Conflict checks at intake

Every new file is screened against every file your firm already has, before it can be opened.

What is checked against what

The new client against every adverse party on every existing file
Each new adverse party against every existing client and file name
Open, on-hold and closed files, confidential ones included
A party added to a file later, screened when it is added

Matching is deliberately loose: one name inside the other, or a close spelling, counts as a match. A repeat client or a repeat opponent is not flagged, because that is ordinary practice.

What stops a file opening

A match lists each file it hit and which name hit it. The file is not opened until the person opening it ticks that they have reviewed those files and there is no conflict. By default that is a lawyer, partner or administrator; an administrator can widen who may open files.

If the check cannot run, the file is not opened. A check that skipped silently would leave a file recording that it ran.

Opening a new matter whose client is already the adverse party on an existing file. Intake shows a potential conflict naming the matching file, and requires a reviewed-and-confirmed acknowledgment before the matter can be opened. — The match names the file it hit. The file opens only once the review is ticked.

What the file keeps

Each file records what the check found, whether matches were reviewed and cleared, and who cleared them and when. A party added later is screened on its own and its result is added under the first, dated, so the intake record is never rewritten. A file opened with no client or adverse party says plainly that no check ran.

Confidential files

The check searches files walled off from the person opening the new one. A match on one says only that a confidential file may conflict, and to ask a firm administrator, who sees it in full.

What it cannot see

It compares names, not relationships. A numbered company and the person behind it, a parent and its subsidiary, or the counsel acting for the other side are not connected by it.

It knows only the files in Freeboard. Files imported from another system are screened one at a time as they go in, against everything already there and every file imported before them. Files with a match are still imported, and the import’s result names each one for someone to review.

Once a file is open, its limitation dates go on the limitation date register.

Questions this page answers

What does Freeboard's conflict check search?

Every file the firm has, open, on hold or closed, confidential files included. The new client is checked against every adverse party on every file, and each new adverse party against every client and file name. A repeat client or a repeat opponent is not flagged.

Can a file be opened when the conflict check finds a match?

Not until the person opening it ticks that they have reviewed the matching files and there is no conflict. The file then keeps what matched and that it was cleared, with who cleared it and when. By default only lawyers, partners and administrators can open a file; an administrator can widen that.

What happens if the conflict check cannot run?

The file is not opened, and the form says the check could not run. An import stops at the same point rather than bring files in unchecked.

Does the conflict check see confidential files?

It searches them, but a match on a confidential file the person is not on the access list for says only that a confidential file may conflict, and tells them to contact a firm administrator. A firm administrator sees the match in full.

What will the conflict check not catch?

It compares names. It does not know that a numbered company belongs to a person, that two companies are related, or who acts for the other side, and it knows only the files that are in Freeboard.

Try it in the demo

Open a new file whose client is an opposing party on one of the demonstration firm’s files under Matters.

Open the demo Pricing