Acquit checks a name against your firm’s files while you type it into the intake form, and again on the matter itself once it is open. It cannot decide anything for you; it makes sure you are asking the question with the full picture in front of you.
Where to find it
On a matter, open Conflict check in the left-hand menu. It also runs automatically as you type a name into the intake form (both Add lead and Add client), so the answer is in front of you before you take instructions.
What it looks at
- Your firm’s clients: current, leads, archived, and anything in the firm pool. If a colleague already acts for the person, you see who holds the file.
- Other parties recorded on your firm’s matters: co-accused, complainants, witnesses and informants, checked in both directions.
It only ever looks inside your own firm: other firms’ files are never searched, and yours are never searched by them.
Recording the other parties
The check can only see what it is told. The Conflict check card on any matter’s Overview tab has an Add party button: record the co-accused, the complainant and anyone else named on the brief, with a surname and given name so the matching works properly. From then on, that person is checked against every new intake.
Name spelling
Matching tolerates a one-letter difference in the surname, so Smyth still finds Smith; those results are labelled similar name rather than an exact match.
Recording what you decided
The card has a note field and two buttons: Record as cleared and Record a conflict. Either one stamps the file with the date, who decided, and your note. The hits are stored as they stood at that moment, so a later re-run showing something different never rewrites what you recorded. A recorded conflict puts a red flag on the menu entry, visible without opening the tab.
Note: a clear result is not a legal opinion: it means nothing on your firm’s books matched, not that no conflict exists.