What is a Contact Type?

A Contact Type is nothing more than a classification given a Contact, e.g. Trustee, Attorney, Judge, Friend, etc.

What is a Related Contact?

A Related Contact is a contact record that has some sort of relationship to a Matter. When you add a Contact to a Matter you must specify how the Contact is related to this Matter. For example, although you may have a Contact in the system listed as Type Friend this is not how they are related to a Matter. You would specify if 'your friend' was a Client, Defendant, Co-defendat, etc.

When you add a Contact to a Matter as the primary Contact their relationship to the Matter will always be that of the Primary Client regardless of what type of Contact they are in the system. In this way, a single Contact can be a Client on one Matter, a Co-defendant on another or even a Trustee on yet another.