Matters
If you’ve worked in a law firm before, you already know what a matter is. It’s a file. A transaction. The thing that represents a client’s deal from start to finish.
Laminar’s version of a matter is that same concept, but with more structure underneath it. Instead of a folder you throw documents into and eventually close, a matter in Laminar is a living container that tracks where the transaction is, who’s working on it, what’s been done, and what still needs to happen.
What’s Inside a Matter
Section titled “What’s Inside a Matter”A matter is the hub that connects everything related to a single transaction. Here’s what lives inside one:
Services define what the firm is actually doing. A matter might contain “Purchase Representation” and “Mortgage Discharge” as two separate services. Services determine what work the matter requires.
Tasks are the individual pieces of work: “Order title search,” “Request mortgage instructions,” “Prepare closing documents.” Tasks are where daily progress happens.
Contacts are the people involved: the client, the realtor, the mortgage broker, opposing counsel. Each contact has a role on that matter, and the same person can appear on many different matters.
Trust Transactions track money flowing through the firm’s trust accounts for this deal. Receipts coming in, expenditures going out, with a running ledger balance.
Assets are the files: PDFs, scanned documents, images, anything you need to store.
Notes are timestamped comments and updates that become part of the permanent record.
Activity is the automatic audit trail of everything that’s happened on the matter.
Services: What the Firm Is Selling
Section titled “Services: What the Firm Is Selling”Here’s a concept that might be new. In most legal software, a file has a “type” (purchase, sale, refinance), and that’s about it. Laminar goes a step further with services.
A service represents a specific product the firm delivers. “Purchase Representation” is a service. “Mortgage Discharge” is a service. “Title Insurance Facilitation” is a service.
A matter can hold one or more services, and you can add or remove them as the transaction evolves. Client came in for a purchase, but now they also need a mortgage discharge on their old property? Add the service to the existing matter. No need to open a second file.
Think of it like ordering food. The matter is the order. The services are the items on it. You track the order as one thing, but you can see exactly what’s inside.
Why this matters in practice: services bring their own data requirements and their own relevant work. When your firm sets up document templates or automated task creation, those can be tied to specific services. A “Mortgage Discharge” service knows it needs different documents than a “Purchase Representation” service, even when they’re on the same matter.
Workflow and Stages
Section titled “Workflow and Stages”Every matter belongs to a workflow, and that workflow defines the stages the matter moves through. A residential purchase workflow might have: Leads, Necessary Information, Document Preparation, Signing, Requesting Funds, Closing, Reporting, Completed.
The workflow is assigned when the matter is created and doesn’t change after that. The matter’s current stage tells you where it is in that progression.
Stages are high-level on purpose. They answer “where is this deal in its lifecycle?”, not “what exact task is being worked on right now?” The granular work tracking happens in tasks. For a deeper look at how workflows and stages function, see Workflows & Stages.
The Matter Lifecycle
Section titled “The Matter Lifecycle”A matter typically moves in one direction through its stages. Each transition is a decision that someone makes (usually the assigned lawyer or clerk) when they’re confident the matter is ready to move forward. This is a judgment call, not an automatic process. Completing all the tasks in a stage doesn’t automatically advance the matter.
Once a matter reaches a completed stage, it’s effectively closed. You can still view it, pull up its history, and reference its documents, but it’s no longer active.
Assignment
Section titled “Assignment”Every matter has exactly one assignee. This is the person (or team) who’s primarily responsible for the transaction. When tasks are created on the matter, they inherit the matter’s assignee by default unless someone explicitly reassigns them.
For matters specifically, there’s also a Responsible Lawyer field. This is the lawyer who’s professionally accountable for the transaction, which is relevant for things like trust transaction approvals. The assignee and the responsible lawyer might be the same person, or they might be different (for example, when a clerk is assigned to handle the day-to-day work, but the supervising lawyer is the responsible lawyer).
Matter Identifiers
Section titled “Matter Identifiers”Every matter gets a human-readable ID automatically: M-1, M-42, M-1337. These are unique within your firm and useful for quick reference. The ID appears throughout the app and in search results.
Matters also have a title, which is typically descriptive: “Purchase of 123 Main St” or “Refinance, Jane & John Doe.” You set the title when creating the matter.
What Matters Are Not
Section titled “What Matters Are Not”A matter is not a task list. It contains tasks, but it’s more than the sum of them.
A matter is not a document folder. It holds documents, but it also holds contacts, trust transactions, notes, and a full activity history.
A matter is not a calendar entry. It has dates (expected completion, scheduling), but it’s not tied to a specific time slot.
A matter is the single source of truth for a transaction. Everything related to the deal, every person, every document, every dollar, every status change, lives here.