Entities and Attributes of Legal Case Management Systems
1. Clients: A person who wants legal assistance or representation from a lawyer or law firm.
- Client ID (Primary Key): It is an unique identifier for each client.
- Name: Full name of the client.
- Address: It is an Residential address of the client.
- Email: It is an clients email address.
- Phone Number: It is a clients phone number.
2. Lawyers: They are professional who provides legal advice, representation and assistance to clients in legal matters.
- Lawyer ID (Primary Key): It is an unique identifier for each lawyer.
- Name: Full name of the lawyer.
- Firm: It is an Law firm the lawyer works for.
- Specialization: It is an area of law the lawyer focuses on (For example: criminal law, family law).
- Email: Lawyer’s email address.
- Phone Number: It is an Lawyer’s phone number.
3. Cases: A specific legal matter or dispute that a lawyer and client work on together.
- Case ID (Primary Key): It is an unique identifier for each legal case.
- Case Type: It is an category of law the case falls under (For example: contract dispute, personal injury).
- Status: It is an Current stage of the case (For example: open, closed, pending).
- Filing Date: It is an date the case was officially filed in court.
- Lawyer ID (Foreign Key): It is an reference to the Lawyer table, identifying the lawyer associated with the case.
- ClientID (Foreign Key): It is an reference to the Client table identifying the client involved in the case.
4. Evidence: Information, documents or objects presented in court to support a claim or argument in a case.
- Evidence ID (Primary Key): It is an unique identifier for each piece of evidence.
- Type: It is an nature of the evidence (For example: document, witness testimony, physical object).
- Description: It is an brief explanation of the evidence and its relevance to the case.
- CaseID (Foreign Key): It is an reference to the Case table identifying the case to which the evidence belongs.
5. Witnesses: A person who provides testimony or information about an event or situation relevant to a case.
- Witness ID (Primary Key): It is an unique identifier for each witness.
- Name: It is an Full name of the witness.
- Contact Information: Contact details for the witness.
- Testimony: It is an record of the witness’s statement about the case.
- Case ID (Foreign Key): It is an reference to the Case table identifying the case in which the witness is involved.
6. Court Hearing: An official meeting where a judge listens to arguments, reviews evidence and makes decisions in a case.
- Hearing ID (Primary Key): It is an unique identifier for each court hearing.
- Date: It is an Date of the scheduled court hearing.
- Time: It is an Time of the scheduled court hearing.
- Court Location: It is an physical location of the court where the hearing will take place.
- Case ID (Foreign Key): It is an reference to the Case table identifying the case to which the hearing is related.
How to Design ER Diagrams for Legal Case Management Systems
Legal Case Management Systems (LCMS) play a crucial role in organizing and managing legal cases efficiently. One of the key components in designing an LCMS is the Entity–Relationship (ER) diagram, which visually represents the data model and relationships between entities.
In this article, we will explore how to design ER diagrams for Legal Case Management Systems along with their entities, attributes also relationships between them.