A law firm needs a client portal to answer a client’s recurring questions before they pick up the phone: when is my next hearing, what is the latest news, where is the copy of the judgment, how much have I paid and how much is left. The client sees in it only what the office decides for that client alone: specific sections, selected document types that may be shown for viewing without downloading, and an account that appears only when someone with permission to show it decides so.
8-minute readLast updated: The Murafe team
Key takeaways
The portal does not replace the lawyer, but it saves the client a call to ask about a date, a document or a balance.
Every client has their own settings: hearings, documents, account and legal services, each switched on separately.
A document appears to a client only if it is marked as visible and is of a type they are allowed to see, and it can be limited to viewing.
The client’s messages reach the lawyer in charge and the case team, and the client can see that the office has read their message.
Clients who sign in to the portal do not count as the office’s users.
Why does a law firm need a client portal?
Because many client calls ask for information that is already in the file: the date of the hearing, what happened at it, whether the memorandum has been submitted, or how much of the fee is left. Every call of this kind interrupts a lawyer or a secretary, and the answer varies with whoever picks up. The portal puts the answer in the client’s own hands, on their phone and at any time, from the same source the office team works on, so nothing said over the phone contradicts what is in the file. Among the questions the portal answers without a call:
When is my next hearing?
What is the latest on my case?
Where is the copy of the judgment or the statement of claim?
How much have I paid, how much do I still owe, and when is the next instalment?
Even so, the portal is not a window open onto the entire case file. The transparency intended has limits that the office draws: what helps and reassures the client is shown to them, while internal work, such as drafts, notes and defence strategies, stays inside the office. In this sense the portal becomes part of client service in law firm management software, not an extra screen the team has to keep updated: what the team records in its daily work is exactly what the client sees, where that is allowed.
The portal is a window the office opens as wide as it chooses, not a door into the case file.
What does the client see when they sign in?
The client signs in at the office’s own system address by choosing “Client portal” on the sign-in page. The home page greets them by name with their file number at the office, and shows their upcoming hearings, the latest updates on their files, the number of new messages from the office, and a summary of their account if it is visible to them. From there they move on to their cases, services, documents, account and messages. They have no editing rights of any kind in the portal: it is for viewing and messaging only. Each section appears as the table below shows:
Section
What it shows
When it appears
Hearings
The hearing dates of their cases
If the hearings section is switched on for them and the hearing is visible to them
Updates
What the office records on their files, including notes on changes in case status
If marked “visible to the client”
Documents
The permitted types, for viewing or downloading
If the documents section is switched on for them
Account
The total, the amount paid, the balance and what is due now, plus instalments, statement and vouchers
When someone with permission to show it decides so
Legal services
Their services, with the documents and updates visible to them
If the services section is switched on for them
Messages
The office’s messages to them, and theirs to the office
In the portal’s message box
Settings for each client: sections, document types and downloading
No single setting suits every client. A company with its own legal department may need everything, from hearings to downloadable documents, while a client in a sensitive family dispute may only need to see their hearing dates. So in Murafe, the portal is set up from each client’s file separately, and access is switched on for each client by a separate decision, in the following steps:
Open the client’s file, then the “Client portal” section.
Switch on access, and set the username and password.
Choose what they see: hearings, documents, account and legal services.
Specify the document types they may view, such as judgments and statements of claim.
Decide whether they can download documents, or only view them inside the portal.
Send them their sign-in details by email or WhatsApp.
Viewing without downloading suits cases where the office wants the client to read a document without keeping or circulating a copy: when “Allow the client to download documents” is switched off, the client views PDFs and images inside the portal with no download button. Downloading can stay switched on for clients who need the files for their own records, such as a company’s legal department that keeps copies of judgments.
The account in the portal: figures shown when the accounts team decides
If the account is shown to the client, they see on the portal’s home page and under “Account”: the total of fees and expenses, the amount paid, the balance remaining, what is due from them now (including what is overdue), the percentage paid, and the next instalment. “Due now” is the part of the remaining balance that has fallen due: instalments overdue or due today, and fees or expenses not split into instalments; the rest consists of agreement instalments not yet due, so the client does not think the whole balance is being asked of them today. Alongside this, they see:
The payment schedule of their agreements, with each instalment’s status: paid, partly paid, overdue, due today or upcoming.
Their statement of account and the receipt vouchers issued to them.
The fees of each case or service on its own page.
Their own account only, even if other clients share the same case file.
The decision to show the account is not necessarily made by whoever manages portal access: it is a separate permission called “Show the client’s account in the portal”, usually held by the accounts employee, who uses it from the “Client portal” section of the client’s file even without permission to manage portal access. The logic is simple: whoever is responsible for the accuracy of the figures decides when they are ready for the client to see.
Messages instead of calls: who receives them, and when do they count as read?
The client writes their message from the portal itself, whether a general enquiry or a question about a particular case, and the lawyer in charge and the case team are alerted to it. The message appears in “Messages and notifications” under “Received from clients”, and in the case file if it concerns that case, so the correspondence is kept with the file instead of getting lost on an employee’s phone. The office handles it like this:
The number of unread messages appears next to “Messages and notifications” in the menu.
When a message is opened, it is recorded as read in the name of whoever opened it, and the client sees in the portal that the office has read it.
The lawyer clicks “Reply to client”, and the reply reaches the client’s message box in the portal; it can also be sent by email or WhatsApp.
If the office sends the reply to the portal only, the client is notified by email and WhatsApp that a new message is waiting, at most once every 30 minutes, and the office controls this notification from the messaging settings. Since the client can see that their message has been read, it helps for the office to agree internally on who answers portal messages and within what time, so the client is not left waiting long after the read mark appears.
Switching on access, sending sign-in details, and reminders
The portal is switched on from the client’s file: access is enabled, the username and password are set, and the sign-in details are sent to the client by email or WhatsApp. Before switching it on, check that the phone number and email in their file are correct, since that is where the sign-in details and reminders go. Clients who sign in to the portal do not count as users in the office’s subscription, so their number does not hold back the decision to switch it on. Reminders work as follows:
A hearing reminder before the hearing, by email or WhatsApp, on two conditions: client reminders are switched on in the office’s settings, and the hearing is visible to the client.
A reminder of instalments that have fallen due, as the office sets in the settings.
Reminders are not sent at night, between 10 pm and 7 am Qatar time, and do not go to a suspended client.
Every message sent is kept in the message log with its status, so the office knows what arrived and what failed.
How does the portal stay useful? Small habits for the office team
The portal loses its value if the client signs in and finds it lagging behind reality: they go back to the phone and stop trusting what they see. The answer is not extra, separate work, but brief moments within steps the team already takes: adding a hearing, changing a case status, uploading a document, recording a decision. It is enough for the team to agree on four habits:
When adding a hearing, decide whether it is visible to the client and whether its reminders are sent to them.
When changing a case status, add a short note that is recorded under “Updates” and shown to the client.
When uploading a judgment or a statement of claim, mark it “Visible to the client” if it is appropriate for them.
After recording a hearing’s decision, send the client a summary of what happened by WhatsApp or email whenever the lawyer considers it appropriate.
What does the client never see?
The rule is that the client sees in the portal only what the office has allowed them to see, and everything else stays inside the office, however long the relationship lasts. That is what makes the portal safe to switch on even in sensitive cases: the office is not choosing between showing everything and showing nothing, but gives each client the degree of access that suits them. The client never sees in the portal:
Documents not marked as visible, or of a type they are not allowed, such as an internal memorandum on the defence strategy.
Hearings and updates not marked as visible to them.
Their account, unless the authorised person decides to show it.
Internal conversations between the office’s lawyers and staff, and the vouchers for the office’s internal expenses.
Any way to edit details or delete a document.
Questions on this topic
No. Clients who sign in to the client portal do not count as users in the office’s subscription, and access is switched on for each client from their file whenever the office sees fit.
No. The portal is for viewing and messaging only: the client sees what the office has chosen for them and writes to the office from the message box, with no right to change anything in their files.
The office sets a new password for them from the “Client portal” section of their file, then sends them the sign-in details by email or WhatsApp; the system does not keep passwords in a readable form.
Yes. Each section has its own switch: hearings, documents, account and legal services. The account in particular is decided by whoever holds the “Show the client’s account in the portal” permission.
