Matter

A matter is the primary unit of work in ContactsLaw. It groups together all of the documents, invoices and tasks pertaining to a particular legal service, consultation, prospect or administrative topic.

Types of Matters

• Client - Intended for the provision of legal services.
• Prospect - Used to marketing and other pre-engagement activities.
• Administration - Used for managing the business.

Properties

Matters have the following properties:

• Code derived from the client number
• Description and optional court action
• Contacts in various categories and roles
• Workgroup that determines the semantics and behaviour of the matter
• Storage (electronic or hard copy)
• Notes
• Quotes for pre-filling invoices
• Fields for storing arbitrary information
• Tags

Matter Contacts

Clients

At minimum, every matter has a primary client that is used for display purposes, and to determine the matter code. When a contact becomes a primary client (in a particular business) for the first time, a client number is also assigned. A matter may have additional clients, however client numbers are not assigned except in special circumstances (e.g. guest access).

Liaison

An individual contact can be nominated as the matter liaison, which allows correspondence to be directed to a single person. When the primary client is an entity contact, a liaison must be nominated.

Members

At minimum, every matter has a manager member who is granted implicit permission to administer it. A matter may have multiple managers (if permitted by the workgroup).

Matters may also have supervisor member(s). Supervisors behave identically to managers, with the following exceptions:

• Supervisors can resolve potential conflicts of interest
• Supervisors are reported separately on the matters overview

Members in other roles can be associated with the matter according to the definitions on the workgroup.