SA 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

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

1. Click New Matter from the Home Screen.
2. Select State: SA
3. Select Matter Type: Litigation General.
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 'Case Details' to enter the Case Number, Registry, List (if applicable) and Court:
   
7. Enter the Court within the Case Details window. This will add the Court contact to your matter the same as any other contact card, allowing you to contact the Court and ensure automation works correctly. You do not need to add the Court as an additional contact outside of the Case Details window: 
   
   - See Adding Courts for more information on adding Court contact cards generally. 
8. 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.
9. 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 (SA), the available parties include Barrister, Legal Agent, Expert, Witness, Accountant, Process Server, Previous Solicitor and Additional Contacts:
   

Enter Parties 

Enter the parties in the order in which they appear on the originating process, 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 Claim: 

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 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 Respondent will still appear in order with the correct role.

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, Defence, and any 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 Queensland 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 (Applicant or Respondent)
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:

We have new Litigation precedents and forms available in the Smokeball Precedent Library, including automated Uniform Civil Rules forms:

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