Timeline, witnesses and highlights¶

This page is for attorneys and paralegals building a case. It covers how to mark passages in a matter's documents (highlights), arrange the events of the case in date order (the timeline), and keep a list of the people who know about them (witnesses). All three live on the Case side of a matter: see Matters for how to open one.

How the three fit together¶

• A highlight is a passage you marked in a document, with a short name and a citation to its page.
• A fact is one dated event in the story of the case. Its sources are the documents and highlights that prove it.
• A witness is a person who knows something about the case. You link a witness to the highlights that concern them. A fact cannot be linked to a witness directly: link the witness to the highlight behind the fact.

Highlights¶

Mark a passage¶

You make highlights in the document viewer, which opens PDF documents.

1. On the Documents tab, click the document's name and choose View Document. The viewer opens in a new browser tab, with the highlights panel on the right. (See Documents.)
2. Select the text with the mouse.
3. Click the highlighter button at the top of the panel. Create Highlight opens with the selected text in Text.
4. Enter a Slug: a short name for the passage, such as "Brakes reported faulty". It is required.
5. Set the other fields that apply and click Save.

The highlight appears in the panel and is painted on the page.

In the panel, click a highlight to jump to it. The page shows the colour of the highlight you clicked and no other: click it again to clear it. The sort button offers Document Flow (page order) and Most Recent. Each highlight has a button to set its importance, a pencil button to edit it, and a plus button with Apply Labels and Link Witnesses.

The Highlights tab¶

Highlights lists every highlight on the matter in one list, newest first, ten to a page. It includes highlights made in court opinions (see Case law).

Click the slug for a menu: View Detail, Edit Highlight, View Source, Copy Text & Citation and Copy Link. View Source, and the citation under the text, open the document in a new tab at the highlight's page with the highlight selected. For a highlight made in a court opinion they open the opinion, which needs the Research permission.

To narrow the list:

• Choose All Sources, Cases or Documents.
• Choose a level under Importance to show that level and higher. All Levels shows everything.
• Choose a witness under All Witnesses to show the highlights linked to that person.
• Type in Keyword Search to match slugs and text.
• Click Filter for Filter Highlights, which adds Document, Label and Order By. Click Apply. Restore Defaults clears every filter.
• Click the sort button beside Created, Highlight or Date, or the flag to put the most important first. Click the same button again to reverse the order. Date sorts by the date in that column, with undated highlights last.

Edit or delete a highlight¶

Click the slug and choose Edit Highlight (in the viewer, click the pencil button). Change Importance, Color, Paragraph number, Slug or Text and click Submit. To delete the highlight, click Delete in the same form and confirm. A fact that used it as a source stays, without that source.

Good to know:

• Review Highlights in a document's menu opens this tab showing only that document's highlights, and the tab stays that way. Nothing on the toolbar shows it. Click Filter, set Document to All and click Apply.

The Timeline¶

Timeline lists the matter's facts, oldest first.

Add a fact¶

1. On Timeline, click the plus button. Add Fact opens.
2. Enter the Date and a Description.
3. Set the other fields that apply and click Submit.

The fact appears in the list in date order.

Link a fact to its sources¶

The form has no field for sources. Add them once the fact is saved. This is also how you put a highlight on the timeline.

1. In the fact's Sources column, click the link button. Add Source opens.
2. Type part of a document's name, or of a highlight's slug or text.
3. Click the document or highlight in the results.

Its citation appears in Sources. Click a citation for a menu: View Source (or View and Download for a document), Copy Citation, Add Source to link another, and Remove. The search offers highlights made in documents, not those made in court opinions.

Find facts¶

• Type in Keyword Search to match descriptions.
• Choose a level under Importance to show that level and higher.
• Click Labels and click one or more labels. Match Any Label shows facts with at least one of them, Match All Labels only facts with every one, and Clear Labels removes the label filter. You can also click a label on a row and choose Filter by Label.
• Click Filter for Filter Facts: Start Date and End Date set a date range, and Keyword, Labels, Match, Importance (≥) and Order By repeat the choices above. Click Apply. Restore Defaults clears every filter.
• Click the sort button beside Date and Time to sort by date, or the flag to put the most important first. Click the same button again to reverse the order.

Kosmos keeps a matter's filters until you change them or sign out.

Edit or delete a fact¶

Click the fact's description. Edit Fact opens with the same fields as Add Fact. Click Submit to save, or Delete and confirm to remove the fact. Its documents and highlights are not affected.

Download the chronology¶

Click Download PDF at the right of the toolbar. The file holds the facts the list is showing, in the order it shows them, each with its date, its description and the citations of its sources. To print the whole timeline, clear the filters first. When a filter is on, the heading ends in "(filtered)" and a line under it gives the count and the filter, for example "Showing 4 of 12 facts. Filter: from 2026-03-01; importance High or higher." Nothing else on these three tabs can be printed or exported, the witness list included.

Good to know:

• The PDF leaves out times and labels.

Witnesses¶

A witness is a person who knows something about the case, recorded on this matter only. A witness is not a contact: adding one creates no contact, and a contact's details are not copied in.

Add a witness¶

1. On Witnesses, click the plus button. Add Witness opens.
2. Enter the Name, fill in what you know and click Submit.

The witness appears in the list, which is sorted by name.

Link a witness to a highlight¶

1. On Highlights, or in the viewer's panel, click the plus button on the highlight and choose Link Witnesses.
2. Click the witness under Available. The name moves to Applied. Click it there to unlink it. Close the dialog when you are done.

The witness's name shows on the highlight. To see everything linked to a witness, choose the name under All Witnesses on Highlights.

Find, edit or delete a witness¶

Choose a level under Importance, or click Filter for Filter Witnesses: Keyword matches names and Knowledge, and Alignment, Importance (≥) and Order By narrow and sort the list. Click Apply. Restore Defaults clears every filter. The sort buttons beside Alignment, Name and Affiliation sort from the table.

Click a witness's name for Edit Witness. Click Submit to save, or Delete and confirm. The highlights the witness was linked to stay.

Change several at once¶

On all three tabs, tick the box at the left of a row, or the box in the header to tick every row showing. The toolbar then shows the number ticked (click it to untick everything) and these buttons:

• Importance, Color and Alignment are menus. Choose a value and every ticked row takes it.
• Labels opens Apply Labels, and Witnesses opens Apply Witnesses. Click a name under Available to add it to every ticked row, or under Applied to remove it from all of them. "partial" marks one that only some of the rows have.
• Affiliation opens Set Affiliation. Type the affiliation, or leave it blank to clear it, and click Apply.
• The trash button deletes the ticked rows after you confirm. This cannot be undone.

On Highlights the header box ticks the ten rows on the page. Rows you ticked on other pages stay ticked and are counted in the number.

Labels¶

Highlights and facts take labels, which you create on the Labels tab: see Documents. Witnesses do not take labels.

Facts and witnesses from the AI chat¶

A matter's AI chat can add to the timeline and the witness list when you tell it to in so many words.

1. Open the matter's AI tab and start or open a chat.
2. Say what to record, for example "Add the events in the Rivera deposition to the timeline" or "Add the shift supervisor as a witness".
3. Read the end of the reply. Each new fact has a line beginning "Added to timeline", with its date and the highlights or documents the AI linked as sources. Each new witness has a line beginning "Added witness". A person already on the list is reported as "Already on the witness list" and is not added twice.

Good to know:

• There is no step to confirm. The rows exist as soon as the reply appears, so check each one on Timeline or Witnesses.
• Nothing on those tabs marks a row as made by the AI. The chat reply is the only record of which ones it added.
• Asking the chat to "build a chronology" or "list the witnesses" gets an answer in the chat, not new rows.

What the AI is given¶

When you chat about a matter, the AI is given the highlights on its documents (slug, citation and the start of the text), every timeline fact with its date and sources, and each witness's name, alignment, importance, affiliation and the start of Knowledge. A witness's phone, email and address are not sent.