Finance → Collections → Legal Register → /legal Beta
When internal recovery has run its course, a case goes legal. The legal register is the record of every such matter: what was filed, where, by whom, what happens next, and what it is costing.
The register
The register grid lists matters with:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Matter | The matter name / description. |
| Type | What kind of proceeding it is. |
| Case No. | The court or reference number. |
| Court | The court or forum hearing it. |
| Advocate | The advocate or firm acting. |
| Unit | The unit the matter concerns. |
| Branch | The branch that owns it. |
| Status | Draft, filed, hearing, judgment, execution, settled, or closed. |
| Claim | The amount claimed. |
| Costs | Costs incurred to date. |
| Filed | Date of filing. |
| Next Hearing | The next scheduled date. |
| Outcome | The result, once concluded. |
Matter types
Matters cover the range of recovery proceedings: court case, eviction, execution, demand follow-up, agency referral, and other.
Matter statuses
draft → filed → hearing → judgment → execution → settled | closed
Not every matter walks the whole ladder; a settlement can arrive at any point, and a demand follow-up may never be filed at all.
The matter workspace
Opening a matter gives you the working record:
Parties and contacts
Everyone involved, each with a role: advocate, law firm, court official, auctioneer, opposing party, or other, with their contact details. This is the list you need at 9am on a hearing day.
Hearings
Scheduled and past events with type (hearing, mention, ruling), date, outcome and next date. Recording the outcome and the next date is what keeps the register's Next Hearing column trustworthy — and that column is what the collections overview reads.
Costs
Costs incurred, itemised by type:
| Cost type | Typical entry |
|---|---|
| Filing fee | Court filing charges |
| Court fee | Other court charges |
| Advocate fee | Professional fees |
| Auctioneer fee | Execution and auction charges |
| Disbursement | Out-of-pocket expenses |
| Other | Anything not covered above |
Each cost carries a date, an amount and a description. The total flows to the register's Costs column and to the legal panel on the collections overview.
Next steps and description
Free-text working notes: what the matter is about, and what has to happen next. Written for the colleague who covers for you.
Opening a matter from a case
From a collection case, the Open legal matter action creates a matter pre-filled from the case — unit, lease, tenant, balance — and flips the case's treatment state to legal flagged. The case stays open and linked, so the debt continues to be tracked in one place.
The related handover action (a ladder step) generates the handover pack — statement, communications log, interaction log and promise history — which is what an external advocate or agency will ask for first.
Closing a matter
Close matter records the outcome and stops it appearing in active views. Closure does not delete anything: hearings, parties and costs remain for reporting and for the next matter against the same tenant.
Using the register well
Open the matter when instructions go out, not when the case is filed
The gap between instructing an advocate and filing is where matters get lost.
Record the next hearing date every time an outcome is entered
An empty next-date is indistinguishable from a matter nobody is watching.
Log costs as they are incurred
Recovery decisions depend on cost-to-date versus claim value. A cost logged three months late is a decision made on bad numbers.
Reconcile costs to expenses monthly
The register tracks; the expense module pays. They should agree.
Standalone use
The legal register works as a standalone module as well as a collections escalation. Matters that have nothing to do with arrears — a boundary dispute, a contractor claim — can be tracked here too, without a collection case behind them.