Working with Precedents

Similar types of cases often follow similar procedures. For example, in a real estate purchase, you may always follow certain steps in the same order.

In Amicus Attorney, you can save a series of steps as a precedent. A saved precedent contains all the Appointments and To Do's involved in a transaction. A good time to create a precedent is after you complete a transaction on a File on which you have built up a list of the Events involved in the transaction. You can review this list on the File, and decide which Appointments and To Do's to include in the precedent. If you are in doubt about including an Event, it's best to leave it in; you can always delete it later.

You can then use the saved precedent in another File that involves a similar series of steps.

Precedents may be simple at first, and you can build on them gradually.

Saving a Precedent

To save a precedent of Events on a File:

1. Display the desired File detail.
2. Choose All File Events from the drop-down list at the right.
3. Select the desired Events.
4. Click the Save Precedent button.
5. Type a name for the precedent.
6. In the Team environment, you have the option to assign the same Team Members to the same Events when you use this precedent. To assign the same Team Members to the same Events, select the "Keep original Team Member assignments" checkbox. Note: If you do not select this option, all Events are initially assigned to you when you use the precedent, and you can reassign them to other Team Members as necessary.
7. Click OK.

To use a saved precedent:

1. Display the File detail in which you want to use the saved precedent.
2. Choose All File Events from the brad drop-down list at the right.
3. Click the Use Precedent button.
4. Select the precedent that you wish to use, then click OK. The To Do's and Appointments involved in the transaction appear in the list.
5. Modify the To Do's and Appointments as needed to make them specific to this particular transaction.

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Amicus Small Firm includes practice management and full legal accounting.
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