Date and Document Chronologies Necessary
We have now been talking for a number of weeks about the second of the five parts that make up every business in the world. That second part is administration. If you remember, the first part is clients or customers. We are now continuing with the necessary part of the business that is entitled "Administration."
This week's tip deals with the use of date and document chronologies prepared by either you, your staff, or your client to help you organize factual information, and to set up a system where either dates or documents regarding a particular client's matter can be easily organized and retrieved.
Early on in my practice, I began to realize how frequently matters we handled for clients really followed a chronological path with regard to how things happen. You have probably never sat down and thought about this, in fact I would worry about you if you had, but the beautiful thing about time is that it organizes everything. The minutes in an hour, the hours in a day, the days in a month, the months in a year, and the sequence of year after year, all provide for a very convenient outline to drop information into to help you organize a client's legal matter.
One of the fringe benefits of organizing this material is an opportunity to allow your clients to "vent their spleen." I have found over the years there is something magical about asking a client to prepare a chronology of events in their case. Apparently, when clients tell their story in writing, by making up a day-by-day chronology, they are placing the pen tip to paper or typing the outline into a typewriter or a computer that allows them to "vent their spleen." I have oftentimes referred to this request to clients to prepare these chronologies as putting the "cat" on the client's back. "Cat" stands for "client assignment therapy."
I give my clients a copy of the chronology form that I want them to use. What I ask the client to do is to give me information about their matter based upon a scale of one to ten. I tell them I do not want to have anything below a certain number on that scale. Depending on how detailed I want the chronology, numbers can be everything above three, five, eight, or any other number you choose. Obviously, the higher you choose the less information you are going to get in the chronology.
The next thing that I do is ask the client to get this chronology back to me by a certain date. I put both the scale to be used and the date on the chronology in the upper right-hand corner in the box provided. Then I discuss with the client what criteria they should use in giving me information about specific dates. "M/D/YR" stands for month, day, and year. I then suggest to them if they do not know the day, then just give me the month and the year. If they do not know the month, then give me the season and the year. If they do not know the season, then just give me the year. Finally, if they do not know the year, just give me the information as a 00/00/00 entry. When you ask the client to give you this kind of information, it is absolutely incredible how often it will come back well organized, understandable, and meaningful.
The second bonus occurring with the use of these chronologies is that reading the chronologies instantaneously gives you the story line of exactly what has happened with regard to the client's matter. Additionally, oftentimes I make a copy of the chronology, and as I am reading it, I can make notes on the copy of the chronology of things that I want to pursue, or additional work or research that needs to be done. Also, when reading the chronology, it is amazing to me how causes of action or defenses literally seem to leap off the page.
The last thing I have found with regard to how chronologies can be beneficial is the relationship of what appears to be unrelated events, that when put in a date chronology, oftentimes take on a significance that would not otherwise be noted.
I am reminded of a case I had that the chronology really served as the difference in getting a verdict. When the chronology was finally put together, it showed a series of date entries regarding a request from a bank to have additional guarantees delivered to the bank from various relatives of my client. Three days after all the guarantees were actually delivered, the bank called the notes, and subsequently sued all the new guarantors as well as my client. Not only did I find that interesting, but when I used the chronology up on a huge board in the courtroom, the jury found it interesting as well and gave my client a $7.5 million-dollar verdict against the bank.
The chronologies prepared by clients and added to by the lawyer and the lawyer's staff becomes a key organizational document with regard to handling the client's matter. The chronology becomes a quick-time reference to remind the lawyer of significant dates and events. It is one of the quickest ways to read yourself back into a case that you have not looked at for some time. Additionally, the chronologies can be used to prepare the facts to be set out in court pleadings. The chronologies can also be used in preparation of opening statements, witness preparation, order of proof listings, and closing arguments.
Note that in the form we use for chronologies in our office, the happening or the event needs to be spelled out so that the reader of the chronology clearly understands what it was that happened on that date. Additionally, if the information came from a potential exhibit, it needs to be shown what that potential exhibit would be. Exhibits could be documents, photographs, other papers, a book, a map, etc. Anything and everything that can be used, as an exhibit needs to be put down. It is up to the lawyer to eventually determine what use will be made of what the client has said is an exhibit.
The next thing that is put on the chronology is a potential witness. The witness needs to be somebody that can say that the particular event happened on that particular day. It is amazing how little information you need to give to your client in order to get them to be able to make these chronologies. It is also amazing what a great job your clients will do on these chronologies and how much of a part of the team the client feels like when you ask them to put these chronologies together. I always tell the clients this is a great way for them to save some money and to help them organize the file. I tell them that if they want our office to do the chronology, we are happy to do that, but we will charge them for it, and we will only be able to put down the information from the actual documents that they give us, as opposed to what we might have from our client's mind and memory. My office staff has prepared many chronologies for many of the cases that we work on. Oftentimes these are quite extensive, and can run well over a hundred pages.
Another type of chronology we do in our office is a document chronology. Some cases simply limit themselves to organizing just the documents and not any other information that may be from a source other than the documents. In those cases, we not only make out a document chronology again, showing the date, happening or event, exhibit, and witness, but also use manila folders with each of the dates and the name of the documents on the folder so the documents can be readily accessible in the client's file. Sometimes these manila folders consist of only a couple of folders, and sometimes the manila folders can occupy several bankers' boxes.
When the documents in a particular case are organized, they are almost always recapped in a chronology of some kind. If we do not use a date chronology, the other way we often organize documents are in alphabetical order. If the dates on various documents are not important to the handling of a particular legal matter, we do not prepare a chronology. What we would do instead is to organize the documents on an alphabetical basis, utilizing the broadest word first with regard to a particular document, so that it could easily be retrieved from the client's file. For instance, a real estate contract would not be filed under real estate, but would rather be filed be filed under contract real estate. Likewise, the last will and testament of a person would not be filed under "l" but rather would be filed under the word will, and then the name of the person who has made the will. When we use a person's name, we always put their last name first, and their first name last. The organizational systems you use to arrange your files should be consistent with every case, and make it very easy for people to keep matters organized, and to set up a great input and retrieval system in the client's file that can be operated manually. Everything that we do with regard to client file organization is set up so that it can be readily transferred over an electronic system should such an electronic system ever become available, usable, and reliable.
The use of dated document chronologies and alpha files for documents and other information are yet another way to make you more efficient, more organized, and more effective. The use of dated document chronologies and alpha files of documents is yet another way to "order the space" and to allow you to live creatively. Try a chronology out with your client on the next matter you handle. I think you will be astounded at the immediate positive results that you will get!
Talk to you next week!
Jim Wirken is a civil trial attorney and the Chairman of the Board of The Wirken Law Group in Kansas City.