Federal Litigation

This article will show you how to:

• Create a Federal Litigation matter
• Enter Parties
• Enter File Details
• Enter the Court Details
• Add Uncommon Contacts 
• Change existing General matter to Federal Litigation
• Subscribe to the Litigation Precedent Profile

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

1. Click New Matter from the Home Screen.
2. Select the State of the Registry: e.g. NSW
3. Select Matter Type: Federal Litigation.
4. Select which party you are acting for (Applicant or Respondent): 
   
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 'File Details' to enter the File Number, District Registry, Division and Court:
   
   - See Entering the Court Details (below) for further details on how to enter Courts.
7. 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 Federal Litigation, the available parties include Barrister, Legal Agent, Expert, Accountant, Process Server, 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 Respondent, then the Respondent(s) will appear at the top of your matter window. The Respondent 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 (eg. First Respondent) that you do not represent.
2. Select 'I do not represent this Respondent':
   
3. The party will then appear with a Solicitor card, so you can enter this parties' representative:
   
4. The remaining client Respondents will still appear in order with the correct role.

Entering the Court Details

1. Make sure the Court is entered via the 'Court' card in File Details window
   
2. Select the [ + ] to open the contact card for your Court. Create an Organisation contact card for your particular Court Registry.
   
3. Enter the registry Street Address, PO Box Address and other contact details. 
4. Next select Advanced view.
   
5. Enter the Registry name in the 'Branch' field:
   
6. By adding the Registry in the Branch field, you will be able to differentiate between your Court registries and avoid creating duplicate contacts.

Change existing General matter to Federal Litigation

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

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

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

Don't forget to! ...

Subscribe to the Federal Litigation Precedent Profile

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

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

We have some new Federal Litigation precedents and forms available in the Smokeball Precedent Library, including automated Federal Circuit Court and Federal Court Forms:

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