Manage expert witness contacts in Outlook - Outlook

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By Tara Byers, Payne Consulting Group

Expert witnesses who are believable can significantly influence the outcome of a case, so litigation attorneys are wise to know how to quickly and accurately locate expert witness information.

Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 provides you with all of the necessary tools to create and store expert witness contact information in one central location. By using fields, categories, and views, you can organize and recall detailed information for each expert witness quickly and easily.

You don't need to maintain a separate contact list for expert witnesses. You just add witness names and information to your existing contact folder.

Store the right information

The ability to quickly recall and locate an expert witness is a critical component of the litigation process. Often times, you might not end up using an expert witness again for many years. So make sure that your contact information includes everything you might need to know about the expert witness, such as area of expertise, location, experience in the field, experience in court, professional associations, and fees.

You can even add an expert witness's picture to the contact record to help you better remember the testimony that the expert witness provided in a previous case.

Show Add a contact

On the File menu, point to New, and then click Contact.
Type a name for the contact.
Enter the information you want to include for the contact.
- You can specify how you want the contact's name to appear in the To box of a message by typing the name in the Display As box.
- You can specify the contact's instant messaging address in the IM address box.
- To enter multiple entries in a field, such as more than one address or e-mail address, click the down arrow next to the field.
- If you have more than one address for a contact and you want to establish which address is used during mail merge, select the This is the mailing address check box.

Show Add a picture for a contact

In Contacts, create or open a contact.
On the Actions menu, click Add Picture.
Locate the picture you want to insert.
Double-click the picture you want to insert.

Use fields effectively

You can use a number of different fields in Outlook to gather data for each expert witness. Some of the default fields that you can use include Name, Company, Phone numbers, and Addresses. You can also create custom fields such as Last date used, Area of expertise, and Case history to track more specific details.

Show Add a profession to an existing expert witness contact

Open an existing expert witness contact.
Click the Details tab.
In the Profession box, type the expert witness's profession.
Click Save and Close.

Show Create a custom field

Open an existing expert witness contact.
Click the All Fields tab.
In the Select from list, click User-defined fields in folder.
Note When you create the field by using User-defined fields in this item, it is available for the current contact only. You cannot use the field for other expert witness contacts.
At the bottom of the contact window, click New.
In the New Field dialog box, type the name of the custom field in the Name box (for example, Client/Matter or Last date used).
Click the Type and Format arrows, and select an option for each.
Click OK to save.

Show Add information to a custom field

Open an existing expert witness contact.
Click the All Fields tab.
In the Value box, type the appropriate text.
Click Save and Close.

Assign categories to items

A category is a keyword or phrase that identifies items (item: An item is the basic element that holds information in Outlook (similar to a file in other programs). Items include e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, notes, posted items, and documents.) so that you can easily find, sort, filter, or group the items. You can select from the default set of categories, or you can create custom categories to sort expert witnesses by more specific criteria such as area of expertise, availability, and location.

When your expert witness contacts are categorized, it's easy to find the expert witness who you need. For example, you can get a list of all your expert witnesses, or you can get a list of expert witnesses specializing in a certain field.

Show Use an existing category

Open a contact.
On the General tab, click Categories.
Under Available Categories, select one or more categories, and then click OK.

Show Create a custom category

Open a contact.
On the General tab, click Categories.
In the Categories dialog box, click Master Category List.
In the New category box, type a name for the category, and then click Add.
To create more categories, repeat step 4.
Click OK twice.

Show Get a list of expert witnesses by category

On the Tools menu, point to Find, and then click Advanced Find.
In the Advanced Find dialog box, select Contacts in the Look for box.
Click the More Choices tab.
In the Categories box, type a category name or click Categories to select a category name.
Click Find Now.

View contact information in a format that meets your needs

You can use different views in Outlook to display contact information in a specific format or order. Use one of the many predefined views or create your own. For example, after you have assigned categories to your contacts, you can change the view to sort the contacts folder by category. You can create custom views to display contact information by specific fields, such as Profession or Client/Matter.

Show View contacts by category

Start Outlook, and on the Go menu, click Contacts.
On the View menu, point to Arrange By, point to Current View, and then click By Category.

Find an expert witness now

When you need to find an expert witness for a case, you probably start by reviewing the ones you already know about. Don't spend valuable time combing through long lists or old records. Master these simple tools in Outlook 2003, and find what you need almost instantly.

About the author Tara Byers is Vice President of Development for Payne Consulting Group, a software training and development company headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

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