Conflict checking

The Conflict of Interest Check facility allows you to run an automatic check to determine whether the information you enter when creating a client, other party or our party already exists in the database; and if it does, what that information is so that you can make an informed decision. The presence of identical information may signify a potential conflict for the firm, that is, you may already be acting for the client in an opposing capacity, e.g. Defendant and Claimant.

By default the conflict check is a mandatory part of the client creation process, automatically forcing users to check for conflicts before committing to creating a client. However, it can be switched off by editing the General settings in System Configuration.

The conflict check can be run manually from the Legal Enterprise desktop toolbar, but its intended use is with workflow, e.g. as a step in a client creation process which automatically forces users to check for conflicts before the client is created. It works by allowing you to enter various search criteria (e.g. forename, surname, etc) which are then used to search your database and find any possible conflicts. The results can then be saved as OK (no conflicts) or failed (conflicts found) and if OK, proceed with creating a client using the information already entered.

To perform a conflict check:

1. From the Desktop toolbar, click the Check button . You are prompted to enter the desired search criteria.

• You can also click Conflict of Interest Check on the Tools menu.

• If set as mandatory, you will also be prompted to perform a conflict check when creating a client.

2. In the Conflict Check dialog box, enter the search criteria and click OK.

   • Conflict Status. This defaults to Client Representative, but can be set to Other Party, Client Representative or Primary Client. This field is used to determine the role the contact will be assigned if client creation is pursued after the check has been run.

   • Client Representative. Means a person who is a client. If a single individual is conflict checked as a Client Representative, their role is changed to Primary Client if client creation is pursued after the conflict check has been run.

   • Primary Client. Is used where you are instructed, for example, by a company as the client in law, but in fact you deal with a director of the company. The company would be added as Primary, the director as a Client Representative. There can only be one primary client. If an attempt is made to add more than one primary client, then a warning is displayed advising you to modify your criteria when you click Create/Update.

   • Our Party. Is used where you wish to add a contact, such as a witness, who is not giving instructions but who should be treated for the purposes of conflict checking as one of our parties.

   • Other Party. Is used where you wish to add the opponent at the same time as our client in order to conflict check both sides.

   • Status. Sets the Legal Status type (e.g. individual, limited company) used if the conflict check proceeds to a client create. Making this selection does not limit the results returned by the conflict search. It simply governs the data passed to the client create routine if "Create/Update" is used after search.

   • Title. (Individuals only) Individual's title, e.g. Mr, Mrs, etc (never used to restrict search).

   • Forenames. (Individuals only) Individual's first name(s).

   • Surname. (Individuals only) Individual's surname.

   • Initials. (Individuals only) Individual's initials (defaulted to the individual's forenames).

   • Name. (Organisations only) Organisation name.

   • Business Type. (Optional) Used as a filter on the contact list in the same way as you would look under a section of the “Yellow Pages” to find a particular type of contact.

   • Address Type. Specifies the type of address, e.g. home, business, etc.

   • Address Fields. These can be typed in or found using the Postcode Lookup facility which is linked into a postcode address file (PAF) system.

   Note For consistency we recommend using the same case when entering names and addresses.

• It is possible to check on multiple parties simultaneously. To add additional contacts, click Add under Search Criteria, enter the appropriate details and click OK.

• If Name/Surname only is ticked, the name entered will be matched left to right. However, a wildcard does not need to be explicitly entered, it is assumed such that "Smith" will find "Smith-Browne".

• If Name/Surname only is not ticked, the following options are available – Forenames, Initials, Town and Postcode. These are applied as additional filters, i.e. they narrow down the search and return fewer results.

• If Check individuals only is ticked, then organisations are excluded from the conflict check. For example, entering "Mr John Halifax" with this option ticked will not find "Halifax Building Society". The ToolTip for this option reads "Unticking this will include organisations whose name contains the surname". NB. The whole name is checked for organisations, so "F W Woolworth" would not find "Woolworth plc".

3. Click Search to start the conflict check. The matching contacts and any related parties or related/owned matters are displayed under Search Results. If more than 50 records are found, then a message is displayed asking if you want to show all the results or refine your search criteria. If no conflicts are found then a message is displayed advising this.

• To add an existing contact from the search results to your search criteria, highlight the desired contact and click Add under Search Results.

• To replace an entry in your search criteria with an entry in the search results, highlight the desired contact and click Replace under Search Results. The Existing Contact column under Search Criteria indicates entries in your search criteria which are existing contacts and when you replace an entry, the existing entry automatically appears as a related party against the client.

• To sort the results by party status, select Our Party or Other Party.

• To view a potential conflict in more detail, double-click the desired entry.

• To print a results report, click Print.

• You can easily identify whether entries returned by the search are clients, prospects, suppliers, or contacts by looking in the left-most column. A single character identifier is used. See Identifying contact codes.

4. When there are conflicts, click Save as Failed. A results report is saved to the appropriate audit history (attached to the client or matter party) with a status of "Failed".

5. When there are no conflicts and you are happy to proceed, click Save as OK. The Create button in the top left-hand corner becomes available, allowing you to create the client. A results report is also saved to the appropriate audit history (attached to the client or matter party) with a status of "OK".

6. (Optional) Alternatively, you can click Create/Update to move directly to creating/updating the client. The information already provided for the conflict check is automatically used to partially complete the Create/Update Client dialog box. The dialog box that is displayed is determined by these rules:

• If your search criteria contains a new client, then the Create Client dialog box opens allowing you to edit any of its details. Once saved, a new client (and an associated contact record) are created and the client is put into context.

• If your search criteria contains an existing client, then the Update Client dialog box opens allowing you to edit any of its details. Once saved, a existing client (and its associated contact record) are updated and the client is put into context.

• If your search criteria contains an existing contact, then the Create Client (Existing Contact) dialog box opens allowing you to edit any of its details. Once saved, a new client is created and put into context, and the existing contact is marked as a client.

• If your search criteria contains an existing prospect, then the Create Client (Existing Prospect) dialog box opens allowing you to edit any of its details. Once saved, a new client is created and put into context, and the existing prospect is marked as a client.

• If your search criteria contains a new primary client (i.e. with a conflict status of Primary Client) and an existing contact, then the Create Client dialog box opens allowing you to edit any of its details. Once saved, a new client is created and put into context, and the contact is added as a related party. If you attempt to add more than one primary client to the search criteria a message is displayed preventing this.

• If your search criteria contains multiple contacts, none of which have been flagged as the primary client (e.g. a client representative, a contact, a prospect, etc), then the Update Client dialog box opens allowing you to edit any of its details. Once saved, a new joint individual client is created and put into context, and each contact is added as a related party.

• If your search criteria contains two client representatives with the same surname, the software defaults to a client name of the format Surname Initial (1st name) Title (first name) and Initial (second name) Title (second name) – to create, for example, Adamson B Mr and C Mrs; otherwise Surname Initial Title and Surname Initial Title (and Surname Initial Title for each subsequent client representative).

7. (Optional) If you are not using workflow you can also create a matter from the conflict check screen. Click Matter on the Create button's drop-down menu. The matter creation uses the client details previously created using the conflict check and prompts you to enter the remaining matter details.

• Creating a matter also creates matter parties using the other party names provided in the conflict check, e.g. if a conflict check is performed for our parties Mr J Cheriton and Mrs E Cheriton, and other party Miss S Smith, then Miss S Smith is automatically created as a matter party (with a party type of OTHP - Other Party) attached to the matter. If the other party is a company, then the matter party is created with a type of O - Organisation. However, these default statuses can be changed to something more appropriate when you first go in to add an address, etc.

8. Click Exit to close the conflict check.

Notes

• Including address details in the conflict check slows down the search.

• Our parties created as related parties have a default relationship of OUR1 - Our Party Individual.

• Other parties created as matter parties have a default party type of OTHP - Other Party.

• Companies created as matter parties have a default status of O - Organisation.

• Results reports are produced in XML format and displayed in your default browser.

• Conflict checks saved with a client or matter party appear in the audit history with a history type of "XML Document" with the results report attached as a document. Checks saved without an associated client or matter party are accessible from the Tools menu of the Conflict of Interest by clicking the History command.

• Only one entry with a status of Primary Client is permitted. If an attempt is made to add more than one primary client, then a warning is displayed advising you to modify your criteria when you click Create/Update.

• When modifying an existing contact via the conflict check all fields are unavailable except the Conflict status field.

• The ability to replace is only available when creating a client via the conflict check.

• In order to add or modify related parties or matter parties without the need to perform a mandatory conflict check, it is possible for administrators to configure Relationship and Matter Party types so that an automatic conflict check is not performed. See Adding matter party types and Adding relationship types.

• When creating workflow it is possible to add a step which invokes the conflict of interest check automatically. This can be done by your Workflow Developer when adding Create steps.

• For full details of The Solicitor's Regulatory Authority guidelines on conflict checking please refer to their website: http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/code-of-conduct/213.article.