You can find several automation fields for information that typically goes on a court caption in the Smokeball automation toolbar in Word. To insert any of these fields, click on the desired location in the document and double click the automation field you wish to insert.
Add the Heading for Forms
The <<Case Details/Heading for forms>> automation field will display the jurisdiction, county, state, etc. for your pleadings for most matter types and most states. If this automation field does not display the information you need, you can insert individual automation fields under Case Details > Court Information.
Add Party Names, Party Roles and other Case Details
Smokeball has the <<Case Details/Caption – Table>> automation field that will display the Party Names, Party Roles, and other case details for most matter types. In order for this automation field to work, it needs to be inserted in a table; a 1-row, 3-column table usually works. If you need to customize what this section should display, you can insert individual automation fields instead.
Note: Using Initiating Party and Responding Party automation fields will display the party names and automate their corresponding roles (e.g., Plaintiff/Petitioner and Defendant/Respondent).
Add Body Content
In order for the form containers to work with the templates in your Forms & Templates Library, you need to have the <<Body Content>> field in the container. This is where the contents of your template will be added.
Add the Firm/Signature Block
We recommend using automation fields for your firm and attorney information whenever possible so that if their information ever changes, you would only need to change it once in your Smokeball Settings.
You can add the name of the attorney on the pleading the following ways:
- Add the <<Matter Details/Attorney Responsible/Full Name>> field which will return the name of the Attorney Responsible assigned to the matter. You can also include the names of the Originating Attorney and Person Assisting using the corresponding fields.
- Add an Ask so you can select the name of the attorney on the pleading from a dropdown menu.
- Manually type out the names of the attorneys. For example, if your firm only has three attorneys and they’re always included in all pleadings, you can choose to type out their information.
You can also insert the images of the attorneys’ signatures using If/Then/Else Field Statements or If/Then/Else Ask Statements so that only the signature of the attorney signing the pleading is displayed. Note: Signature images should be in .jpeg format.
Conclusion
Select Save & Close from the Smokeball Word ribbon to save your changes. Verify the container is working by opening any matter and selecting Caption to create a court caption.
Example of an automated court caption with standard automation fields:
Example of an automated court caption using individual automation fields: