Notes & Attachments

The Notes & Attachments section keeps notes and files with the record they belong to. By default, everything here is treated as part of the client’s case file (see “The case file” below), which is exactly where most notes and documents on a case belong.

Notes and Files

You can add three kinds of items:

• Files: upload anything from your computer. Click File(s) and pick or drag files in, or just drag files (even whole folders) straight onto the section.
• Notes: plain text with no formatting, built for fast capture during a phone call.
• Fancy notes: rich text with word-processor formatting, for structured write-ups.

A fancy note carries the kind of formatting you’d expect from a word processor: fonts and font sizes, bold, italic, and underline, paragraph indentation, bullet and numbered lists, font and background colors, hyperlinks, and even images and embedded video. Like any section, you can maximize the editor to fill the window, which is the way to write when you’re furiously taking notes on a call and don’t want to fight a small box.

The list itself works hard: each note shows a preview snippet of its content, images show as thumbnails, and a search bar filters the list by content, useful on a case with years of paper. Every item can be downloaded again later, and notes you were typing when something interrupted you are recovered automatically the next time you open the record.

Search Reaches Inside Files and Related Records

The search bar (and the global Search box at the top of the app) does more than match note text. It also searches inside your attachments: PDFs that have been run through OCR and Microsoft Office documents are read and matched on their contents, not just their file names. And the results aren’t limited to the record in front of you: the section surfaces notes from related records too, so a case shows matches from its lead, its clients’ contacts, and any tasks tied to them, all in one search.

Edits Make Versions, Not Overwrites

Editing a note or replacing a file doesn’t destroy the old copy; it creates a new version, and the version history stays with the item. You’ll see a version column in the list.

One List, Gathered From Related Records

A record’s Notes & Attachments shows not just its own items but those of related records, each tagged with where it came from:

• A case also shows items from its tasks, from the lead it came from (and that lead’s tasks), and from its clients (and their tasks).
• A lead also shows items from its tasks and its clients.
• A contact or campaign also shows items from its tasks.
• A task shows only its own items.

Items gathered from a related record are managed at their source: you can read and download them here, but you delete them where they were created.

The Case File

A client is generally entitled to their case file: the notes, documents, and correspondence of the representation. Outlaw treats everything in Notes & Attachments as part of the case file: items on a case are visible to the client through the client portal.

When something genuinely doesn’t belong in the file, use the item’s Exclude from Case File action. Excluded items are marked with a red hidden icon and are never shown to the client in the portal; Include in Case File brings one back. Use exclusion sparingly. Internal commentary usually belongs in Private Comments instead, which is never part of the case file at all. The same goes for the firm’s other internal material: Red Flags and Conflict Checks are never part of the case file.

In the client portal, clients see only the case file: items attached directly to their case, minus anything excluded. (Items gathered from related records don’t appear in the portal.) A portal client can also upload files themselves, and can remove their own upload within a few minutes if they picked the wrong file.

Where You’ll See It

Notes & Attachments appears on every record: a case, lead, contact, task, and campaign.