Every Matter has a Matter Status. Matter Status is used to tell us about the status of a Matter. At any one point in time, a Matter can have one of the following statuses:
- Pending
- Open
- Closed
- Aborted
Matter Status: Pending
When the Matter Status of a Matter is set to "Pending", it means that the law firm is in the process of being retained to act on the Matter but has not been fully retained yet. The "Pending" Matter Status is therefore used for prospects.
Matter Status: Open
When the Matter Status of a Matter is set to "Open", it means that the law firm has been retained to act on the Matter and is in the process of completing the work on the Matter.
Matter Status: Closed
When the Matter Status of a Matter is set to "Closed", it means that the law firm was retained to act on the Matter and already completed all work that was supposed to be completed for the Matter.
Matter Status: Aborted
When the Matter Status of a Matter is set to "Aborted", it means that the law firm is no longer acting on the Matter and is not expected to complete any work on it.
The status of a Matter can change from "Open" to "Aborted" when the firm was retained to complete the work but the retainer was terminated either by the law firm or the client.
The status of a Matter can change from "Pending" to "Aborted" when the firm never ended up getting retained on the Matter either because the client didn't retain the firm or the firm didn't accept the retainer because of a conflict of another issue.