Legal

Matters and the ethical wall · who sees what

The matter is the center of the Legal module and it comes protected by an ethical wall: only the people assigned to it can see it, and not even a system administrator walks through. It covers how to create a matter, how assignment works, the access record and emergency access with a written justification.

The matter, and why it is closed by default

In a law firm, the damage is not only a leak to the outside: it is the colleague in the next office representing the opposing party and seeing the other side's strategy. The defense against that is the ethical wall, and the only wall that works is the one that is closed by default.

So in SellioCRM, being in the firm's workspace grants access to no matter at all. Access is individual and matter by matter. Anyone not assigned does not see the matter in the list, does not find it in search, and cannot open its deadlines, fees, time entries, invoices or documents. For that person, the matter does not exist.

Creating a matter

Open Legal. In the Matters block on the left, fill in the Matter title.
Enter the Matter number, if you already have a docket or internal reference number.
Enter the Jurisdiction. It determines which holidays the system uses when calculating this matter's deadlines.
Enter the Practice area.
Click New matter. It appears in the list immediately, and you are already inside the wall.

The Title is required. Number, Jurisdiction and Practice area are optional, but the Jurisdiction is strongly recommended: without it, deadline calculation has no holiday calendar to consult.

Who gets inside the wall

Whoever creates the matter is added automatically. Without that, the person would lose access to their own matter the instant after creating it.
The assigned lead, when that is someone else, is also added at creation.
Anyone else has to be added explicitly, with a role on the matter.
Nobody gets in by inheriting a job title, a team or an administrator profile.

Adding and removing people from the wall are administrative operations: there is no button for it on the matter screen. Ask whoever administers the system at your firm to assign or remove someone.

💡 Removing a person from the wall cuts their access immediately, including to the matter's documents and invoices. Use it when someone leaves the matter team, not only when they leave the firm.

Every access leaves a trace

Opening a matter records who opened it and when. That record is not punitive: it is what lets the firm answer, months later, who had contact with that material. In a profession where confidentiality is a legal duty, being able to prove who saw what is worth as much as blocking access in the first place.

Emergency access

There is a legitimate on-call scenario: the responsible attorney is unreachable, the deadline falls today and somebody has to get in. That is what emergency access is for. It is granted by whoever administers the system, and it comes with three locks.

A written justification is mandatory: with no reason on the record, access is not granted.
An expiry: the access lasts from one to seventy-two hours, with four hours as the default. Once the time is up it closes on its own, with nobody having to remember.
A permanent record: the grant stays on the audit trail with who asked, who granted, the reason and the expiry.

That is the point of the design: exceptional access exists, but it is expensive in visibility. Nobody gets in quietly.

The parties on the matter

On the Parties tab you record who is who on the matter: the client, the opposing party, witnesses and anyone else involved. Each party has a Party name, a Party role and Identifiers, which can be tax IDs, an email or any other code, one per line.

Recording the parties carefully is what makes the conflict check work across the whole firm. A party with no identifier can only be compared by name; with the tax ID on file, the comparison is far more reliable.

Example: Attorney Helena creates the matter Contract termination, Nordeste Log, jurisdiction BR, practice area contracts. She records the client Nordeste Log with its company tax ID and the opposing party Transbrasa with its own. A paralegal at the firm opens the Legal screen that same minute and sees an empty list: the matter is not there for him. When a partner assigns him to it, he starts seeing everything, and his very first open is already on the record.

Frequently asked questions

I am the system administrator and I cannot open a matter. Correct. An administrator administers the system, they do not hold a free pass through confidentiality. They can grant access to themselves, and that grant goes on the record.
Can I delete a matter? Treat deletion as an administrative operation and talk to the firm first: deadlines, invoices and documents depend on it.
Someone left the firm, what do I do? Ask for them to be removed from the wall on their matters. The cut is immediate.
Does the matter disappear if I clear the jurisdiction? It does not disappear, but deadline calculation loses the holiday reference for that jurisdiction.
Can I see who opened my matter? The access record exists and is consulted by whoever administers the system and by the firm's audit function.

Open this article inside the system →