Matters

Clients in Relativity are associated with one or more matters. Matters are used to define the different cases, disputes or advising that a firm may be involved with for a client. Within Relativity, a matter must be associated with an existing client. A matter can also be associated with one or more workspaces, but it's not required.

Matters object relationship diagram

Using matters

Imagine you're a system admin preparing a case for one of your firm's clients, Cloud Gate, Inc. Your firm handled cases for Cloud Gate, Inc. in the past, but they hired you to handle a new case, Cloud Gate, Inc. vs. Chicago.

You switch the Client's status from Inactive to Active and create a new matter named Cloud Gate vs. Chicago. With the client and matter created, you can begin preparing the workspace needed to begin document review.

Creating or editing a matter

Note: Once a workspace is created, only System Administrators and Client Domain Administrators can make updates to the Matter object. Even users with full permissions for Matters and Clients will not have the ability to modify this object unless they are System Administrators or Client Domain Administrators.

To create or edit a matter, perform the following steps:

  1. Select the Matters tab.
  2. Click New Matter to create a new matter, or click Edit next to the matter whose information you want to edit. The Matter Information form displays with required fields in orange.
  3. Complete the fields on the Matter Information form:
    • Name—the matter’s name. This field must be between 1 and 50 characters.
    • Matter Number—a unique number that identifies the matter. Use this number internally to organize your matters.
    • Status—the matter’s current status. The default options are Active or Inactive, but you can click Manage to add any value. This field is useful when organizing and displaying lists of matters using Relativity views. For information about using the Status field as an organizational tool, see Views.
    • Client—the matter’s associated client. Click ellipsis button to select from all available clients.

      Note: If your client list is too large, click Show Filters to quickly narrow the list by any available field criteria. Items in the client list are set by a system view. Therefore, it is possible to only see a subset of items.

Watch the Creating Clients, Matters and Workspaces video for more information.

Adding or removing matters from a client domain

You can add or remove objects from client domains if you have the client domains feature activated. See Client domains for more information.

Use the following steps to add a matter to a client domain:

  1. Navigate to the Matters tab.
  2. Select the matter you want to add to the client domain from the list.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. Click next to the Client field in Matter Information section.
  5. Select the client with client domain enabled from the list.
  6. Click Save.

Use the following steps to remove a matter from a client domain:

  1. Navigate to the Matters tab.
  2. Select the matter you want to remove from the client domain from the list.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. Click next to the Client field in Matter Information section.
  5. Select a client not associated with a client domain from the list.
  6. Click Save.