The style of cause names the parties in the correct order. In Matters you set your client's role when you generate a court document, and the style of cause fills in from it automatically.
Why the role is not part of intake
When you open a matter you will not be asked to pick Applicant or Respondent, and that is deliberate. The role is not a fixed property of the file: the same client can be the applicant on one document and the respondent on another. So the choice lives where it is actually used, in the document generator, rather than being locked in at intake.
Setting the role when you generate a document
- Start a document from the matter. Use Generate document on the matter, then choose an evidence package or a letter.
- Fill in the cover. Along with the client details and the court file, you choose your client's role for this document.
- Pick Applicant or Respondent. This tells the document which side your client is on.
How the style of cause fills in
Choosing the role does two things at once:
- It sets whose evidence the document is, which drives the title and framing of the package.
- It seeds the matching side of the style of cause with your client's name, and places the other party on the opposite side.
So if you mark your client the Applicant, the client's name fills the applicant side and the other party fills the respondent side. Mark them the Respondent and the arrangement flips. Either way, you are not typing the heading out and hoping you got the order right.
Set the client role thoughtfully on each document. It is doing double duty: naming whose evidence the document presents, and arranging the style of cause. A wrong choice here shows up in both the title and the party names.
Where the party names come from
The names that fill the style of cause are the client and the other party recorded on the matter. The more complete those details are, the cleaner the generated heading. If a name reads oddly in the output, correct it on the matter's representation and other party details, then generate again.
Because the role is chosen per document rather than stored on the matter, there is nothing to undo when your client's position differs across filings. Just pick the correct role each time you generate.
Check before you file
The style of cause is the first thing a court reads. Before you save or file a generated document, glance at the heading and confirm your client sits on the side you intended and that the other party is named correctly. It takes a moment and saves a re-filing.