A medicolegal case doesn't end when the autopsy report is signed. For cases that proceed to criminal prosecution, the ME/C office may receive subpoenas for testimony or records, have expert witnesses on the stand for cross-examination, and eventually need to close the loop when a verdict or sentencing is handed down.
Until now, most ME/C case management systems treated all of this as "outside the CMS" — tracked in email, paper binders, or someone's personal spreadsheet. Zeph's legal workflow features bring the entire court lifecycle into the case record where it belongs.
Expert Disclosures (Rule 16)
Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 16 requires the prosecution to disclose the identity and opinions of any expert witness who will testify at trial. For ME/C offices, this usually means the medical examiner who performed the autopsy — but also any toxicologist, forensic odontologist, or other specialist whose analysis may be presented.
Zeph's Expert Disclosures panel (in the Court tab of every case) tracks:
- Expert name and role — who they are and what they're being called to testify about
- Disclosure date — when the disclosure was made to the defense
- Report summary — a brief description of the expert's findings for your records
- Status — PENDING, DISCLOSED, CHALLENGED, or WITHDRAWN
Multiple expert disclosures can be logged per case. A full audit trail captures every status change — who updated it, when, and what changed. No separate spreadsheet. No hunting through email.
Why it matters
Defense challenges to expert disclosures are common in homicide cases. Having a documented, timestamped record of when a disclosure was made — and what was disclosed — is essential if the disclosure itself becomes contested. The Zeph audit trail is tamper-evident: once a record is written, it cannot be altered without generating a new audit entry.
Subpoena Tracking
Subpoenas arrive at ME/C offices for two reasons: to compel testimony at deposition or trial, or to compel the production of records (case files, photographs, toxicology reports, chain-of-custody logs). Zeph tracks both.
Each subpoena record captures:
- Type — TESTIMONY, RECORDS, or BOTH
- Issuing attorney and case/court reference
- Date received and response deadline
- Status — RECEIVED → COMPLIED, CHALLENGED, or QUASHED
- Internal notes — for tracking what records were produced, scheduling conflicts, etc.
When a subpoena is received, staff log it immediately. The status progression follows the actual legal workflow: you receive it, you comply (producing the records or appearing to testify), or you work with your office's counsel to challenge or quash it. The final outcome is captured in the case record.
Why this beats a spreadsheet
Subpoenas have deadlines. A spreadsheet doesn't remind you. Zeph keeps the deadline attached to the case, visible to everyone with access to the case's Court tab. Future versions will surface approaching subpoena deadlines in the Daily Briefing Report's attention flags — so nothing gets missed.
Sentencing Outcomes
When a criminal case concludes, the ME/C office often learns the outcome informally — through a news article, a call from the DA's office, or at a professional conference. Zeph gives you a structured place to record it.
The Sentencing Outcomes panel captures:
- Verdict type — GUILTY, NOT_GUILTY, PLEA, HUNG_JURY, DISMISSED, MISTRIAL
- Sentence — free text for the specific sentence
- Sentencing date
- Status — PENDING → SENTENCED, APPEALED, OVERTURNED, or VACATED
- Notes — any relevant context (appeal basis, plea agreement terms, etc.)
For offices that participate in case studies, academic research, or interdisciplinary reviews with law enforcement, this data is invaluable. The ability to query "all homicide cases from 2022–2024 with a guilty verdict" — directly from your case management system — is something most offices currently cannot do.
Zero Migration — Built on Existing Infrastructure
All three features — expert disclosures, subpoenas, and sentencing outcomes — are stored in Zeph's
flexible contacts JSON structure using a _type discriminator field. This means:
- No new database migration was required to add these features
- Existing case records are not affected
- The features are available the moment you update to the current release
For administrators: no schema migrations to run, no downtime, no data conversion. Update Zeph
with manage.sh update and the new Court tab panels appear automatically.
Where to Find These Features
All three panels live in the Court tab of the case detail view. The Court tab already housed court orders and legal-hold status. Expert Disclosures, Subpoena Tracking, and Sentencing Outcomes are new panels within that tab, each with its own add/edit workflow.
Access is controlled by your RBAC configuration. The following roles have access by default:
- Super Admin / Admin — full read/write access to all Court tab panels
- Supervisor — full read/write access
- Investigator — read/write access (can log subpoenas and disclosures as they arrive)
- Read-Only — read access only
Granular permission keys (cases:manage_court_orders, cases:view_court_orders)
can be used to restrict access further in highly specialized workflows.
OpenAPI Coverage
All six new endpoints are documented in the OpenAPI spec (/api/api-docs/json):
GET /cases/:id/expert-disclosuresPOST /cases/:id/expert-disclosuresPATCH /cases/:id/expert-disclosures/:disclosureIdGET /cases/:id/subpoenasPOST /cases/:id/subpoenasPATCH /cases/:id/subpoenas/:subpoenaIdGET /cases/:id/sentencing-outcomesPOST /cases/:id/sentencing-outcomesPATCH /cases/:id/sentencing-outcomes/:outcomeId
All endpoints require authentication and enforce the same office-scoping and sensitive-case ACL as every other case sub-resource.
These legal workflow features are available in all Zeph Professional and Enterprise deployments. If you're evaluating Zeph for your ME/C office and court-readiness is a priority, we'd be happy to walk you through the Court tab in a live session.