Matter intake checklist

This is the two-page checklist we use when helping firms set up intake. It follows a matter from first call to signed engagement: client and party details, identity, conflicts, scope, estimate and the matter template.

Use it for every new matter, including repeat clients. Repeat work is where conflict checks most often get skipped, because everyone assumes nothing has changed. It also works as a training document for new staff, because it shows the order things happen in.

What is inside

The checklist runs over two pages, in the order intake should happen.

• Client and party details: full names, former names, related entities, contact details and who can give instructions.

• Identity verification record: what was checked, by whom and when, and where the evidence is kept.

• Conflict search log: every name searched, the result and the person who cleared it, with a sign-off line.

• Scope and estimate summary: the work in a sentence or two, what is excluded and the estimate or fixed fee given.

• Engagement sent and signed: the dates the engagement letter went out and came back, and a follow-up date if it has not.

• Matter template and key dates: the practice-area template used and any dates the client already knows.

Each section has room for a short note. Use it for anything unusual, such as a client who cannot provide standard identification or a related company that needs a separate search. The note is often what a colleague or an auditor needs most.

The checklist is deliberately short. Anything your matter template already captures, such as key dates or standard tasks, belongs in the template rather than on the page, so nobody records the same detail twice.

How to use it

1. Start the checklist on the first call, before any advice is given.

2. Complete the party details and run the conflict search before you discuss the merits of the matter.

3. Verify identity before you receive any money into trust or act on the client’s instructions.

4. Send the engagement letter on the day the matter opens, and record the date.

5. Open the matter from the right template and check the key dates it creates.

6. Have the responsible lawyer sign the last box before the matter is treated as open.

The order matters more than the paperwork. A conflict found after advice has been given is far harder to manage than one found on the first call.

If you take instructions by email rather than by phone, the same order applies. Reply with the questions the checklist needs answered, run the conflict search on the names you receive and hold off on advice until the search is clear.

Common mistakes

• Searching only the client’s name in the conflict check, and not the other side or related companies.

• Recording a conflict search as clear without noting who cleared it or when.

• Skipping identity checks for repeat clients, or for a new person instructing on behalf of an existing company.

• Leaving the scope blank because the work seems obvious. It rarely stays obvious.

• Sending the engagement letter after the first piece of work has already been done.

Most of these happen under time pressure, when a client needs help today. The checklist is most valuable on exactly those days, because it is the record that the basics were done properly even when the work was urgent.

Training new staff

New staff learn intake fastest by doing it with the checklist beside them. Ask them to complete it for their first few matters with a supervisor, then review the completed pages together. The gaps they leave show you which steps your firm explains least well, and those are the steps to write up more clearly.

Review the checklist itself once a year. Rules change, and so does the way your firm works. A step that made sense three years ago may now be done automatically, and a new requirement may need a line of its own.

Using it in Filebird

In Filebird, each line of the checklist can become a task in your practice-area matter templates, assigned to the person who usually does it. When a new matter opens, the intake tasks appear on it straight away, and the matter shows which are done and which are outstanding. The conflict search and identity record are saved to the matter, so the evidence sits with the file.

Firms that use the checklist this way rarely need the paper version, except as a training aid and a reference for what each step involves.

How to adapt it

• Add the identity verification standard your firm follows and who may sign it off.

• Add practice-specific questions, such as settlement dates for conveyancing or hearing dates for litigation.

• Replace the costs section with your own disclosure wording.

• Remove anything your matter template already captures, so nobody records it twice.

If you use Filebird, set the checklist up as the first tasks in each practice-area matter template, so it appears on every new file. On paper or in another system, keep the completed checklist on the file. Either way, finish it before any advice is given.

This is a starting point, not legal advice. Identity, conflict and disclosure requirements differ between jurisdictions, so check it against your law society or state bar’s rules before you use it.