Work on a digital forensic legal matter

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 4 minutes to read

    • Work on a digital forensic legal matter assigned to you to get the requested actions for the custodial and non-custodial data done to resolve the request.

    Before you begin

    The practice area lead or the group manager would have assigned the legal matter to you to work on.

    Role required: sn_lg_matter.matter_fulfiller

    About this task

    As a collaborator added to a legal matter, you can access and work on the legal matter just as matter owners can. However, you can't modify the Matter owner, Assignment group, and Assignment group permission fields.

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > Legal Request > Legal Counsel Center.
    2. In the Legal Counsel Center tab, select the list icon .
    3. In the Lists tab, open a legal matter by selecting an option under Matters.
      OptionSteps
      As an assignee
      1. Select the Assigned to Me option.
      2. Select a legal matter to work on.
      3. If the legal matter is newly assigned to you, select Start to start working on it.

        The state of the legal matter updates to Work in Progress.
      As a collaborator
      1. Select the Collaborations option.
      2. Select a legal matter to work on.
    4. Optional: If you need help from other fulfillers to work on the legal matter, add them in the Collaborators field.
      Note:
      Users with the matter_fulfiller role are listed in the Collaborators field.
      The collaborators are notified via email that they have been added as collaborators to a legal matter.
    5. Optional: Add other approved custodians from the associated legal requests.
      1. In the Custodial Data tab, click Add.
      2. In the Add Custodial Data dialog box, select the custodian records you want to add to the matter.
        All approved custodians in the associated requests but not already added to the legal matter are listed.
      3. Click Add.
    6. Optional: Add new non-custodial data to the matter.
      1. In the Non-custodial Data tab, click Add.
      2. In the Add Non-Custodial Data dialog box, select the non-custodial records you want to add to the matter.
        All approved non-custodial records in the associated requests but not added earlier to the legal matter are listed.
      3. Click Add.
      4. Click Save.
    7. Optional: Remove any existing custodial or non-custodial data that doesn't need further investigation or was mistakenly added to the matter by selecting the record in the Custodial Data tab or Non-custodial Data tab and clicking Remove.
    8. Review the phases and tasks in the respective tabs and, if needed, create more phases and create digital forensic matter tasks to organize the data processing of custodial and non-custodial data.
      Note:
      The phases and tasks are available in the legal matter only if you created the matter using the digital forensic matter template.
    9. Assign tasks to users across various departments in your organization to work on.
      1. In the Tasks tab, open the task by clicking the task number.
      2. On the form, fill in the required fields, and click Save.
    10. Review legal matter tasks to determine if all its required actions are complete and approve or reject the tasks.
    11. Update the status of the associated custodial and non-custodial records to complete.
      • In the Custodial Data tab, open the custodian record, update its Status to Complete, and click Save.
      • In the Non-custodial Data tab, open the non-custodial record, update its Status to Complete, and click Save.
    12. Optional: Add milestones to keep a track of timelines to complete important tasks.
    13. Create artifacts (folders) and upload files into these artifacts to record and store supporting documents within the legal matter.
    14. Optional: Associate a new legal request with the legal matter to combine multiple legal requests with the same underlying needs into a single matter.
      All custodial and non-custodial data from the selected request are added to the matter and appear in the respective tabs.
    15. Optional: Associate the matter with another legal request that is similar in nature.
    16. Close or cancel the request as appropriate.
      • Close the legal matter after you complete the required actions for all custodial and non-custodial data in the matter. Ensure you’ve completed the following items before closing the legal matter.
        • Closed all tasks that are complete or canceled that don't need any actions.
        • Updated the status of all custodial and non-custodial data in the legal matter to either Complete or Cancelled, as appropriate.
      • If the matter doesn't need any action, you can cancel it by clicking the more button (More button.) and selecting Cancel.
        To cancel the requests associated with the matter, select the Cancel related requests check box in the Cancel Matter dialog box. These requests are canceled only if they aren’t related to any other open matters.
        • If a related request gets canceled, the status of all its open custodial and non-custodial data (status other than Complete) updates to Cancelled.
        • If a related request cannot be canceled, all its open custodial and non-custodial data is removed from the matter. The status of such records updates to Approved.

        When you cancel the matter without opting to cancel related requests, all custodial and non-custodial data, except with the Complete status, are removed from the matter. The status of such records updates to Approved.