Creating a matter

A matter is a piece of work for one or more clients: a case, a transaction, an estate. Everything about it (notes, documents, time, invoices, deadlines) lives on the matter. You need the Create matters permission.

Create a matter#

1. Open Matters and click New matter.
2. Fill in the basics. Only the starred fields are needed now:
   • Title: what the matter is about, e.g. "Smith v. Jones".
   • Clients: search your contacts and add one or more. One is the Default client; it always receives invoices. Tick Receives invoices on any other client who can be billed.
   • Practice area and Stage: see Practice areas and stages.
   • Responsible lawyer and Originating lawyer: the matter's lead lawyers.
   • Responsible staff: members who aren't lawyers, such as paralegals.
   • Open date: today, on your firm's clock, unless you change it.
3. Click Create matter.

The matter opens on its dashboard. Add court details, related contacts, access rules and everything else from Edit: see Editing a matter.

Matter numbers#

Each matter gets a number like 2026-0042 (the year, then a running count) when it's created. Numbers can't be edited and are never reused, even after a matter is deleted.

Automatic conflict check#

If your plan includes conflict checks, saving a matter with clients or related contacts runs a conflict check on them straight away, named "Matter {number} parties". The people who run conflict checks are notified to review it. See Conflict checks on matters.

Finding matters#

The Matters list searches by number, title or client, and filters by status, practice area, responsible lawyer, conflict state and tag. You only see matters you're allowed to: see Who can see and edit a matter.