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

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

You cannot change the type of an existing matter; instead, create a new matter.

Properties

Matters have the following properties:

Matter code derived from the client number
Workgroup that determines the semantics and behaviour of the matter
Description which is the name of the matter
Client's reference which can be configured to appear on templates
Historical code which can assist where a matter has changed number (e.g. if the primary client has changed) or the matter has a previous reference from another software system
Storage (Digital or hard copy)
Billing options and quotes
Notes for free-from, formatted notes for short notes relating to the file
Fields for storing arbitrary information relevant to specific a matter
Tags

States

Matters can exist in a number of different states:

Created - The matter has been created but work has not yet commenced.
Commenced - Work on the matter has commenced. Matters are created in this state by default.
Concluded - Work on the matter has concluded. It will no longer appear on lists of active matters.
Archived - The matter has been archived and is effectively read-only.
Destroyed - The matter and its documents has been destroyed in accordance with business policies.

Matter Code

Matter codes are a concatenation of the client number (of the primary client), a hyphen (-) and then a number indicating the sequence in which the matter was opened for that client.

When qualified with a business code, a matter code becomes a matter reference. You can include the matter reference in the subject line of an email to enable automatic importing.

Contacts

A typical matter may have many contacts associated with it for different purposes:

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 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

Members are fee earners or other staff at the firm. They may be allocated to specific roles on a matter. The roles available for a particular matter are set at a workgroup level. 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. If the workgroup does not define a supervisor (or if there is no member in that role) then the manager assumes this ability.
Supervisors are reported separately on the matters overview.

Another built-in role is the librarian, which does not grant any special permissions, but is also assumed by the manager if not explicitly populated. It is intended to be used in conjunction with document cataloguing.

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

Court

A court contact can be added to model the jurisdiction of the matter.

Judicial Officers

Judicial officer contacts in specific roles can be associated with the matter according to the definitions on the workgroup.

Parties

A party is defined as a client or other contact in a specific role on the matter. The available roles are determined by the definitions on the workgroup.

Where a party is an individual contact, you can nominate an associated entity that gives context to the individual. If omitted, it is assumed that the individual does not act in respect of any particular entity.

For non-client contacts, you can nominate a representative (with an optional reference number).

Where a party acts in a particular capacity for some other contact, you can add these details as well.

Third Parties

Additional contacts can be associated with the matter for convenience purposes. Third party contacts can also include remarks which are displayed on the matter summary.

Conflicts of Interest

ContactsLaw automatically detects potential conflicts of interest on matters. This occurs whenever clients or other parties are added or updated.

There are two types of conflicts:

Party Conflicts

Either a proposed client appears as an other party on other matter(s), or a proposed other party appears as a client on other matter(s).

This extends to all directly-related contacts, so if the proposed party is an individual then conflicts concerning an associated entity are also included; likewise, if the proposed party is an entity then conflicts concerning an associated individual are also included.

In cases where a party acts in some capacity in respect of another contact, both contacts may trigger (or be triggered by) conflict checks.

The scope includes matters which have concluded but does not include matters which have been destroyed.

Members with appropriate permission can list the conflicting parties and assess whether to proceed with the matter. Remarks can be added when the conflict is marked as resolved.

Representative Conflicts

The business (or a member) is listed as the representative of an other party. This usually requires an authority to act for both sides.

Members with appropriate permission can mark the conflict as resolved.

Relationships

Relationships are used to model the association between two matters, or to show how a matter progresses between workgroups over its lifespan.

When you add a related matter (using the editor), you create a two-way relationship between the matters. You can associate as many matters as you require.

In addition to the convenience of being able to see the relationship from either side, you can use the 'Related Matters' view in the documents view to see the superset of all documents on the matter and all of its related matters. This concept applies in various other lists and ledgers as well.

Types of relationships

Directly related - Matter A directly relates to Matter B. If Matter B has a related Matter C, this will not be visible from Matter A.
Indirectly related - If Matter B has a related Matter C, this will be visible from Matter A as well.
Continuation - Work on Matter A concluded and continues on Matter B. This can occur when transitioning from a prospect matter to a client matter, or when changing workgroup.