Define the matter and jurisdiction

A prompt is the instruction you type into an AI tool. The tool answers the question it is given. If that question leaves out the matter and the jurisdiction, the tool does not stop to ask. It fills the gap, often with a general rule or an assumed place, and writes a fluent, confident answer. That answer may be to the wrong question.

Compare two prompts about the same practice file:

• "Can a buyer cancel a supply contract for late delivery?"
• "Our client, Brightwater Dental Group LLC, is the buyer under an Equipment Supply Agreement with Medisupply Partners Inc. The agreement names Colorado law. We are at the pre-litigation stage. Summarize what the agreement itself says about late delivery, for review by the supervising attorney."

The first invites a general answer that may not fit the matter or the place. The second tells the tool whose problem it is, where it sits and who will check the work.

In this lesson you write that second kind of opening, called a matter definition. You also start two course outputs, a clause extract and a defined-term check, so your work begins from the documents' own words.

A matter definition is a short paragraph that answers five questions:

1. Parties: who is involved and in what role (client, other side, any third party).
2. Subject: what the dispute or transaction is about.
3. Stage: where things stand now, for example intake, demand letter received, complaint filed, or contract under negotiation.
4. Jurisdiction: whose law applies and, where relevant, which court or forum. This lesson uses jurisdiction in that working sense.
5. Reviewer: the attorney who will review the work.

In this lesson the examples come from a practice packet about Brightwater Dental Group LLC. Brightwater bought dental chairs from Medisupply Partners Inc. under an Equipment Supply Agreement dated March 6, 2023. The chairs arrived late. Medisupply has sent a demand letter asking for the balance owed. Your supervising attorney, Dana Ruiz, will review your work.

Each fact in that paragraph comes from the packet. If a part is missing, for example nobody has told you who the reviewer is, find out before you write the definition.

Do not fill in jurisdiction from habit or from where your office is. Take it from the record, which means the documents in the matter file. Common places to look:

• A governing-law clause: the contract term stating which place's law applies.
• A dispute-resolution clause: where and how disputes are to be heard, such as a named court or arbitration.
• A court caption: the heading of a filed document, which names the court.
• Where the parties are organized and operate, as shown in contracts, letters or filings.

Sometimes these sources disagree. In the Brightwater packet, Section 14.2 of the agreement names Colorado law, and Brightwater operates in Colorado. Medisupply's demand letter, however, cites a Texas statute. You do not decide which law controls. You write down what the record shows and add an open question: "Demand letter relies on Texas law; agreement names Colorado law. Which law governs the claims raised? For attorney decision."

An open question is any point the record does not settle. Writing it down keeps it visible to the attorney and to any AI tool you use later.

Now put the five parts into one paragraph. Keep it plain and short, about four or five sentences. Here is a model from the practice packet:

Matter: Brightwater Dental Group LLC (our client, buyer) and Medisupply Partners Inc. (seller). Subject: late delivery of dental chairs under the Equipment Supply Agreement dated March 6, 2023, and Medisupply's demand for the unpaid balance. Stage: pre-litigation; demand letter received. Jurisdiction: the agreement names Colorado law (Section 14.2); the demand letter cites a Texas statute. Which law governs the claims is an open question for attorney decision. Prepared for review by Dana Ruiz, supervising attorney.

This paragraph does more than describe the file. It becomes the opening of every later prompt in the course and the first section of your matter brief. Write it once and reuse it, so the tool always starts from the same matter, law and reviewer.

Your turn: using your practice packet, draft your own matter definition and share it with your tutor for feedback.

A clause extract (saved as a DOCX file) captures one important clause exactly as written, so later work rests on the document's own language and not on someone's summary of it. It has three parts:

1. The quotation, word for word. Copy the clause exactly, including its punctuation. Do not paraphrase or tidy it inside the quotation marks. If you leave words out, show the gap with an ellipsis (…).
2. The location reference: the document name, its date, and the section or page.
3. One line on why it matters.

Example from the practice packet:

"This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Colorado, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles."

Equipment Supply Agreement, dated March 6, 2023, Section 14.2, page 11.

Why it matters: names the law the parties chose. Whether it reaches the claims in the demand letter is an open question for the attorney.

A governing-law or dispute-resolution clause is a good first choice, because it feeds straight into your jurisdiction line.

Contracts give certain words a fixed meaning, usually shown with capital letters, such as "Equipment" or "Delivery Date." These are defined terms. When documents in a packet use those terms differently, a brief can quietly shift meaning without anyone noticing.

A defined-term check (DOCX) is a simple table with these columns:

• Term
• Where it is defined (document and section)
• Inconsistent or undefined uses (document and location)

From the practice packet:

• Equipment: defined in the Agreement, Section 1.3, as items listed in Schedule A. Amendment No. 1 refers to "Products," which is not defined anywhere in the packet.
• Delivery Date: defined in Section 1.5. The demand letter refers to an "installation date" instead.

Your job is to flag these differences, not to resolve them. Do not decide that "Products" means "Equipment." Write "Products: used in Amendment No. 1, page 2; not defined; relation to 'Equipment' unclear. For attorney review." That decision may affect the dispute, so it stays with the attorney.

Everything in this course uses the supplied practice packet. Treat that as a working rule you carry into your job.

Real client material, especially anything privileged (protected attorney-client communications or work product), confidential, or identifying (names, account numbers, health or financial details), should not go into an AI tool your organization has not approved. Pasting a client's contract into a public chatbot to "just get a quick extract" can put that information somewhere your firm cannot control.

Which tools are approved, and for what kinds of data, is decided by your firm's or legal department's policy, not by this course and not by you alone. If you are unsure whether a tool is approved, ask before you use it.

In practice, this means you can rehearse every step here freely with the practice packet. When you later apply the method to a real matter, check your organization's policy first and use only approved tools.