The Participants tab lists everyone involved in the case – grouped by their role (e.g. client, opposing party, court). This makes it clear at a glance who has which function in the proceedings.
Viewing participants
- On the left are the roles with their assigned contacts. The expand arrow in front of a name opens that contact’s details.
- Hover over a contact to see further information (address, communication channels) on the right.
Adding a participant
The + below a role opens the Assign new contact panel on the right:
- Contact – a search field over your contacts. Type a name and matching contacts appear (with salutation/company, email, and phone). At the very top is + Create new contact – letting you add a contact that isn’t yet on file right here.
- Role – the participant’s function in the case. A fixed list is available, including Client, Opposing Party, Witness, Attorney/Opposing Attorney, Insurer/Legal Expenses Insurer, various courts (Payment Order Court, Enforcement Court, Court, 1st–3rd Instance), Bailiff, Expert (Expert Witness, Physician), Third-Party Debtor, Debt Counselor (Schuldnerberater), and Other.
- Subject – an optional note about the assignment (e.g. “Claims department handler”).
Clicking Save adds the participant under their role in the list.
Subject and file number of a participant
Each assignment has its own case-specific Aktenzeichen (file number) field next to the Betreff (subject). It holds the file number under which this participant handles the proceedings – for a court, the court’s file number, e.g. 3 O 223/22 at the Regional Court. You maintain both in the assignment’s Kontakt Bearbeiten (edit contact) view:
- Betreff (subject) – free text, e.g. “In dem Rechtsstreit XX ./. YY”. The advanced search in the case overview also finds cases by this subject.
- Aktenzeichen (file number) – the participant’s file number, kept separate from the subject. Your firm’s internal file number in the master data is not affected.
In workflows, you set the field via the variable _caseIdReceiver – in the service tasks ParticipantCaseNew (add participant), ParticipantUpdate (update contact) and NewEmailLetter (create letter and send by email).
Opening a participant: the detail view
Clicking a name opens the participant’s detail view on the right. At the top are three actions, below that the contact data – and at the very bottom two expandable sections: Cases involving this participant and Placeholders.
- Edit for this case only – adjusts the contact’s data just for this case file (e.g. a different delivery address) without changing the central contacts entry. Every change is versioned (Version 2 of 2 with paging), so earlier states remain traceable. Besides master data, address, and contact details, you also manage groups, input tax deduction eligibility, and account data (account holder, IBAN, BIC, debtor account number) here.
- Create new document / Create new email – starts a letter or email addressed directly to this participant (pre-filled with their placeholders).
Cases involving this participant (referenced case files)
This section shows every case file this contact appears in – across roles and cases. This lets you jump from a contact to any of their proceedings.
The counters at the top separate new, accepted, and closed cases; the table can be filtered by status. Clicking the case number or case caption opens that case file.
Assigning custom placeholders per participant
Besides the fixed fields (name, address, IBAN, …), you can give a participant custom placeholders – for instance an insurer’s claim number or a customer reference. + Add placeholder opens:
- Placeholder – the field’s name (required). In UPPERCASE, it becomes a case placeholder.
- Value – a full rich-text value: you can format the content and even embed tables or images, not just plain text.