Adding Entities to Your Case
To add an entity to your case, visit the Entities/Contacts tab located in the horizontal case menu bar and click the "+ Assign an entity to this Case" button. From this dialog box, you'll be able to create a new entity or select an existing entity from your database to link to the case. (To access your database of all entities from ALL cases, click Entities on the left side of your screen.)
NOTE: Users with Limited or Guest permissions can only see entities included on the case(s) to which they have access or entities that they have created.
When adding a new entity/contact, you can select the Type of the entity. We also recommend assigning a role to the entity. A role can be general, like "witness" or "defendant." It can also be specific, like the name of an employer. You can assign multiple roles to a single entity. The filter on the entities page provides a fast way to narrow a long list of entities to a targeted list.
NOTE: Administrators can edit and create custom entity roles that appear in every new case by visiting Account Settings > Entities.
Importing Case Entities in Bulk
The case entities import feature provides a superior way of adding up to 500 entity records to your case in bulk from a CSV file, rather than creating new entities individually.
NOTE: Entities can only be imported in bulk to a specific case file. Once imported to the case, they will also appear in your global Entities menu, accessible via the vertical menu on the left.
Preparing Your Entity Data for Import
To upload entities, prepare a CSV file in Microsoft Excel. The file should have a row of headers as follows:
type
first name
last name
name
address line 1
address line 2
city
state
zip
phone
email
NOTES:
A first name, last name, or organization name must be provided in order for an entity record to be created.
Data must be provided in CSV file format for imports (not .xlsx).
Imports are limited to 500 entity records. If your CSV contains more than 500 records, only the first 500 data rows will be imported.
Importing Entities to Your Case File
To upload entities, visit the Entities tab in the appropriate case file and click the import button at the top-right of the entities list:
Upon clicking the button, the following pop-up will be displayed:
Choose the appropriate CSV file from your computer files, or drag and drop the CSV file into the upload area. A preview of the entities to be imported will be generated, along with any warnings or error messages. Here you can choose to continue with the import by clicking the "Save X entities" button at the bottom of the preview list, or by clicking Cancel to exit the tool:
Once your entity import begins, you will see the Save button indicate the percentage progress of the import. You can monitor here, or click the "Close" button to continue working while the import progresses in the background.
NOTE: If you opt to close the entities import modal before the import completes, you may be required to refresh your browser window for any new entities from the import project to appear in your entity lists.
Creating Entities within the Document Reviewer
You can also add or create new entities while creating or editing a fact citation in the document reviewer:
Creating Entities via the Highlight Context Menu
When the highlight context menu is enabled, you can also create a new entity by highlighting text in a document. Select the option to create an entity to open the appropriate sidebar in the reviewer and populate the Entity's name based on your highlighted text.
In this example, notice that the highlighted name is auto-populated in the First and Last Name fields for creating a new entity record:
Creating Entities on the Facts Tab
In addition to creating new entities under the Entities/Contacts tab in your case, you can create them from any place where you create facts.
To create an entity from the Facts page, click the chevron next to the "Create Fact" button to reveal a drop-down menu where you can select "Create Entity":
Merging Duplicate Entities
After importing a set of entities to your case, Casefleet advises reviewing your entities list for possible duplicates. To learn more about how to merge duplicate entities in Casefleet, click here.
To learn more about Entities/Contacts in Casefleet, click here.