Introduction to records processing: The Masterdocs System

Introduction to records processing: The Masterdocs System

Kirsty [email protected]

April 2011

Gulf Region Advocacy Center

What are master documents?

Master documents are secondary documents created by the defense team that contain all the information collected through discovery and investigation and organize that information into a format where it can be effectively used by the defense team.


Why should I use this system? It allows you and other team members to access

any single piece of information you have gathered on any document quickly and easily.

It places events and themes into varied contexts giving you a chance to make critical connections about your client’s life.

It will allow you to sort all the data that is coming in easily

It will keep you organized The system works extremely well if you stick to

it. It requires slightly more time upfront, but will save you tremendous amounts of time later on.


What are the master documents?

The master documents are: Bate Stamp Index People List Timeline Theory Memo Investigation Plan Records Collection Log & Narrative Activity Log Pleading Log


When should I start assembling the Masterdocs?

The shell of these documents should be started the minute you are appointed to the case, and information should be fed into them regularly as the case progresses.

Most of these documents will be shared among team members. They are not segregated between culpability and punishment issues.


What goes where?The Bate Stamp Index A record comes in. The first thing to do is it

assign each page of the record a bate stamp number. If the record is 37 pages long you will stamp each page with a unique number.

Start with 00001 and go sequentially as documents arrive, without regard to source or kind. The point is just to give each document a unique identifier, like a name.

When you start the case, you probably just have a couple of pages of documents – maybe an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant or a search warrant. Go ahead and stamp these and start your file.


Gist The Gist is a description of the set of records including the

date range, the names of key people involved and the main events covered by the documents, but not a great deal of detail. Brief who, what, when, where and how, but without the “why.”

This is added to the Bate Stamp Index as you review the records and implement them into all the Masterdocs.

i.e. “000050-000105 Sister Sue’s admission to Ben Taub Hospital 06/10/09 to 6/15/09. Came to ER with “glassy eyes, intermittent unconsciousness, disoriented, racing pulse,” denied suicidal ideation, diagnosed with “substance abuse, chronic, cocaine and methamphedamine”, referred to outpatient treatment. Contains family history, visit log, nursing notes, treatment plan, ER notes, discharge summary.


People List The people list is a comprehensive list of

every single name that appears on any document or is mentioned by others during the course of the investigation, whether or not expected to testify, including even those who are deceased.

The list contains name (LNU, FNU where necessary) of the person (last name first), identifying information such as address, DOB, SSN, relevance and interview status.


Investigation Plan The investigation plan is organized by

geographic regions where people, records and other investigative tasks are located. It is your To Do list and is constantly changing.

Once you have completed a task and are certain that it does not need to be followed up, note that information in the appropriate Masterdoc and remove the item from the list.


Timeline The Timeline is a chronological list of all events mentioned in any

document or interview involved. On the first day, it may contain nothing other than the client’s date of birth, date of the alleged crime and date of arrest, but you will add to it as each piece of paper comes into them office.

Some events may be listed more than once, with notes as to different sources (say all the relatives remember the time the client fell off the roof but they all give somewhat different dates. Initially, this event will be listed several times, but when you get the hospital records verifying the correct date, you will clean this up.)

Be sure always to cite each entry to source -- a document or visit memo. Include everything in your timeline. As your chart grows, you will see patterns and gain a better understanding of the relationship between events. You will also get a better sense of what was going on in your client’s life at any given time by grouping everything you know about the family at that time by date.


Theory Memo This is the kitchen sink and the drawing board both. It

is where you think about the issues, hash out how to deal with problems, and notice contradictions or inconsistencies in facts. Everything gets pasted into your theory memo, but it is organized by theme and legal issue, not by source or date.

The headings should really tell a story rather than ask questions.

If you cannot state your theory in a simple phrase, you will not get it across to a jury .


Theory Memo, cont’d. Include even duplicate versions of the same event.

Suppose you have five different family members telling you about the time the client was hit on the head with a brick, and every version is slightly different. Until you confirm it, all will be on your timeline. Even after you confirm the event, however, the contradictory versions of your various witnesses remain in the theory memo until you figure out whether you need to deal with them and how.

As you paste info from your digest into the memo, you should make notes about questions that come to mind, follow up you would like to do, potential litigation strategies, questions which need to be answered, motions to file, and any other investigation which the fact suggests. This memo will change constantly as you answer questions and raise new ones, erasing and adding as you go along.


Pleading Logs

This is a log of all pleadings, which includes motions filed by the other side and orders issued by the court. You can use it to brainstorm motions you intend to file, as well as list all motions actually filed, with the dates of filing and arguing the motions, as well as details about the judge’s rulings.


Court House Searches Log Run thorough courthouse searches on every name on your

People List. This includes state and federal courts, criminal (felony, misdemeanor, traffic, municipal), civil, family, property, tax, vehicle, voting registration, and vital records, such as marriage, birth and death.

Use a log to keep track of the searches as you do them, putting the date that you most recently conducted the search under the appropriate column. These records are a moving target, so you will run the searches more than once.

Use a new log for each county and federal district.

When you find records, take extensive notes and make copies of the key documents, such as judgment, divorce decree, etc.


Records Logs Two types:

Records log This is a log of the records to be collected in a case. The

log includes the contact information for the agency that maintains the records, whose records you are requesting, when, by whom and via what method the record was requested and the status of the response of the request.

Records log narrative After you have identified the records you want to get,

you’ll need to figure out how to get the record. Usually this is pretty straight forward and can be ascertained by a google search or a few phone calls. ALL your efforts in obtaining the document MUST be documented. The records log is simply a chart that indicates at a glace what has been requested, received and what is pending. The records log narrative is a running journal of all your efforts.

Introduction to records processing: The Masterdocs System

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