Turn the email correspondence into events

Much of a dispute happens by email: the negotiation, the complaint, the notice that was or was not given in time. For the chronology, every message in every thread has to become its own dated event with its attachments, and a thread that sits in two people's mailboxes must not turn up twice.

Two questions shape the work. Whose mailboxes do the emails come from? And how long are the threads? A long thread quotes its earlier messages, so the same email can reach the timeline more than once.

Upload the emails

1. Prepare the correspondence as individual .msg or .eml files, or use an Outlook .pst mailbox supplied for the matter. A .pst imports every email it contains; use individual files when you need only selected messages.

2. Open the timeline and click Import in the toolbar on the left. The Upload panel opens on Emails and files.

3. Click + Upload a document, choose From computer and pick the email files or .pst mailbox, or drag them into the panel. You can also drop them anywhere on the timeline, and the panel opens with them. Check the list and use Remove (the cross beside a file) for anything that does not belong.

   

4. Click Upload, choose the Processing Mode (JuristIQ or Manual, as for any other case document) and click Upload again.

For a .pst, the status bar shows Unpacking mailbox before the emails are processed. Juristic handles the emails as if you had uploaded them individually: it splits each thread into its messages and puts every message on the timeline as a dated event, with its attachments filed with it as appendices.

Use the timeline's import for .pst mailboxes. JuristIQ chat and Insight uploads do not accept them.

Mark where each email starts

When Juristic cannot tell where one message in a thread ends and the next begins, the Email panel opens and asks you. If several threads need help, the steps across the top show which one you are on.

1. Read the thread. Each The email is divided here line is a split Juristic has made.

2. Click Split email, then click the line in the thread where the next email starts, usually its From or Sent line. While splitting, click a split line to remove it. Remove all splits clears every split in the thread so you can start again.

   

3. Click Stop splitting email, then Save and next to go to the next thread, or Save on the last one.

Resolve the duplicates

As events are added or edited, Juristic flags groups that may describe the same occurrence. This review compares the events on the chronology, including copies imported from different mailboxes.

1. Click the comparison icon with a count in the toolbar on the left: Possible duplicate events await your review. Click here to compare them. The count is the number of groups waiting; the icon appears only when there is something to review.

2. Choose a group in the left-hand list of Possible duplicate events. Compare the events' dates, wording, documents, people and tags. Show opens an event's details, including its full title when the card shortens it. If the people end with a +N avatar, hover over it to read the remaining names. The oldest-added event is ticked by default.

   

3. Tick Keep on each event that belongs in the chronology and untick the copies to remove. You can keep several events. Unticked events say Will be deleted.

4. Click Keep selected and delete 1 event, or the same button with the number of events you are removing. The unticked events are deleted from the timeline and the group is reviewed. If the events should all stay, for example the same text sent to different recipients, click Keep all instead.

Close the dialog to leave undecided groups for later. The comparison icon remains until no groups need review. If another event joins a reviewed group, the group returns and that event is marked New. See review possible duplicates in the chronology for working through several groups.

Check the result

1. If the toolbar on the left shows a calendar icon with a yellow count, Some events have no date. Click here to add their dates., click it to open the first event and give it its date. This control is also available in Relative, where events without dates cannot be placed on the date line.

   

2. Review imported attachments from the checklist icon with a blue count: Imported documents are ready for review. Click here to check the events found in them. The review lists events found in each attachment itself, without the covering email's linked events. If no dates were found, check the attachment and click Confirm no dates only if it has no dated events to add.

3. Go through the new events in the table of events, where you can read them in order and correct titles and dates. See check and correct the chronology in a table.

Tips from practice

• One mailbox at a time. Import each custodian's emails as a separate batch and resolve the duplicates before the next one. You then know whose copy you kept, which matters when the question is who received what.
• The last email carries the thread, but not its attachments. The final reply quotes the earlier messages, and Juristic splits them out. A quoted message does not bring its attachment with it, so import the earlier email as well when its attachment matters, and resolve the duplicate.
• Read the split before you save it. A signature block or a forwarded disclaimer can look like the start of a new email. A wrong split puts half a message on the wrong date.
• Files that would not open. An email Juristic cannot read is listed under Unprocessable files when the import finishes. See handle documents the import could not read.

Importing other case documents as well? See build the chronology from the case documents.