QLD - Criminal General

This article will show you how to:

• Create a Criminal matter
• Enter Case Details
• Enter Charge Details
• Enter the Court Details
• Add Uncommon Contacts 
• Change existing General matter to Criminal General
• Subscribe to the Criminal Precedent Profile

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

1. Click New Matter from the Home Screen.
2. Select State: QLD.
3. Select Matter Type: Criminal General.
4. Select which party you are acting for (Accused or Prosecution): 
   
5. Enter the party details - see Adding Contacts for more information on adding contacts. 
6. Select 'Case Details' to enter the Case Number, Registry and Court:
   
   - See Entering the Court Details (below) for further details on how to enter Courts.
7. Select 'Charge Details' to enter your Case File ID and the charge(s) within this Case File. If you have more than one Case File in your matter, you can 'right-click' > Add Charge Details to add as many Charge Details as required:
   
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 Criminal General (QLD), the available parties include Barrister, Legal Agent, Witness, Process Server, Previous Solicitor and Additional Contacts:
   

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:
   

Change existing General matter to Criminal General

Existing QLD General matters can be easily changed to Criminal General as follows:

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

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

Don't forget to! ...

Subscribe to the Criminal Precedent Profile

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

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

We have some new Criminal precedents and forms available in the Smokeball Precedent Library, including automated Criminal Practice Rules Forms:

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