> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.nyumbazetu.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Legal register

> Track legal matters, hearings, parties and costs once recovery leaves internal collections.

**Finance → Collections → Legal Register → `/legal`** <sup>Beta</sup>

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.

<Note>
  The legal register is **display-only for money**. Claim values and costs are recorded for tracking
  and reporting; the register does not post to the accounting ledger. Costs you actually pay are
  booked as [expenses](/guides/expenses) in the normal way.
</Note>

## 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](/guides/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](/guides/collections/worklist-and-cases), 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

<Steps>
  <Step title="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.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Record the next hearing date every time an outcome is entered">
    An empty next-date is indistinguishable from a matter nobody is watching.
  </Step>

  <Step title="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.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Reconcile costs to expenses monthly">
    The register tracks; the expense module pays. They should agree.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## 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.