Creating an Umpire Brief
Build a professional summary document to present your position to an umpire.
Why this matters
When a case goes to umpire, you have one chance to put your position in front of a neutral third party in writing. If your submission is a stack of scattered emails and PDFs the umpire has to piece together themselves, you have already lost ground. If your submission is a clean, organized brief that walks the umpire through your damage assessment, your areas of dispute, and your position on the award, you are giving yourself the best chance of a favorable outcome.
Most appraisers either write briefs from scratch every time (which takes hours per case) or skip the brief entirely (which leaves the umpire to figure things out on their own). The umpire brief feature is the middle path: you build the brief from configurable sections, reuse content from prior briefs via templates, and ship a professional submission in a fraction of the time.
This is the article for setting up the brief. The next one covers how to send it to the umpire and track whether they actually opened it.
An umpire brief is a professional summary document you send to the umpire when a case goes to appraisal. It presents your position, supporting documentation, and key facts in an organized format that helps the umpire quickly understand the dispute.
When to Create a Brief
- An umpire has been agreed upon or appointed
- You want to present your position before or after the umpire inspection
- The umpire has requested submissions from both appraisers
- You want to share supporting documents in a structured format
Creating a Brief
Open the appraisal
Navigate to the appraisal detail page for the case.
Click "Umpire Brief"
Find the Umpire Brief button in the appraisal actions area. This opens the brief editor.
Choose your sections
Select which sections to include in the brief. You can use saved section templates or add custom content.
Add content to each section
Fill in your position, supporting narrative, and any relevant details for each selected section.
Attach documents
Upload any supporting documents you want to include with the brief, such as estimates, photos, or correspondence.
Review and finalize
Review the brief content, then save it. The brief is ready to send to the umpire.
Configurable Sections
You control exactly what information is included in your brief. Common sections include a case summary, your damage assessment, areas of dispute, and your position on the award. You can enable or disable any section and reorder them as needed.
Section Templates
Section templates let you save reusable content that you include in every brief. For example, if you always include a standard introduction or a description of your methodology, you can save that as a template and insert it with one click.
Manage Section Templates