Task guide
The originals register
Record every deed, will, certificate and passport the firm holds, where it is kept, who has it out, and every movement since it arrived.
Firms hold clients' originals: title deeds, indentures, wills, share certificates, sealed orders, executed counterparts, powers of attorney, passports lodged for an affidavit. The register says what each is, whose it is, which matter it came in on, and where it has been on any day.
Record an original
- Open Documents, then Originals, and choose Record original.
- Describe it, choose its kind and its matter and client, and record when and from whom it arrived.
- Choose where it is kept, from the firm's own storage locations.
Movements
Each movement is a line on a custody chain that can never be edited:
- Out to a person, with a reason and a day it is due back.
- Back to storage, or across to another place.
- Released to the client or a third party, against a signed receipt filed on the matter.
- Lost, with the compliance function and the responsible partner told, or damaged.
The standing of an original always follows from its chain; nobody sets it by hand.
What is outstanding
Documents, Outstanding lists originals out past their due day, still held on a closed matter, or untouched for the firm's number of days, with every reason each is there.
A matter cannot close while the firm holds its client's originals, unless the managing partner passes that with a reason, because a will or a deed is often kept in safe custody past its matter.
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