Matters

The matter is the working center for a client engagement. A Matter Coordinator records its number, subject, opening date, organization, owner and matter type before work moves beyond intake. Those details give the Supervising Attorney a stable case to review and give the rest of the team a place to attach events, documents and deadlines. A case number needs to remain recognizable even when the subject changes as the team learns more.

The Matters screen presents a status board and a selected matter workspace. The workspace keeps state history, pending review decisions, child events, the operation receipt and step trace near the case itself. A coordinator can therefore look at the current state and the recorded path to that state together. A reviewer can open the same case context without changing the underlying preparation.

• Intake and engagement. Start with the responsible organization and type, then identify the assigned owner before moving work through engagement and active preparation.
• Review boundary. Bring the current revision, event lines and evidence to the Supervising Attorney; record the review outcome against that revision.
• Completion. Retain the decision reason, delivery reference and completion date so a closed case has an explainable outcome.

Agree who may open a matter for each organization, who owns it after intake, and which matter types are active for new work. Decide when the team moves a case from Engaged to Active and what material is ready when it moves to Review. The status labels should describe actual work, rather than act as reminders to send a message outside the case record. Define how the legal team identifies a delivery reference and who checks that it refers to the approved revision.

A coordinator might open a filing matter in Intake with an assigned attorney and a due filing. As documents arrive, the coordinator records each source reference and attaches the supporting file. When active work is ready, the reviewer sees the case’s revision and evidence together. If the reviewer returns it, the team corrects the case before seeking a new decision. Closure follows the reviewed outcome, rather than a date typed onto an unfinished case.

Use a matter with a changed document after its first review. Compare the revision presented to the reviewer with the revision used for the outcome. Look at the state history for the actor, change reason and time. Confirm that the event lines and deadlines still belong to the same case, and that the old decision remains understandable after the correction. A closed status by itself does not explain which work was delivered.

• Matter workboard — Active cases grouped by their current working status.
• My matters — Cases assigned to the current owner for daily follow-up.
• Matters awaiting review — Cases at the review stage with their source revision.

Follow matter intake and independent review for the case path. The data model shows how its child records connect.