Matters

A report needs an investigation record that people can work from. A matter carries its record number, subject, organization, counterparty, owner and opening date. Its state identifies whether the team is at intake, checking conflicts, engaged, investigating, reviewing or finished. The Ethics Manager assigns the owner; the Investigator then records what happened and what remains due.

A matter can have more than one related report or piece of evidence. Use the record number to keep those records together. The subject is a useful short description, but it should not be used to store a protected person’s identity when the restricted identity record carries that information. A team member opening the matter should be able to find the report, deadlines, dated events and review outcome without asking a colleague to forward a private thread.

• Ownership. The matter points to the Team Member accountable for the investigation and to the relevant organization.
• State. Intake, conflict review, active investigation, review and closure each have a distinct status.
• History. Events, attachments, decisions and receipts stay linked to the same matter for later review.

Define who assigns an owner, what evidence a conflict check needs and who can decide that an engagement may proceed. Agree how the counterparty is selected from client records and what the engagement reference means for this operation. A conflict result of more information calls for another fact check before the manager advances the matter. A conflict result should not be hidden by simply changing the matter’s status.

Agree when the matter may move into review. The Investigator should have recorded the relevant events, collected permitted evidence and brought open deadlines to the Ethics Manager’s attention. A closed date should reflect a real closure decision. Preserve the review record and any outstanding exception rather than changing the status to make a queue look empty.

Open a matter for a submitted concern and assign an Investigator. Record a conflict review that requests more information. The Ethics Manager should see the decision and evidence before taking an engagement decision. Once the conflict is clear, record the engagement reference, move the matter into active work and have the Investigator add an interview event and an evidence attachment.

At review, compare the matter’s state with the report decision and the deadlines. If a deadline has passed without a completion date, the manager should resolve that open obligation before closing the matter. When the matter closes, retain the opening date, owner, recorded events and closing date. That gives a later reviewer a coherent chronology of responsibility and outcome.

• My Active Matters — An Investigator’s assigned matters with status and opening date.
• Active Matter Board — Current matters grouped by their operating state.
• Matter Review Queue — Matters awaiting the final evidence and decision check.

Follow the investigation and the conflict decision.