Changelog

Granting access

Access is granted one case at a time, to one person, by the firm. Nothing happens automatically. Staff invite a client from the Client Portal panel on the case page. The client receives an email and chooses their own password.

Only the firm's own client on a matter can be given a portal. Opposing parties, opposing counsel, guardians ad litem, and children on a case cannot be issued one.

Revoking access takes effect immediately. Closing a case revokes every portal on it.

What a client sees

• Where things stand — a short update written by the firm in plain English, not docket shorthand. Past updates remain as a dated history, so there is a record of what the client was told and when. Drafts stay private until staff publish them.
• Their hearings — date, time, location, and what the hearing is for.
• What they need to do — a checklist set by the firm. Clients tick items off as they finish them, and staff see what was completed and when.
• Documents the firm has shared — nothing else. Each document is shared individually, by a staff member. A document marked confidential cannot be shared.
• Messages to their legal team — a simple thread. There is no recipient to choose and no address book to browse. Messages reach the firm and only the firm.
• Their legal team — their attorney and paralegal, with contact details.

What a client never sees

• The firm's contacts, internal notes, task list, or correspondence with the court, opposing counsel, or any agency.
• Other parties on the case.
• Billing rates, time entries, or anything the firm has not explicitly shared.

Files a client sends

Clients can send a document to their legal team. It arrives in a review queue on the case page rather than in the case file.

Staff review it and either file it or decline it. Nothing a client sends reaches the case file until a staff member puts it there.

A record of what was shared

Every case keeps a log of what was shared, who viewed it, and when — useful if a client ever says they were not told.

Elsewhere

The Client Portal panel sits at the bottom of each case page, collapsed by default, with a badge when a client is waiting on a reply.

The portal shares the same oatmeal cream and deep navy design as the rest of Thistle.

Messages

• Logging a message no longer requires re-typing contact details. Type the caller's name and Thistle pulls their email and phone from your contacts automatically.
• Message statuses were reduced from five (New, In Progress, Waiting, Completed, Closed) to two: Open and Completed.
• A one-click "Completed" button now closes out a message without opening it to edit.
• A new "Needs Attention" view surfaces communications with an open follow-up and flags overdue ones in red. Added filters by channel, person, and case.

Tasks

• The task list now defaults to open tasks sorted by due date, with overdue items flagged in red and an overdue count at the top. (It previously showed completed work first.)
• A one-click "Mark Done" button closes a task directly from the list.
• Added "My Tasks" and "Unassigned" views, plus filters by assignee and case.

Cases

• The case list is now the primary view, with filters for Practice Area, Court, County, Status, and Assigned Attorney, defaulting to open cases.
• New columns: Client, Next Up (soonest deadline or event, overdue items flagged), and Last Activity.
• The individual Case page consolidates parties, judge, dates, tasks, messages, events, documents, and invoices in one place.

Contacts

• New conflict-of-interest flag: Thistle now alerts you when a contact appears on both sides of your matters. This is a prompt to review, not a substitute for your own conflict-checking process or professional judgment.
• Added role-based views (Clients, Opposing, Attorneys, Judges, Staff), search, and a quick-look panel showing a person's matters and communications.

Billing

• Billing tables are now sortable and paginated.
• Task and Message pages now show whether an item is billable and offer a "Bill This" shortcut.
• The mark-billable-to-invoice pipeline is unchanged. Completing or editing a task or message will not drop its billability or its place on an invoice.

Calendar, Documents & Notes

• Calendar header cleaned up.
• Documents and Notes now have clickable links to the related case and contact, with cleaner sortable tables. All existing actions (download, delete, edit, archive) still work.

Design

• Every major screen now shares one visual style — an oatmeal cream and deep navy theme with consistent colors, fonts, spacing, buttons, tables, and forms — so the app reads as one product rather than a set of separate pages.
• The navigation menu is now navy with light icons.
• The top bar branding was refined, ending with the navy Thistle flower mark.
• Restyled pages: Dashboard, Contacts, Cases, Calendar, Tasks, Messages, Documents, Notes, Billing, all record and add/edit pages.