The Disciplinary rules, in Texas at least, call for attorneys to keep track of property entrusted to them from clients. "
Other client property shall be identified as such and
appropriately safeguarded. Complete records of such account funds and other property shall be
kept by the lawyer and shall be preserved for a period of five years after termination of the
representation.
It seems like we should utilize Time Matters for this purpose. Has anyone else already done so and if so, what method have you used? It seems like we should record the nature of the property, where we are holding it, and its ultimate disposition.
I'd be interested in ideas.
Jeff WyattAbilene, Texas
Jeff -
I am curious what type of other client property you might be retaining for clients. If you can let me know what you are looking to document I might be able to give you some suggestions.
Jennifer Rathbun
jennifer@7secondsystem.com
original records/documents, tangible evidence, heirlooms in estate litigation, wills?
I've experimented with having a document template where such items can be "received" as well as returned. Generating this document on the Time Matters document tab for the matter gives me a matter by matter record and if we code those as "Property" I can then produce a list of all third party property we have on hand.
It's more cumbersome than I would like because it is not something we frequently do. We are about out of User Defined fields which would be a simpler answer.
I would look at using a user defined record type for property. These can be associated with the matter and you could have different types of user defined property based on codes. You could then produce appropriate lists by matter.
Caren Schwartz (Moderator/CIC)
35-45 Consulting
& Time & Cents Consultants, LLC
Southport, CT
www.3545consulting.com / www.timeandcents.com
203-254-7736
Software for Managing Time, Money & Information
Time Matters, Billing Matters, Billing Matters Plus, PC Law CIC
Have you looked at custom forms? You could create a fillable form and code it to make it searchable. It sounds similiar to the document creation steps you are taking. If you don't do this on a regular basis user defined fields may not be the best answer, especially if you are running low or out of those options.