Matters
Never act for both sides by mistake
Every new client is checked for conflicts and identity before anyone works on the file, and a matter closes only when nothing is left owing or held.
Who uses it
What each person does with it
- Associate
- Opens the matter from its type, adds the parties in their roles and the team, and sees on one dashboard the budget, the next hearing, the deadlines and the work in progress.
- Partner
- Answers for the matters they are responsible for, approves what the opening checklist asks of them, and sees the matters nobody has touched.
- Secretary
- Finds any matter from the register by number, client or party, with the views the firm saves for the work each desk does.
- Managing partner
- Decides what may pass the closing rules on an override, and moves a file to another lawyer or office with its history intact.
What it does
Matters, in detail
Marked as in the product today or still being built.
An opening checklist
In the productClient, type, partner, billing, a decided conflict check, KYC as a warning or a block by the firm's setting, and the engagement letter generated and tracked back signed.
The matter register
In the productEvery matter the reader may open, searched and narrowed on the server, with views each person saves and the firm shares.
Budgets and stages
In the productA budget per matter with phase lines and every revision kept, stages per matter type with the time in each, and a report of matters nobody has touched.
Stages that run the work
In the productA stage can lay out tasks, documents and deadlines as a matter enters it, ask a partner's sign-off, list what must be done before it moves on, remind after a set number of days, and move the matter on by itself once all of that is met.
Related matters and the matter's money
In the productMatters linked as appeals, counterclaims, consolidations or one transaction, read the right way from each side; and each matter's work in progress, billed, collected, held and realised, with each fee earner's part.
The firm's own fields
In the productCustom fields in sets on matters, clients, enquiries, tasks, documents, time and people, with defaults, required answers, rows, bulk changes, imports and a history of every value.
Transfers that keep the history
In the productA matter moved to another lawyer, partner or office keeps everything recorded on it, with the move and its reason on the file.
Closing that cannot be rushed
In the productClient money, an open sub matter, a listed hearing, originals still held or an undone required line stop the close; unbilled work and unpaid bills pass only on an audited override.
Help centre
How it works in practice
The guides a firm's people use, open to anyone deciding whether it fits.
- Open a matterRecord the enquiry, add the client and parties, clear the conflict check and complete the opening checklist, then open the file.
- Set and revise a matter budgetA budget per matter, in its own currency, with optional phases, every revision kept, and the partner told as the spend approaches it.
- Move a matter to another officeHow a matter names the office it is run from, and how it moves to another with the day and the reason, its number unchanged.
- Close and archive a matterWork the closure checklist, clear what blocks the close, close the matter, and archive it so its file is dated for retention.
- Moving matters through stagesAdvance a matter to its next stage, see what its stage still asks, give the sign-offs a stage asks of you, move many matters on at once, and read how matters flow through each stage.
- A matter's financialsWhat a matter has in progress, billed, collected and holds, its budget and realisation, and each fee earner's part, for the period chosen.
- Related matters and opening an appealLink a matter to the others it stands beside, read the right way from each side, and open an appeal from the matter appealed.
- Custom fieldsThe firm's own fields on matters, clients, parties, enquiries, tasks, documents, time and people, in sets, with conditions, formulas, restricted fields, register columns, reports, merge tokens and a history of values.
See it against your own matters
A 45 minute walkthrough using your own matters. No commitment, and nothing to install to watch it.