This material is for family law attorneys and paralegals who use timelines to prepare for hearings and trial and need to control what information appears on screen at any given moment. As cases mature, timelines naturally become comprehensive and dense, making unfiltered views impractical in court. The workflow demonstrated here focuses on labeling events and documents so they can be filtered precisely by issue, procedure, or subject. The goal is speed, clarity, and control during live proceedings.

Why Category and Subject Filters Matter at Trial

By the time a family law case reaches hearing or trial, the timeline often contains dozens or hundreds of events touching many different issues. Without filtering, critical facts are buried in noise.

Category and subject filters allow practitioners to:

• Instantly isolate the events and documents relevant to a specific issue.
• Maintain focus while examining a witness, answering judicial questions, or arguing a discrete point.
• Avoid searching manually through unrelated events during live proceedings.

Filtering is not about reducing information overall; it is about showing only what matters in the moment.

Understanding Category and Subject Labels

Each event can be assigned one or more labels that describe what the event relates to.

Labels consist of two components:

• A label group, which functions as a broad category.
• A label, which identifies a specific issue within that category.

This structure allows events to be retrieved later based on how they might be argued, examined, or questioned at trial rather than how they were originally created.

Creating Labels During Event Entry

When creating an event, labels are applied immediately based on how the event may be used later.

Some labels may already exist and can be reused if appropriate. Others should be created specifically for the case. Family law issues vary widely, and no preset list can capture every relevant subject.

When deciding which labels to apply, the guiding question is:
Under what issue or issues would I want this event to appear later during a hearing or trial?

Applying Multiple Labels to a Single Event

A single event often relates to more than one issue. For example, a communication between parties may touch on education, mental health, and parental conduct.

Applying multiple labels allows:

• Independent filtering by any single issue.
• Combined filtering when issues overlap.
• Flexibility in trial strategy, depending on how testimony or argument unfolds.

This approach ensures that the same evidence can be accessed from multiple analytical angles without duplication.

Batch Labeling Multiple Events

There are times when a label needs to be applied to many events at once.

Batch labeling allows practitioners to:

• Select multiple events simultaneously.
• Apply an existing or newly created label to the entire group.
• Instantly prepare large portions of the timeline for filtering.

This is particularly useful when preparing for hearings or trial after discovery has been completed.

Filtering the Timeline by Issue

Once labels are applied, the timeline can be filtered to show only events matching selected labels.

Filters can be:

• Narrow, focusing on a single issue.
• Broad, combining multiple related issues.

The filtered view replaces the full timeline until the filter is removed, allowing the practitioner to work without distraction. Filters can be cleared at any time to return to the master timeline.

Filtering Within Documents

Filtering is not limited to events. Documents themselves can contain highlights and references tied to specific issues.

This allows practitioners to:

• Focus the court on particular portions of an exhibit.
• Switch between different issue-based views within the same document.
• Avoid presenting irrelevant material when discussing a narrow point.

This is especially useful with lengthy financial records or multi-issue exhibits.

Creating Filters for Hearings and Trial

In addition to issue-based filtering, a dedicated filter can be created for a specific hearing or trial.

This involves:

• Selecting the events intended for use at the proceeding.
• Applying a custom label that represents the hearing or trial.
• Filtering the timeline by that label to create a focused working view.

This hearing-specific timeline can coexist with the master timeline and be accessed as needed.

Saving and Reusing Filters

Saved filters allow immediate access during live proceedings.

Common practices include:

• Saving a general hearing filter that includes all relevant events.
• Creating additional saved filters that combine the hearing label with specific issues.
• Switching between saved filters to respond quickly to shifting focus during argument or examination.

Saved filters remain available until removed and can be reused throughout the proceeding.

Updating Saved Filters Over Time

Saved filters remain current as long as labels are maintained.

To add an event to a saved filter:

• Apply the relevant label to the event.

To remove an event:

• Remove the label.

This allows hearing and trial views to evolve as preparation continues without rebuilding filters from scratch.

Practical Next Steps

• Begin labeling events based on how they may be argued or examined later.
• Use multiple labels when events touch more than one issue.
• Batch label events when preparing for hearings or trial.
• Create and save hearing-specific filters in advance.
• Practice switching between filtered views to maintain control during live proceedings.

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