deletion. If you want to proceed with deletion, click Delete. Otherwise, you can also Cancel and return to the Witnesses page
Witness information
All your witness information is displayed on the Witnesses page, with columns for the various categories. You can also drag and drop the columns to customize their order. The new view is a visual preference for that user on a specific browser, meaning that other users will not automatically see another's rearranged columns and clearing your browser cache will default columns to their original order.
Witness depositions
Any depositions already associated with a witness are displayed in the Depositions column, and clicking on a specific deposition pill will take you directly to that deposition.
You can also add a new deposition directly from the Witnesses page by hovering your cursor in the Depositions column and clicking Add deposition. Depositions added from the Witnesses page will pre-populate the Witness section for you. Once the deposition has uploaded, refreshing the Witnesses page will show the deposition next to the witness.
Witness facts
Any facts linked to a witness will show up in the Facts column. You can see up to 100 of the facts in an expanded view, and collapsing the row will show up to 2 facts and an option to Show all if more exist.
You can also hover over the Facts column for a witness to show the See in timeline button. Clicking this will take you to the timeline and filter it to show you all the facts associated with that witness. You can also click on any fact pill to to be taken to that specific fact.
Searching for witnesses
You can find witnesses by doing a fieldless, i.e. term, search on the Witnesses page. The search will return results that match on name, descriptions, expertise, and/or notes added to the witness. This search also works on partial terms (e.g. a search for leak returns a witness with a note about leaking).
Viewing and managing witnesses from depositions
During deposition upload
When uploading a new deposition, you will also have the opportunity to search, create, edit, or delete any of your witnesses.
- To manage your witnesses while uploading a deposition, first click into the Witness box. This will reveal a drop down list of all your witnesses and from here you can search for and select a witness to add to your deposition by typing into the box
- You can also hover your cursor over a witness to show an Edit witness pencil icon that lets you edit the witness data. You can also click the New witness box at the bottom of the pop out to create a new witness who will automatically get added to the deposition you are uploading
In the deposition viewer
You also have the opportunity to view and edit witness data from within the deposition viewer for depositions that have already been created. To view witness data, click the Witness tab toggle in the left sidebar, and it will expand to show you some witness information. To edit, click on the Edit pencil icon in the Witness expander and you will be able to modify any information about the witness. Because they are linked to the current deposition, however, you will not be able to delete the witness.
Viewing and managing witnesses from timeline
You can also view, edit, and manage your witnesses from your timeline. If you scroll through the different columns, you will see a Witnesses column which shows all the witnesses associated with each of your facts.
To add a new witness to a fact, hover your mouse over the Witnesses column and click the Add witnesses button for your specific fact. This will reveal the same search box that appears while adding a deposition. From here, you can search for existing witnesses, create a new witness, or edit existing witnesses by clicking the Edit pencil icon that appears when hovering over the witness you want to edit.
You can also view the witness by clicking on a specific witness pill. This will pop out a summary of the witness's information, and you can see additional data and/or edit by clicking on the Edit pencil icon. You can also click on the View facts or View deposition to view all facts or depositions associated with the witness.
You can choose to collapse or expand the witness bubbles by either clicking the Collapse all or Expand all icons on the top left side of the toolbar next to the filter or by clicking the Show all option or the Show less option that appears when you hover your cursor over the column. If you want to learn more about features in Timelines, click here.