Founding Members User Guide

Welcome to Adjudica. You are among a small group of California Workers' Compensation attorneys with early access to this platform. This guide walks you through every major feature, with video walkthroughs for each section.

Adjudica is in its early stages. The core features work and the AI shows its work — citing specific documents and pages for every output. There are rough edges we are actively smoothing. Your feedback as a Founding Member directly shapes what we build next.

Adjudica is HIPAA-compliant, and every firm receives a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) at sign-up. We're on track for SOC II certification by June 2026. Your clients' medical records and case files are handled with the security posture they require.

If you hit a wall, email alex@adjudica.ai. You will hear back the same day.

Section 1: Getting Started — Initial Login

Accessing Adjudica

1. Navigate to app.adjudica.ai in your web browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari, or Firefox)
2. Enter the credentials provided in your Founding Member welcome email
3. On first login, you will be prompted to set up your firm profile — enter your firm name, office address, and primary contact information
4. After setup, you will land on the Dashboard — this is your home base

Dashboard Orientation

The Dashboard shows:

• Your Matters — All active cases for your firm, sorted by most recent activity
• Recent Activity — Latest document uploads, form completions, and team actions
• Quick Actions — Buttons to create a new matter, upload documents, or generate a form

The left sidebar provides navigation to all platform sections: Matters, Documents, Forms, Templates, and Settings.

Section 2: Case Creation

What Is a "Matter"?

A "matter" in Adjudica corresponds to a Workers' Compensation case for a specific injured worker. Everything in the platform — documents, timelines, forms, templates, chat — is organized within a matter.

Creating a New Matter

1. From the Dashboard or any page, click "New Matter"
2. Enter the basic case information:
   • Applicant Name — The injured worker's full name
   • Case Number — The ADJ number or claim identifier
   • Employer — The employer at time of injury
   • Date of Injury — The DOI for this claim
   • Claim Type — Specific injury, cumulative trauma, or other
3. Click "Create Matter"

The matter is now live. You can immediately begin uploading documents, generating forms, and using all platform features.

Tips

• You can edit matter details at any time from the matter's Settings page
• If your case involves multiple dates of injury, create one matter per DOI for cleanest results
• All team members at your firm can access matters based on your firm's permission settings

Section 3: Document Uploads

Why Document Uploads Matter

Uploading documents is the most important step in Adjudica. The quality of every AI feature — form fill, timeline, templates, Matter Chat — depends directly on the documents in your case file. The more complete your uploads, the better the AI performs.

Accepted Formats

Maximum file size: 100MB per file

How to Upload

1. Open the matter and navigate to the Documents section
2. Click "Upload Document" or drag and drop files directly into the upload area
3. Wait for the "Ready" or "Processed" status indicator — this means OCR and indexing are complete (typically 1–3 minutes per document, depending on file size)
4. Once processed, documents are available for AI search, form fill, timeline extraction, and Matter Chat

Best Practices

• Upload the highest-quality scans available. Blurry or low-contrast scans reduce OCR accuracy, which affects every downstream AI feature.
• Upload all relevant records before using AI features. The more documents the AI has to work with, the more complete and accurate its outputs. Include:
  • Treating physician reports
  • QME / AME reports
  • Medical records and chronologies
  • Claims forms (DWC-1, EAMS filings)
  • Court documents and hearing notices
  • Correspondence relevant to the case
• Do not upload documents containing attorney-client privileged communications unless you intend those communications to be processed by the AI.
• You can add documents at any time. New uploads are immediately available to all AI features. Existing drafts can be re-filled to incorporate new documents.

Section 4: Timeline

What the Timeline Does

The Timeline automatically builds a chronological history of your case by extracting dates, events, and milestones from every uploaded document. No manual data entry required — the AI reads your documents and populates the timeline as files are processed.

What Gets Extracted

The AI identifies and classifies events into these categories:

How It Works

1. Upload documents to the matter (see Section 3)
2. Navigate to the Timeline tab within the matter
3. Events appear automatically as documents are processed — each event shows:
   • The date (normalized to a standard format)
   • A description of the event
   • The event type (color-coded)
   • A confidence score indicating extraction certainty
   • A source citation linking to the exact paragraph in the original document
4. Smart deduplication — When the same event is mentioned in multiple documents (e.g., a hearing date referenced in three filings), the AI merges them into one timeline entry with multiple citations

Working with the Timeline

• Filter events by type, date range, or confidence level using the filter controls
• Click any citation to jump directly to the source paragraph in the original document
• Add manual events if needed — click "Add Event" to enter dates the AI did not extract
• Edit or correct events — click any event to modify its description, date, or type
• Low-confidence events (flagged in yellow) should be reviewed — the AI is uncertain about these extractions and flags them for your verification
• Export to PDF — Generate a court-ready timeline with citations for filings or case preparation

Tips

• The timeline updates automatically when new documents are uploaded — no need to rebuild
• For best results, upload medical chronologies and court filings first — these contain the densest concentration of datable events
• The timeline is invaluable for MSC preparation, settlement negotiations, and case reviews

Section 5: Generating Documents — Forms, Templates & Matter Chat

This section covers three features that help you generate and work with case documents: Form Fill, Template Library, and Matter Chat.

5A: AI Form Fill

Form Fill uses AI to populate California DWC forms from your uploaded case documents.

How to Fill a Form

1. Open the matter and navigate to the Drafts section
2. Click "New Draft"
3. Select the form you want to complete from the form list (e.g., "DWC Form 10250.1 — Application for Adjudication of Claim")
4. The draft editor opens, displaying all fields in the selected form
5. Click "AI Fill" to initiate AI-assisted completion

The AI processes fields in batches. For a typical form with 40–60 fields, this takes approximately 2–4 minutes. A progress indicator shows status.

Understanding Confidence Indicators

After AI filling completes, every field displays a confidence state:

Reviewing and Editing Fields

For each field, you can:

• Accept the AI's answer (the highest-confidence candidate is auto-selected)
• Select a different candidate from the dropdown if multiple options are shown
• Edit the value by clicking the edit icon and entering your own value
• View the source citation by clicking the citation link — this shows the exact document excerpt the AI used

Publishing the Completed Form

1. Ensure all required fields are completed (blank required fields will be flagged)
2. Click "Publish Draft"
3. The platform generates the filled PDF
4. Download the completed PDF from the Documents section
5. Review the generated PDF before filing — confirm all fields rendered correctly in the final document

5B: Template Library

The Template Library lets you build reusable document templates — demand letters, settlement proposals, client correspondence — with smart placeholders that auto-fill from case data.

How Templates Work

Templates use smart placeholders like {{applicant_name}}, {{injury_date}}, {{employer_name}}, and {{adj_number}} that automatically populate with data from your case file when you generate a document.

Creating a Template

1. Navigate to the Template Library from the main menu
2. Click "Create New Template"
3. You can either:
   • Upload an existing document (your best demand letter, for example) — the AI will identify repeated elements and suggest placeholders
   • Start from scratch using the template editor
4. Add or adjust smart placeholders where case-specific information should appear
5. Optionally add conditional sections (e.g., {{if surgery}} ... {{/if}}) for content that only applies to certain case types
6. Save and name your template

Using a Template on a Case

1. Open the matter and navigate to Documents
2. Click "Generate from Template"
3. Select the template from your library
4. The AI auto-fills all placeholders from your case data
5. Review the generated document, make any manual adjustments
6. Export as PDF or Word

Pre-Built Templates

Adjudica includes (coming soon):

• Demand letters (various case types)
• MSC statement of issues
• Settlement proposals and C&R cover letters
• Client intake and status update letters
• Discovery requests and responses
• Petition templates (PTR, costs, reconsideration)
• Subpoena cover letters

All pre-built templates can be cloned and customized to match your firm's style and language.

5C: Matter Chat

Matter Chat lets you ask questions about your case in plain English. The AI searches across every uploaded document and returns answers with citations.

What You Can Ask

• Factual questions: "What does Dr. Johnson's QME report say about work restrictions?"
• Summarization: "Summarize the treating physician's notes from January to June 2025"
• Document location: "Which document mentions the average weekly wage?"
• Multi-document synthesis: "List all medical providers involved in treatment"
• Follow-up questions: "What did that provider recommend?" (the AI remembers context within a session)

What It Cannot Answer

• Legal strategy questions ("Should I accept this settlement offer?")
• Questions requiring documents not uploaded to the matter
• Questions about legal standards, case law, or regulatory requirements — the AI answers only from your uploaded documents, not external legal databases. (This changes when the Knowledge Base comes online — see "What Is Coming" below.)
• Complex mathematical calculations beyond simple arithmetic

How to Use It

1. Open the matter and navigate to the Chat tab
2. Type your question in the text field
3. The AI returns an answer with clickable source citations
4. Click any citation to jump to the exact paragraph in the source document
5. Ask follow-up questions naturally — the AI maintains context within the conversation

Limitations

• Answers are grounded in your uploaded documents only — the AI does not access external information
• The AI cites the document excerpts it used, but you should verify citations before relying on them
• Chat sessions do not retain memory between sessions — each new session starts fresh

Pre-Filing Checklist

Before any AI-generated content appears in a document filed with the DWC, WCAB, or served on any party, confirm the following:

• Every field with a confidence indicator has been reviewed against the cited source document
• Every low-confidence (red) and blank field has been completed with verified, manually confirmed information
• All dates are accurate and in the format required by the specific form
• All constrained fields (dropdown, radio button) reflect the legally correct option for this matter's specific circumstances
• The generated PDF has been downloaded and reviewed as a complete document
• A licensed California attorney has reviewed and approved the completed form
• The form reflects the most current information in the case record (documents uploaded after form filling may contain more recent information)

What Is Coming

We are building features that will fundamentally expand what Adjudica can do for your practice:

Knowledge Base Integration

Our Knowledge Base currently contains 3,467 cases (2,570 fully analyzed, 878 in the research pipeline) spanning 109 years of California WC law (1917–2026), organized into 16,949 legal principles across 22 categories with 45,237 citation relationships. The Knowledge Base also includes the California Labor Code (Divisions 4, 4.5, 4.7), CCR Title 8 Workers' Compensation regulations, the Permanent Disability Rating Schedule (PDRS 2005), MTUS treatment guidelines, and the Official Medical Fee Schedule (OMFS) — all cross-referenced to the cases and principles that interpret them.

When connected to the platform, the AI will draw on all of this to assist with legal research, form filling, and case analysis. This is not yet live — Founding Members will be the first to access it.

Defense & Lien Support

The Knowledge Base includes 748 employer defense principles, 645 apportionment principles, and 327 lien principles. Expanded lien support for defense attorneys is coming very soon.

Continued Platform Improvements

Every piece of feedback you provide as a Founding Member shapes our development priorities. The features you see today will improve substantially in the coming months.

Support & Feedback

As a Founding Member, you have direct access to our team:

Support hours: Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm Pacific Time
Emergency (security incidents): security@adjudica.ai — 24/7 monitored

Your Feedback Matters

You are among the first attorneys to use this platform. We want to hear everything — what works, what does not, what you wish existed. Your input is not a courtesy; it is how we build the right product for this profession.

Reply to any email from us, or email alex@adjudica.ai directly. Every message is read and responded to personally.