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Since CaseMap 1.0 debuted in 1998, there has been a general consensus that CaseMap has been a step ahead of other litigation software tools. With a steady stream of improvements, CaseMap has continued to hold its place as the leader in innovation among litigation software programs. Now, the newest version, CaseMap 5, moves CaseMap 5 at least a hop, skip and a jump ahead of the rest of the litigation software vendors.

What CaseMap Is.

One of the under-recognized reasons for CaseMap’s success in winning a place at the table with some of the premier litigators in the United States is the long experience CaseSoft’s co-founders’ Bob Wiss and Greg Krehel had as jury and litigation consultants with some of this country’s leading trial practice firms. CaseMap grew out of a need to solve real world problems that hampered the effective preparation and presentation of cases. CaseMap reflects an understanding of what lawyers do, how they work and what will help them work better.

CaseMap has historically been hard to describe in a few simple words. Bob Wiss calls it a spreadsheet tool for litigators. I have called it a litigation knowledge management tool. Others have called it a litigation strategy tool.

However, it is better to describe CaseMap by what it does than what it is. Jeffrey Lisson, a litigator with Carter & Boyd in San Angelo, Texas, says, "The beauty of the program is that you can have this incredible mess/mass of facts, yet in seconds find each one that relates to a specific issue, person, or document, and the fact’s source." CaseMap also works well for all lawyers – large firm, small firm, solo, government or corporate.

How Litigators Really Handle Facts.

The fundamental premise underlying CaseMap is that cases are built on facts. You might have events, issues, a cast of characters and the like, but the key to every case is its facts. Jeffrey Storer, a litigator at Boston's Ropes & Gray, says simply, "I regularly use CaseMap on all my active cases, large and small."

Bob likes to ask his audiences what tools they currently use to collect and manage the facts of their cases. After an uncomfortable silence, someone might suggest legal pads or a word processor, but a consensus will emerge that litigators manage most of the facts in their cases in their heads.

As Lisson says, "I once relied on my memory and my notes, consisting of dozens of legal pads and hundreds of loose pages, to keep track of facts, witnesses, and important papers. It quickly became clear to me: My memory is unreliable, and my handwriting is illegible."

I have had more time to think about this question than Bob’s typical audience, so I have come up with the following list of places lawyers keep and manage their facts. They are (1) their Heads, to a surprising degree, (2) their Email programs, to an increasing degree, (3) their Legal Pads and word processing documents, to a degree that may surprise their clients, and (4) a category I will call “Maybe Elsewhere.”

As a simple mnemonic device, I will refer to this very common approach by the initials of its components, i.e., the “HELPME” approach. This term is useful because it accurately reflects the feelings many lawyers have when they honestly describe their current methods.

Making the Case for Any Legal Technology Product.

My approach to technology for lawyers is quite simple. The first step must be to identify, look at and carefully describe an existing system or way of working. The second step is to determine whether a technology you are considering will either (1) improve the existing system or (2) replace the existing system with a better one. The third step is whether the ratio of the value of the improvement to the price of the technology is acceptable to you.

The critical assumption is that you must accept that how you currently work, no matter how wacky it might be, is in fact your existing system and that, as your first step, you must evaluate it and define it clearly.

Once you accurately describe your current system, look at CaseMap to determine whether it can either (1) replace your HELPME system with something better or (2) improve your HELPME system. You get a clear picture without much help from me.

The Benefits of the Simplest Uses of CaseMap.

Bob Wiss likes to tell his audiences to forget about all the other features they might have heard about CaseMap. Instead, he asks that they focus on the most basic tools in CaseMap and determine how valuable those basic tools alone will be. Will they improve your system for recording and managing the facts of your cases?

Dan Siegel, a litigator at Philadelphia's Anapol, Schwartz, Weiss, Cohan, Feldman & Smalley, P.C., describes his use of CaseMap: "I no longer take notes at many depositions. Rather, I create a CaseMap database containing relevant facts."

You can use CaseMap to enter information about the events, dates, key facts, people, issues, research and questions you have about the case. If you use CaseMap only to do that, and to add to and update that information, do you achieve a significant benefit as compared to the HELPME approach? Siegel says, "During a deposition, I note the testimony in CaseMap, referencing the deposition as an 'Event.' Thus, I have an instant summary. When I receive the transcript, I link it with the references already in CaseMap."

If you do only that, you have all the key information about your case collected in one place where you can easily find it, print it out and share it with others. As a quick comparison, consider what happens under the HELPME approach if someone responsible for part of the case is out of town or the right legal pad can't be found.

Compare your approach to Storer's description of his use of CaseMap. "I have now disciplined myself to enter my notes from witness interviews and telephone calls directly into CaseMap, instead of into a memo. Then I can print out the new facts I have added to the chronology and distribute that printout to my colleagues and clients to keep them informed of the progress of my investigation."

The cost of a CaseMap license is $495 for a single user license, with volume and product combination discounts available. I believe that there is at least $495 of value for the improvements in fact management alone.

The Second Step – Linking.

CaseMap does much more than let you gather and organize the facts in your case. Your next step is to use CaseMap’s simple tools to associate facts with each item related to them. For example, you can quickly and easy link Witness A to the May 15 Memo to the Harassment issue. You can also link your questions or notes about any of these items to the appropriate item or even link research you have already performed. Lisson notes, "CaseMap links important facts to issues and the sources of those facts, whether people, documents, or statutes."

It may surprise you how powerful this simple step is. With only this information, you could see all the facts and issues related to a particular witness. When preparing for a deposition or court testimony, you would have a complete list of all the areas that you needed to cover with that witness’s testimony rather than risk overlooking a key fact and needing to rely on a more tangential witness to offer proof of the fact. You might also see gaps in what facts you had for each issue and spot areas you needed to develop in discovery.

Lisson says, "I have used CaseMap in large class actions, including one with several hundred plaintiffs claiming damages for FLSA (overtime) violations. I could enter facts and filter to find those regarding John Doe and his unpaid OT hours (John Doe the object, unpaid OT hours the issue). I also made 'paydays' an issue, with individual dates of each payday a sub-issue. The payday issue helped to show how much the employer benefited every 2 weeks."

You also have easy access to the questions we want to remember and even to research about issues that might come up with a particular witness or issue. You can also use this information to create a timeline for our case and note gaps, patterns or other useful points. Storer says, "Linking the issues to facts lets me quickly filter a large fact database down to just those facts related to a particular issue."

What if you could add a link to a copy of the actual May 15 Memo so that I could pull it up immediately when I wanted to see it? CaseMap can do that. You might even link to a copy that you have annotated, a relevant case, a specific portion of a transcript or pleadings in the case.

Edmond Martin of Sage Investigations, LLC in Austin, Texas, notes, "In money laundering investigations and income tax investigations, the chronology of events is very important. The ability to link scanned documents to various sources of facts and sources of facts throughout CaseMap is the future of investigation, and invaluable."

CaseMap offers a growing number of conduits that let you bring in Word Documents, PDFs, Summation database files, materials from Fios and other electronic discovery tools, and elsewhere. Pillsbury Winthrop's Mary Pat Poteet says, "One of the reasons that Pillsbury, Winthrop has made CaseMap one of its core tools is that it plays nicely with others, and saves us a lot of time. We can take a case from beginning to end using CaseMap and the various integration partners."

Storer singles out the "Send to CaseMap" plug-in for Adobe Acrobat as "a great way to get facts into a chronology and link them to their source. I print a related set of electronic files, sorted chronologically, to a single PDF, read the documents on line, and send facts and links to CaseMap using the plug-in as I read the documents. Later, if I have any question about the accuracy of the summary I entered in CaseMap, I can instantly bring up the source."

Note that you have not even reached some of the tools that first made CaseMap famous and you can create a very organized case file, with copies of the relevant documents and files linked to appropriate facts and available with a click or two of a mouse. You can also print, copy, share and transport the CaseMap file over a network, by CD-ROM or any other standard fashion.

Taking a Giant Step Forward – Analytical Tools.

Now, let’s move to the signature CaseMap analytical tools. If there is any area in which Bob and Greg’s experience and sharp observations come into full play, it is in these analytical tools. The key point, which has become clearer to me with time, is that CaseMap has always focused on simple evaluative tools that produced the most practically useful results.

The simplicity is deceptive. What might we really like to know about our facts?

I would like to know which ones I needed to prove and which ones I did not. CaseMap lets me flag facts as disputed or undisputed.

I would also like to know whether a fact is favorable to my case or unfavorable. CaseMap lets me flag facts as highly favorable, somewhat favorable, neutral, somewhat unfavorable or highly unfavorable. Although you might think that you want more granularity in these rankings, for a more than "good enough" assessment, these five categories will do the trick. You can also change the ratings as you learn more about the case or give it more thought.

Compare your HELPME system. What can you do now along these lines? Let’s face it, you are lucky if you can collect all the facts, let alone capture any kind of rankings for evaluation purposes.

Let me illustrate the benefits of using these simple analytical tools with two examples. First, think about how you would do this under your current HELPME system. Then consider the CaseMap approach.

Example 1. You want your associate to prepare a motion for summary judgment on a specific issue. With CaseMap, the associate can easily get a package of materials that includes a list of all the undisputed facts that relate to the issue, any research that has been done on that issue, contact and other information for opposing counsel and courts, copies of pleadings and documents related to the facts, a timeline of the events in the case, a cast of characters, a list of all issues, all your questions related to the issue or the applicable facts, and ready access to all other information necessary to understand the case. In fact, the associate can even get started before talking to you.

Most lawyers know all too well the old approach of coming into a partner’s office, scribbling notes on a legal pad during the partner’s stream-of-conscious disgorgement of everything he or she remembers about the case, and then leaving the office to try to track down the relevant pleadings and files to work on the project.

Example 2. Your client wants to discuss the value of a case and whether it makes sense to settle it or proceed to trial. With CaseMap, you could quickly print out a list of all of the undisputed facts that are strongly in your client's favor for each issue and a list of all the undisputed facts that are strongly unfavorable, for each issue in the case. With your client, you could focus on the weakest points of the case, accurately discuss worst case scenarios and reach a solid decision about whether to proceed or settle.

Assume that you decide to try to settle the case. You then take a list of undisputed facts strongly in you favor and hammer on those facts as you negotiate the settlement figure. Your first round in the settlement discussions is going to feature some haymakers using your best facts, fully organized and marshaled, before opposing counsel finishing sifting through his notes on a legal pad. This approach greatly improves your odds of getting a favorable result.

Your evaluations can be used in a variety of ways. In cross-examination, you might prepare by identifying the witness’s weakest facts and issues and focusing on them. In contrast, you might use a light touch on the unfavorable issues and pour withering fire at the witness’s best facts and issues. You might make tactical decisions about how to question your own witnesses based on your evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the facts. You might also use the strongest witness to introduce a fact if you see that several witnesses could prove up the fact.

What all of these examples and suggestions have in common is that they use easy-to-enter evaluation and tagging tools to generate information that can be used strategically and tactically to your advantage in your cases. Technology is cool, but it makes no sense if it does not produce results. These examples show real world results.

The Network Effect – Collaboration.

What about collaboration? CaseMap allows whomever you want who is working on the case to enter, assess and use information, subject to the limitations you might set for them.

You can compare your assessments with those of your colleagues. Why do you think a fact is strongly in our favor and I have called it neutral? Let’s see if we can understand the reasoning and get ourselves on the same page. Bringing in new members of the team? Put them on the case in CaseMap and they can quickly get up to speed on the important elements of the case. Someone leaves the firm or is out of town? You still have access to their work because it is in CaseMap.

Didn’t we have a similar case last year? Let’s look at the CaseMap information for that case and see what we might learn or reuse. How was that deposition yesterday? Use CaseMap as your summary tool, link transcript entries, add new facts, update information and generate a report that others on the team, including your client, can use to understand exactly what happened.

Jonathan Soroko, at Global Evidence Control in Greenwich, Connecticut, says, "No single attorney can handle large-scale complex cases along; nor can two or more lawyers or investigators work together without some means of integrating their work, sharing knowledge, and eliminating duplication of effort. CaseMap is an excellent tool both for coordination between lawyers, or between counsel and investigative team and for managing complexity."

New Features in CaseMap 5.

You could do all of these things before the release of CaseMap 5. What does CaseMap 5 bring us for the $199 upgrade cost?

CaseMap has been able to link to Adobe Acrobat for a long time. In CaseMap 5, you can actually create PDF files using CaseMap 5. If you do not already have the Adobe Acrobat Writer, you can avoid the cost of an Acrobat license, or roughly $250. If you are in that category, you are ahead of the game already with CaseMap 5.

There are other new features that PDF users will like. A toolbar button allows you to create and send email PDF attachments. Lawyers who import large numbers of documents will appreciate the ability to do “bulk” importing of PDF files by simply selecting all of the documents they want to import at once.

CaseMap’s high-profile, evangelistic customer community is the envy of its competitors. It is no surprise that other enhancements reflect the wishes of CaseMap users. CaseMap 5 has added Rich Text Format (RTF). As a result, you can now use more formats (e.g., bold), font colors and other simple adjustments to make your CaseMap entries more readable and customized. Jeffrey Storer notes, "I like the ability to change fonts. Now, when I read and highlight a chronology in hard copy, I can have my secretary bold the text that I highlighted in CaseMap file and throw away the hard copy I marked up."

Along the same lines, the “Send to Word” function has been enhanced – another example of the way CaseSoft is building greater linkage with commonly-used third party programs. CaseMap 5 also brings the often-requested “Send to TimeMap (and back)” function.

It is important to note that while CaseMap 5 files differ in format from CaseMap 4, CaseMap 5 automatically converts files created under the older format.

ReportBooks – Turning Your Clients into Your Fans.

For existing users, the set of enhancements I discussed in the preceding section might well have justified the price of an upgrade. However, there is one more big development to consider.

Let me say this as clearly as I can – ReportBooks will revolutionize the way clients expect to receive status and other reports about their cases from their lawyers. Used effectively, ReportBooks will help enhance existing client relationships, win new clients and create new business and revenue streams. ReportBooks will also allow you to bring new members of the team up to speed quickly, minimize the losses of team member leaving your firm and ensure that all team members are on the same page.

Assuming that any of those benefits might interest you, let’s take a closer look at ReportBooks. The concept is quite simple, but the potential power is immense. A ReportBook is simply a compilation of your CaseMap reports that is automatically assembled and generated on the fly. CaseMap has created a number of templates for ReportBooks. You can customize ReportBooks or create your own version from scratch, but I expect that most of you will find that the standard templates will work well for you.

Here is an example of how ReportBooks work. You receive a call from a client who wants to know what is happening on a certain case. Using the HELPME method, you will likely stammer, delay and buy some time to try to remember the case and what might be happening in it. You will likely offer your client something like, “We’re on top of it,” or “We have a status meeting scheduled next week and I’ll give you a call after that.” Essentially, you buy time, make vague comments and bland reassurances, or you change the subject as quickly as you can.

Here is what you can do in the same scenario with ReportBooks. You can say, “Give me about twenty seconds and I’ll email you a full report that we can talk about while we look at it together. Let me do that while you are on the line.” You are already opening CaseMap, and finding and opening the CaseMap file for the case. You choose to create a ReportBook with a default template. A ReportBook is generated and you send it to an email attachment in PDF. A new email message appears with the ReportBook attached. You type in the email address and write a short note. You send the email. In a second or two, your client has the message and opens the attachment. Now, you both have the ReportBook to serve as a basis for discussion.

Here are just a few of the ideas I have had for using ReportBooks: creating ReportBooks for the trial (maybe with a nice binding) for everyone on your team; sending your clients weekly or monthly ReportBooks on their cases; getting new associates up to speed on the case; giving a tax or corporate partner from whom you want advice about a specific issue a quick way to become familiar with the case; creating useful overviews for expert witnesses; and much more.

However, there is no need to rely on my hypotheticals. Let's see what David Wolowitz, of McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has actually done with ReportBooks:

"I have found the new ReportBook feature to be of great benefit in unexpected ways. In one matter, I had a mediation to prepare. I was dealing with my clients, two highly educated professionals, a member of their board who is a very astute attorney in NYC and a savvy insurance adjuster, also an attorney. I needed to educate all of them on the facts and the issues and to determine what information was missing. So, I sent them a CaseMap ReportBook of the key facts and also three reports by key issues.

I created a very impressive cover sheet in about two minutes. I then revised the confidentiality statement to meet my needs and created an intro page explaining how to utilize the reports and the status of the case. From that point on, everyone responded with ideas and missing information. On a weekly basis, I sent them updated ReportBooks, including a report on what was new (a standard CaseMap saved report.) The mediation went well. I gave the mediator a TimeMap report of key dates. I noticed he kept referring to it throughout the mediation. Throughout the process, everyone involved commented on my thoroughness and the usefulness of the reports."

What’s in the ReportBook? The standard “Case Summary” ReportBook contains a customized cover sheet, a confidentiality statement, a table of contents, introduction, issue outline, cast of characters (persons), cast of characters (organizations), fact chronology, document index, list of open questions, research authorities and research authority extracts, all generated automatically in seconds from your existing CaseMap file. Other templates include (1) a summary of issues, cast of characters, facts and key documents, (2) key issues fact chronologies, (3) key players fact chronologies, (4) summary list of key players, facts and documents, and (5) what’s new in the last 14 days.

The utility of these reports, both externally and internally, should be clear to you. Compare the impact of sending any of these ReportBooks to a client to the traditional HELPME method. As Wolowitz concludes, "I prepared these ReportBooks with very little effort but received far more attention than if I had not used this feature."

The beauty of ReportBooks is that they can be created in seconds from existing data (and you can even refresh an old ReportBook with new data). You can provide them at no cost to your clients just as part of your standard service. When your client, who probably uses other law firms for other cases, starts to ask its other firms for similar reports. They will probably get some pushback and, more than likely, will see time charges for the creation of reports. Take a look at a sample ReportBook and try to estimate the cost of producing something similar by hand.

In the CaseMap tradition, ReportBooks allow the experienced lead lawyer to move away from spending too much time on the drudgery parts of cases and move toward spending time do what he or she does best and probably enjoys most – analyzing and evaluating cases, planning strategies and tactics, dissecting the strengths and weaknesses of cases, and preparing to be devastatingly effective.

Conclusion – Is Now Too Soon?

Let’s now review. We defined our existing HELPME system. Then we determined that not only was the CaseMap approach more effective than what we have, but CaseMap probably runs rings around our current approach. Finally, we discussed a few financial and other benefits arising out of moving to CaseMap that you will have to apply to your own situation. We both know what you will conclude when you run your own numbers.

As Dan Horowitz, a solo litigator in Oakland, California says about how CaseMap helped him in a very complicated case, "I consider that having CaseMap was like having an extra attorney in the courtroom."

With CaseMap 5, the best litigation software just keeps getting better. Even if you use it at its lowest level, you will get significant benefits. If you move up to using ReportBooks, they had better start engraving your name on that “litigator of the year” award. Best of all, you might start hearing your clients introduce you to others as “my favorite lawyer.” Or, you can choose to keep plugging away in the same way that you have been for years. It’s your call.

As Jeffrey Storer says, "CaseMap is a tool that I would not practice law without. It is a brilliant concept that has revolutionized my case preparation practices."