Start the chronology for a new dispute
A named timeline in the dispute's matter, set to the date format the team works in.
Screenshots are taken from the app on every release. Updated 13 October 2026.
A new dispute has come in. Before the first strategy meeting, the team needs one place to collect the facts: what happened, when, and which document shows it. That place is a timeline in the dispute's matter, where the team working on the matter finds it.
The chronology belongs to the matter, so open the matter first if it does not exist yet: see open a matter for new work.
Create the timeline in the matter
Go to the matter and open its timelines. The page is headed This matter's timelines.
Click Create new.
In Name your Timeline, give it a Name that says what it covers, such as "Beta Holding A/S v Gamma ApS: facts". The Matter is already filled in.
Use Description for the scope, for example "Facts from the claim form and the client's emails, 2023 to date", so a colleague opening it later knows what is in it and what is not.
Leave Template at Blank for the chronology of facts. A template lays out a procedural timetable instead: see lay out the procedural timetable from a template.
Click Save.
Or start before you have filed it
When the facts come in before anyone has decided where they belong, start a draft and place it later.
Click Create new in the sidebar and choose Timeline. A draft timeline opens.
When you are ready to keep it, click Save as in the toolbar. Give it a Name, choose the Matter, and click Save.
Set the date format
In the timeline's toolbar, click Settings (the cog).
Choose the date format from the list next to the calendar icon. Use the format of the court or tribunal the pleadings are for, so dates copied from the chronology into a brief need no rewriting. You can change it later.
| Where the dispute is heard | A format that fits |
|---|---|
| A Danish or other Nordic court | DD.MM.YYYY |
| A court in England and Wales | DD/MM/YYYY |
| An international arbitration with parties from several countries | YYYY-MM-DD, which no one reads the wrong way round |
If your firm has a default format, new timelines start with it: see give timelines the firm's look.
Tips from practice
- One timeline per dispute. Keep every fact in the one chronology and cut versions for each issue or audience with stories, rather than copying the timeline: see save the events for each issue as a story.
- Tag from the first event. Tagging people and issues as you go is quick; going back over two hundred events is not. See tag events by issue and track who was involved in each event.
- Name it for what it covers, not for the tool. "Facts" or "Procedural history" tells a colleague which timeline to open; "Timeline 2" does not.
Next, fill it: add the key events by hand or build the chronology from the case documents.