This article details the functions of Matter Maintenance within Insight Legal

The Matter Maintenance function allows users to add and maintain details of the Matters (also known as files) that the firm is dealing with.

The information contained in Matter Maintenance is usually related to the Clients of the firm. 
A single record should be held for each matter that the firm is dealing with. Multiple Clients can be linked to each matter if required.
Matter Maintenance holds information such as:

• The type of Matter
• The fee earner responsible
• The date opened
• Quotes given

It is vital for all practices to keep an up to date, comprehensive and searchable record of the Matters that they are dealing with.
As well as providing a single, central storage area for matter details which can be accessed by all relevant members of staff, the matter details also feature in essential Conflict Searches.
Information held in Matter Maintenance is used in many other areas of the system, including Case Enquiry, Accounting and Reports.
Matter records are often linked to Client records. The principle is to add each Client to the system, then link them to the matters with which they are associated. Using this method, you can easily tell which matters you are dealing with for any Client as well as which Client/s are related to any matter.
Where Matter Maintenance can be found on the Cases menu and within the Maintenance section a single click on the Matter Maintenance icon will load the screen.
There is a shortcut to the Matter Maintenance screen from the Client Maintenance screen.

Add a new Matter

• Start by selecting the client first from within Client Maintenance Cases->Client Maintenance
• With a Brand new client, you will see an ‘Add’ button at the top of the screen.
• For an existing client, search for them using the Lookup bar on the left-hand side. Check the ‘Used By’ tab to see which matters have already been setup for the client, and click ‘Add Matter’ button if the matter does not already exist.

Completing the main Matter details:

There are a number of basic details of the matter to be filled in. 
Hovering over filed with the cursor will show if it is mandatory or optional

Linking Client/s to the matter:

One of the most important things to remember when adding a matter is to link the relevant Client or Clients. By starting the Matter from the Maintenance screen, this will already have linked one client to this Matter. You should see their name listed in the Matter Client section.

• To link any other existing clients to this matter, click the ‘New’ arrow.
• A box will appear to the right of the arrow, ready for you to enter the name or reference of the Client.
• Once you have found the Client you want to attach, click once on their name to select them.
• When attached, you will see their names and references listed to the right of the screen. Repeat this process until you have attached all the required Clients.

Adding Fee Earners:
Each matter must be allocated to at least one Fee Earner. The person with day to day responsibility for the file is referred to as the Fee Earner Responsible.
Other system standard Fee Earner types are Case Worker and Supervisor.

• Additional Fee Earner types can be added from the Settings area of the System menu.
• There will already be a ‘Fee Earner Responsible’ row shown in the Fee Earners section of the page, so you will just need to select the relevant fee earner from the dropdown menu.
• To add any additional fee earners to the matter, either click the Add Fee Earner button from the ribbon, or use the mouse to right-click in the Fee Earners section on the screen and click Add from the menu. Two new dropdown fields will appear on the screen, where you can select the Relationship and Fee Earner.

Adding Notes:
If you wish to add any notes relating to this matter:

• Right click anywhere within the Notes section. From the menu that appears, click Add.
• The ‘Date’ and ‘By’ fields will populate themselves with the date you are adding the Note and the user account you have logged in with. Type your note in the third field and mark it as Critical if necessary.

The Conflict Search:
Once the matter details have been completed with as much information as you have, you can run the Conflict Search.

To start the search:

• Right click anywhere in the Conflict Search section. From the menu that appears, select Add Search.
• The screen will populate with fields ready for you to add in the details of any associated parties to this matter.
• If you need to search on more than one other party, right click again and select Add Search. Each time you click Add Search, another set of fields will be generated for you to complete.
• Once you have completed all the information that you wish to search on, right click again and select Run Searches.
• The system will immediately check whether any matching information is found anywhere within the Insight system. This includes other Client records, other Matters, any Contacts and any fee earner/staff member/firm wide information that is held.
• All results will be displayed on the right hand side of the Results section.
  If you are satisfied that there are no genuine Conflicts or other reasons why you should not add the matter to the system, right click again and click Accept Searches.
• If you decide not to add the matter, you should close the Matter Maintenance screen and confirm Yes when asked if you wish to close the screen and lose your changes. If you do this, no information will be retained.

User Defined Fields:
The firm may choose to set up User Defined Fields to allow users to store additional information for each matter.

Any UDFs available for matters of the specified type will be listed under the ‘User Data’ tab. These can then be filled in as appropriate. Any fields where this information is not yet known can be left blank and entered at a later stage.

See our “User Defined Fields” guide for more details.
Saving the matter record:
Once you have completed the input of all relevant information and run the Conflict search, the matter record can be saved.

• To Save the record, click the Save button from the top left-hand corner of the ribbon.
• The matter reference will then be generated and shown in the Mat Ref field.

Editing a matter

• To amend the matter at a later date, you can return to Matter Maintenance by going to ‘Cases’->’Matter Maintenance’.
• You can then search for this matter using the Lookup bar and change the relevant details. This could include editing the opening date for the file, the description of the matter, or even changing the fee earner or client on the matter.
  Please note that the matter reference cannot be changed once it has been generated, even if the matter is moved to another department.
• Once you have edited the necessary fields, click ‘Save’ in the top left to save your changes.

Closing a matter

Once a matter is completed, and the Office, Client and Deposit balances are all zero, you can close the file within Matter Maintenance (under the Cases menu).

• Search for the matter you wish to close and enter the closing date at the bottom of the Matter section. You can also enter an Archive Location and Destroy File date if applicable.
• Click on the grey ‘Close’ button once you are happy with the details. At this point, you will receive a message if anything is still outstanding for this matter, such as WIP. You will need to agree to write off the WIP and dismiss any active requests or anticipated disbursements (if applicable) in order to close the file. Click ‘Save’ in the top left to fully close the file.
  See “How to Close and Re-open a Matter” for more details.

Re-opening a matter
Closed matters can also be re-opened, if necessary, within the Matter Maintenance screen.

• Go to ‘Cases’->’Matter Maintenance’ and search for the matter you need to re-open.
• Enter the relevant date into the ‘Re-Opened’ field and click ‘Re-Open’.
• Click ‘Save’ in the top left to save your changes.

This matter will now be open again, so time recording entries and financial transactions can now be posted to this matter.
Please see our “How to Close or Re-Open a Matter” guide for more details.