Additional Parties Not Available in Smokeball
Additional Parties Not Listed
- There are a variety of additional fields in Smokeball's Criminal Law matter types.
- If you don't see a particular party listed in the matter details, select the gear to access the matter setting.
- Add or remove parties as needed.
Potential Clients
- Open a matter and mark the matter as "Pending" or create a pending matter template.
- Even if you don't take the case, this will allow you to save important details and correspondence that may be used later.
- Once a client has signed a contingency/fee agreement, you can change the status to "Open".
- You can also run reports based on your "Pending" clients to retain more clients.
Additional Parties Not Available in Smokeball
- If Smokeball does not have a field already created for use and there is a unique party to keep track of on a matter, use "Authorized Contact." For example, if you have an incarcerated client and corresponding with authorized contact is permissible. (spouse, family member)
- Experts or Witnesses: You can specify your experts or witnesses the same way as authorized contacts. To edit you contacts, right click on the contact and select “Edit role and legal description.”
Conflict Checks
Illinois Supreme Court Rules state “A lawyer shall not represent a client if the representation involves a concurrent conflict of interest.” With Smokeball, once you begin entering a contact’s name, you will be notified if their name appears in any other Smokeball matters.