01
The handover is the point of the whole thing
A record is not for you. You already know what happened.
It exists for the moment somebody else has to understand it: a lawyer deciding whether to take it on, an adjuster deciding what to pay, a board deciding whether there is anything in a complaint, a mediator, a judge, a case worker, a manager. That person has not lived it, does not care about it, and has a queue.
Everything about how you keep the record should be built backwards from that moment.
02
What they actually need, in order
Ask anybody who reads these for a living and the answer is remarkably consistent.
- 01A chronology. What happened, when, on one or two pages. This is the thing they read first and sometimes the only thing they read closely.
- 02Numbered items. So they can say "item 14" and you both know what that means.
- 03Dates on everything, including when each note was written. Putting six months in order when you didn't keep notes
- 04The documents themselves, in the same order as the chronology, with the numbers matching.
- 05A short statement in your own words, at the end, not the beginning.
Notice what is not on that list: your conclusions, your view of the other side's character, and the background of how it all started. Those come out in conversation. They do not belong in the packet.
03
What makes somebody put it down
The common ways a good case arrives in an unusable form:
- —A folder of files. Ninety photos with camera filenames, in upload order, is not a record. It is a task you have handed to somebody who charges by the hour.
- —A long email with the story in it. It will be read once and then it is gone, and nothing in it can be referred to.
- —Everything, undifferentiated. Four hundred pages with no index says you could not work out what mattered, so now they have to.
- —No dates on the notes. A reader cannot tell what you wrote at the time from what you wrote last week, so they discount all of it.
- —Argument mixed into the facts. The moment the chronology starts characterizing people, a professional reader starts checking the facts against each other instead of taking them.
- —Screenshots of screenshots. Keep the original.
04
Before you send it
Five minutes, and it is worth more than the hour before it.
- —Read the first page as a stranger. Does it say what this is, who is involved and what is being disputed? Most packets do not.
- —Check every reference points somewhere. If the chronology says "see item 12", there has to be an item 12.
- —Take out what does not bear on it. If it is not relevant, it is costing you attention.
- —Keep a copy of exactly what you sent, and the date. The version you handed over matters, especially if you add to it later.
- —Send it as one file where you can. One PDF beats a link to a folder beats an email with eleven attachments.
05
What to say when you hand it over
Short. Four lines is plenty.
"Attached is a record of the dispute with [name], from February to October. The chronology is on page 2 and the documents are numbered to match it. The entries written at the time are marked as such; the ones I wrote later say when I wrote them. Happy to answer anything."
That last sentence about which entries were written when is the one that makes a professional reader relax. It tells them you know the difference, and that you have not quietly presented reconstruction as contemporaneous record.
06
Different readers, slightly different things
The packet is the same. What you put in front of it changes.
- —A lawyer wants the chronology and the documents, and wants to form their own view. Do not send them your conclusions.
- —An insurance adjuster works to a file and a number. Dates, amounts and the policy or claim reference on everything.
- —A board or regulator usually asks a specific question. Answer that question, attach what supports it, and do not use the response to raise other grievances.
- —A mediator is reading both sides. A packet that acknowledges the parts that are not in your favor lands better than one that does not.
- —A court will tell you what it wants and in what form. Follow that exactly, whatever this page says.
07
Questions people ask
Should I send everything, or just the relevant part?
The relevant part, with everything else kept and available. Say in your cover note that there is more if they want it.
What if I have to hand it over more than once?
That is normal — it often goes to two or three people over the life of a dispute. Keep a note of who got what, and when. If you add to the record afterwards, the version numbers matter.
Can I just give them access to my account?
No, and you should not want to. Hand over a fixed document, not a live one. A record somebody can watch changing is a record nobody can rely on.
It's a mess and I'm embarrassed by it.
Everybody's is, at first. The sorting is the job, and it is a mechanical one rather than a clever one. Start with dates.
Where this fits
This is the last part of keeping a record. The full method is in How to document a dispute.
How we write these
About this guide
This guide is written and reviewed by the BuildMyEvidence editorial team. It's about keeping a record, never about who's right or what anyone is owed. It doesn't name laws or deadlines, because those change from state to state. When something here changes, the reviewed date at the top changes with it.
Guide to handing your record to somebody else · no statute cited · education on keeping a record, not legal advice.