VIC - Litigation General

This article will show you how to:

• Create a Litigation matter
• Enter Parties
• Enter Case Details
• Enter the Court Details
• Enter Pleadings Details
• Add Uncommon Contacts 
• Change existing General matter to Litigation General
• Add your Firm LSB Number
• Subscribe to the Litigation Precedent Profile

 To create a new Litigation General matter, follow the steps below. 

1. Click New Matter from the Home Screen.
2. Select State: VIC
3. Select Matter Type: Litigation General.
4. Select which party you are acting for (Plaintiff or Defendant): 
   
5. Enter the parties in the order in which they appear on the originating application.
   - See Enter Parties (below) for detailed steps on adding Litigation parties.
   - See Adding Contacts for more information on adding contacts generally. 
6. Select 'Case Details' to enter the Case Number, Court, Division and/or List:
   
   

   Handy Hints:

   - You do not need to type the words "Division" or "List" when typing your case details; these already appear on the automated Forms!

   - See Entering the Court Details (below) for further details on how to enter Courts.
7. Enter Pleadings Filed, Served and Due dates in the Pleadings Details tab on Case Details. See Enter Pleadings Details (below) for further details on Pleadings.
8. To add Uncommon Contacts to your matter, open the Matter Settings and select the appropriate contact from the Parties & Data available in your matter.
   For Litigation General (NSW), the available parties include Process Server, Legal Agent, Barrister, Previous Solicitor and Additional Contacts:
   

Enter Parties 

Enter the parties in the order in which they appear on the originating application, within the particular role.

For example, if you are acting for a Defendant, then the Defendant(s) will appear at the top of your matter window. The Defendant parties should then be entered in the order they appear in the originating application: 

Handy Hint:

- The parties should be entered in the order they appear in the originating application, even if you do not represent the First party.

Once the parties have been entered, you can indicate that you do not represent a particular party as follows:

1. Right click on the party (e.g. First Defendant) that you do not represent.
2. Select 'I do not represent this Defendant':
   
3. The party will then appear with a Solicitor card, so you can enter this parties' representative:
   
4. The remaining client Defendants will still appear in order with the correct role.

Entering the Court Details

1. Create an Organisation contact card for your particular Court Registry.
2. Enter the registry Street Address, PO Box Address and other contact details. 
3. Next select Advanced view.
   
4. Enter the Registry name in the 'Branch' field:
   
5. The Case Details layout will then display as follows. 
   
6. By adding the Registry in the Branch field, you will be able to differentiate between your Court registries and avoid creating duplicate contacts:
   

Enter Pleadings Details

1. Open Case Details.
2. Navigate to the 'Pleadings Details' tab:
   
3. Enter the Filed, Served and Response Due dates for the originating process, Notice of Appearance, Defence and Reply.
4. The Pleadings dates can also be used in your Litigation Workflows:
   
   
   - See Workflows for more information on creating Workflows. 

Change existing General matter to Litigation General

Existing VIC General matters can be easily changed to Litigation General as follows:

1. Open your existing General matter (used for litigation)
2. Open Matter Type
3. Select change...
4. Select new Matter Type as Litigation > Litigation General
5. Select OK:
   
6. Select which Party you are acting for (Plaintiff or Defendant)
7. Enter Reason For Change
8. Select OK:
   

Your matter will now appear as 'Litigation General', with the party roles and layouts that are available in the Litigation General matter:

Don't forget to! ...

Add your Firm LSB Number

You can add your firm LSB Number in your Smokeball Settings > Firm Details > Box, Customer & Licence Numbers:

Subscribe to the Litigation Precedent Profile

You can subscribe to the Litigation Precedent Profile in your Smokeball Settings > Precedent Profiles: 

- See Precedent Profiles for more information on subscribing to precedent profiles.

We have some new Litigation precedents and forms available in the Smokeball Precedent Library, including automated Court forms for Magistrates' Court, County Court and Supreme Court of Victoria:

You can also 'Request a form' to have additional forms added to the Precedent Library!