Customizing Matters Properties

Clarra is designed to be adaptable to meet your needs. When creating a new Matter, there are many fields that can be modified to align with your company’s terminology and data requirements.

There are several ways to customize Matter Properties. You can add, edit, rename, and delete options in dropdown menus. This allows you to align Clarra with your company’s existing terminology and create custom-fit options for your needs.

Let’s review a few key customizable Matters Properties that you’ll likely use regularly. The following appear on the Matter Info page and the Matter creation page

Customizing Dropdown Menus

Dropdown data options can be customized for the following properties:

• Complex
• Courts
• Matter Type
• Primary Office Handling

Complex

Marking a Matter as “Complex” indicates to your Team Members responsible for Docketing that this Matter follows a different ruleset than standard Matters. If you’re unsure whether or not your Matter is Complex, read our article “How do I know if a Matter is Complex or Not?”.

Most Users keep the default options of “Yes” or “No” in the Complex dropdown menu, but we’ll show you how you can change these options if you wish. You can also rename the term “Complex”.

Edit Complex Term and Response Options:

• Click on your Profile Icon and select “Properties” in the dropdown menu
• Go to the “Matters” tab
• Scroll to or search for “Complex”
• Click the three dots on the right and press “Edit”
• Enter the new term in “Change To” under Basic Info
• Select the text of the Response Option you wish to change under Field Type
• Write the name of the new Option
• Rearrange the order of Options to your preference
• Scroll down and click “Save”

Courts

Clarra comes preinstalled with many Courts across the US, and you can add even more options, edit existing ones, or delete those irrelevant to your Matters. Let’s go over each of those customization options here.

Add a New Court: 

• Click on your Profile Icon and select “Properties” in the dropdown menu
• Go to the “Matters” tab
• Scroll to or search for “Courts”
• Click the three dots on the right and press “Edit”
• Press “+ Add Option”
• Write the name of the new Court in “Enter Value”
• Scroll down and press “Save” to add the new Court

Edit Existing Courts:

• Click on your Profile Icon and select “Properties” in the dropdown menu
• Go to the “Matters” tab
• Scroll to or search for “Courts”
• Click the three dots on the right and press “Edit”
• Select the text of the Court you wish to change
• Write the name of the new Court
• Scroll down and click “Save”

Delete a Court:

• Click on your Profile Icon and select “Properties” in the dropdown menu
• Go to the “Matters” tab
• Scroll to or search for “Courts”
• Click the three dots on the right and press “Edit”
• Press the trash can icon to the right of the Court you wish to delete
• Scroll down and click “Save”

Matter Type

Matter Types help you categorize Matters, aiding organization and efficiency. Filtering by Matter Type is one of many useful search options on Clarra, and you can fully customize the Matter Types available, in addition to the wide variety that are preloaded on the platform.

Create a new Matter Type:

• Click on your Profile Icon and select “Properties” in the dropdown menu
• Go to the “Matters” tab
• Scroll to or search for the row named “Matter Type”
• Select the three dots on the far right and click “Edit”
• Select “+ Add Option”
• Write the new Matter Type in “Enter Field”
• Scroll down and click “Save”, and your new Matter Type will be available when you create a New Matter

Edit an existing Matter Type:

• Click on your Profile Icon and select “Properties” in the dropdown menu
• Go to the “Matters” tab
• Scroll to or search for the row named “Matter Type”
• Select the three dots on the far right and click “Edit”
• Click on the text of any of the existing options
• Write the name of the new Matter Type
• Scroll down and click “Save”

Delete a Matter Type:

• Click on your Profile Icon and select “Properties” in the dropdown menu
• Go to the “Matters” tab
• Scroll to or search for the row named “Matter Type”
• Select the three dots on the far right and click “Edit”
• Press the trash can icon to the right of the Matter Type you wish to delete
• Scroll down and click “Save”

Primary Office Handling

A Matter’s Primary Office Handling indicates which office is responsible for handling the Matter. Whether your company has one office or one hundred, you’ll always be able to select the exact one you want by customizing your available offices in Properties. 

Add a new Primary Office:

• Scroll to or search for “Primary Office Handling”
• Select the three dots and click “Edit”
• Click “+ Add Option”
• Write the location of the relevant office in "Enter Value”
• Press “Save” at the bottom of the page. Repeat as necessary if you’d like to add more offices.

Edit an Existing Primary Office:

• Scroll to or search for “Primary Office Handling”
• Select the three dots and click “Edit”
• Select the location you wish to change
• Write the location of the new office
• Press “Save” at the bottom of the page

Delete a Primary Office:

• Scroll to or search for “Primary Office Handling”
• Select the three dots and click “Edit”
• Press the trash can icon to the right of the Office you wish to delete
• Press “Save” at the bottom of the page

Renaming Team Member Types

In addition to customizing the options available in dropdown menus, you can also rename the Team Member Types assigned to Matters. The default Team Member Types that come out-of-the-box with Clarra are:

• Docketing
• Lead Attorney
• Other Attorney
• Paralegal

Let’s say you want to use the term “Assistant” instead of “Paralegal”. Changing the name is quite simple, and takes just a few steps.

Rename Team Member Type:

• Click on your Profile Icon and select “Properties” in the dropdown menu
• Go to the “Matters” tab
• Scroll to or search for “Paralegal”
• Select the three dots on the right and click “Rename”
• Enter the new name, “Assistant”, in “Change To”
• Press “Save” to finalize the change

It’s important to know that renaming a Team Member Type doesn’t change its default assignment instructions. You can learn more about Team Member Types and their assignment instructions in our article here.

Custom Matter Fields

You can customize Custom Fields that appear on the Matters Info page. We have an article dedicated to helping you learn more about creating Custom Fields.