Opening a matter takes a few minutes. Intake gathers what you need on day one, and the rest of the file can fill in as the work develops.
How it works
- Start the intake. Go to Matters, then Matter Intake.
- Add the client and the basics. Pick the Client Type: Private, Legal Aid, or Pro Bono. Choosing Legal Aid reveals extra fields for the legal aid details, so you capture them once, at the start.
- Save. You are assigned to the new matter automatically as its creator, so it shows up in your own lists right away, and it appears in All Matters with everyone else's.
Right after intake
Two sections are worth completing while the file is fresh:
First, the Conflict check. It records who ran the check, when it was completed, the result and outcome, notes, and any related matters. Doing this before real work starts means the answer is on the file if anyone ever asks.
Second, Firm & court. Add your firm file number, and the court file number, court or tribunal, court level, and registry details as soon as you have them. Documents you generate later pull from what is on the matter, so the earlier this is filled in, the less you retype.
You will not pick Applicant or Respondent during intake, and that is deliberate. That choice lives in the document generator: when you create court documents you select your client's role, and the style of cause fills in the right way around from it.
Not every file is a matter
If the work is not a legal file, an office renovation or a marketing push for example, create it as a regular project and leave Legal Matter set to No. It keeps tasks, time, and billing without the court and conflict sections it does not need, and it stays out of All Matters.
Have the source paperwork as a PDF already? After intake, use Import Data on the matter to pull names, file numbers, and other details straight out of the document instead of typing them. There is a separate article on that.