The case, hearings and filings

Open the case

1. On a court matter, open Case and choose Open case.
2. Record the suit number, the court, division and registry, the judge, the cause of action, the claim value and the day it was filed.

A matter has one live case. A transfer to another court, a change of judge or a renumbering is recorded as a move, so the case keeps its whole history.

Hearings

1. Choose List hearing, with the day, time, purpose and counsel attending. It goes into the diary and the court diary at once.
2. After the sitting, record the outcome: held, adjourned to the next date or sine die, or vacated. An adjournment records who sought it, the reason and any costs ordered.

Court, Outcomes due lists hearings that have passed with no outcome recorded, so nothing the court did goes unnoted.

Who sat

Recording the outcome of a sitting that was held or adjourned asks Who sat: the judge it was listed before unless another sat. The case's Bench tab lists each judge the case was assigned to by a change of forum and each who sat at one of its hearings, newest first, and a judge's own record lists the hearings they sat.

Filings, service and orders

• Filings by each party, with the day filed and, separately, the day served on each party.
• Service: who was served, how, when, by which bailiff, with the affidavit of service.
• Orders: the day, who made it, its terms and its document.
• Court fees, each recorded as the disbursement that recovers it on the bill.

Before the conflict check clears

A matter still in enquiry, or waiting on its conflict check, is not yet one the firm may act on. Opening its case, listing a hearing, recording a filing and recording a service each ask why this is recorded before clearance, and the audit trail keeps the answer. That lets the firm record a step already taken, or an urgent one, without pretending the check is done.

A firm that records no legal work before clearance sets Legal work before conflict clearance to refuse in Settings, General, Practice; the forms then say so and take nothing until the matter is cleared.

Serving the other side

A filing is served on the other side. A party is never served with its own filing, and a filing of the firm's own reaches the firm's own client only with a reason, which the audit trail keeps: for example, where the client is a co-defendant to a counterclaim.

Stages and the timeline

The case moves through the stages its matter type sets, such as pleadings, discovery, trial and judgment, with a history of every move. The Timeline tab shows everything on the case in order.

Across the firm

Court in the sidebar has four tabs: Schedule, the hearings across the firm by court, judge and fee earner; Cases; Outcomes due; and Adjournments, an analysis by reason and by who sought them.