The open matter list nobody believes
Ask your practice management system how many open matters the firm has and the number is far higher than anyone thinks is real. Scroll through and you find matters where the last time entry was two years ago, a few pounds still sit on client account, and an original deed is still in the strongroom with no note of what to do with it.
The fee earner meant to close them. The work finished, the client was happy, and the next matter was already waiting.
Why closing a file keeps getting put off
Closing looks like one task, but it is a bundle of small ones, each owned by a different person. Accounts need to clear the balance. The fee earner needs to send a closing letter and decide about original documents. Someone has to set a destruction or review date under your retention policy. None of these are urgent, so all of them lose to live work.
The practice management system usually has a 'close' button but no process behind it, so pressing it early is easy and doing it properly is hard.
| Closure step | Who usually owns it |
|---|---|
| Final bill and unbilled time | Fee earner and accounts |
| Client account balance | Accounts, with fee earner input |
| Original documents returned or stored | Fee earner or secretary |
| Closing letter to client | Fee earner |
| Retention or destruction date | Records or compliance |
What open-but-finished files cost
Management figures are wrong: open matter counts, WIP and lock-up all include work that is not really live. Old balances on client account are a problem for your accounts team and your reporting accountant. Paper and electronic files with no retention date are kept indefinitely, which costs storage and means holding personal data longer than your policy intends.
And the closing letter, which is often the last good impression a client gets, never goes out.
How we build a file closure routine
- Find candidates: each week the tool lists matters with no time, correspondence or ledger movement for a period you set, grouped by fee earner.
- Show what is outstanding: for each one it checks unbilled time and disbursements, client account balance, any original documents recorded in your deeds or storage register, and open tasks.
- Fee earner review: the fee earner sees a short list and marks each matter as still live, ready to close, or needing a step first. Nothing closes without that.
- Drafted steps: for matters marked ready, the tool drafts the closing letter from your template, prepares a note to accounts about any balance, and lists original documents to return or keep.
- Retention date: it applies the retention period your policy sets for that matter type and records the review or destruction date.
- Close in the system: once each step is done, it closes the matter in your practice management system and records who confirmed it.
What changes for the firm
Closing a file becomes a list with ticks, not a job to be remembered. The open matter count starts to mean something. Accounts get balance questions routed to them with the context, instead of chasing fee earners by email. Records management has a real destruction schedule to work from.
Clients get a proper closing letter, and original documents go back to the people who own them.
Signs your files need this
- Your open matter count is much higher than the live workload.
- Small balances sit on client account on finished matters.
- Original documents are held with no plan for returning them.
- Closed files have no destruction or review date.
- Closing letters are sent inconsistently, or not at all.