MatterSphere – Terminology

Command
Centre icon

This is where a Fee Earner can quickly find all Matters and associated tasks and  milestones that they’re working on.

Associates

Associates are displayed at Matter level and refer to anyone who is related to the selected matter e.g. for a conveyancing matter this may be the estate agent or other party’s solicitor, for Care Proceedings this may be a Local Authority or Medical Expert

Client

An entity in their own right – e.g. joint clients for conveyancing, a company name for Corporate clients, Executor of for probate

Client
Information icon

Used to search for a particular client.

Client
number

A unique number that is allocated to each new Client record e.g. 112233

Conflict

Refers to Matters where a company has been approached by both parties. In the majority of cases, if the company has already been instructed by one of the parties and is then approached by the other party they will be unable to proceed with the second enquiry.

Contact

These are the individuals that make up the Client – e.g. both individual parties if the client is a joint client, company directors if the client is a corporate client, the names of the children for Care Proceedings

Pre-Client

A record that is created following an initial enquiry, this may be converted to a Live case if instructions are received from the Client.

Matter
number

An incremental number that is added to the end of a Client number for each new Matter that the Client instructs on e.g. 112233/1 and 112233/2

Matter
Information icon

Used to search for a Matter for a Client

Precedent
Manager icon

Used to find and open a Precedent, which is then linked to an Associate on a Matter

Job List
icon

Used to view the active Precedent job list

Remote
Account

Used to access certain details of a Matter by an external party e.g. Estate Agent or Solicitor

Search
Criteria

Used by the system when searching for a client. MatterSphere will automatically enter details of the client and all contacts but additional search criteria can be entered here – e.g. if you have entered a client or contact name of Elizabeth this name will already be entered in one of the search fields but you could also enter additional names that the client may be known as such
as Liz or Lizzie

Taskflow

A structured set of activities that need to be completed during the lifecycle
of a Matter.

Change
User Settings icon

If a secretary works for more than one Fee Earner, they can change the name of the Fee Earner here.

Reports
icon

Used to view system reports e.g. Time Recording report