Organising hearings and the daily hearing roll in a law firm

Where does hearing follow-up go wrong?

Hearing follow-up usually goes wrong in the hour after the hearing, not on the day it is held. The lawyer leaves the courtroom with an adjournment decision and a new date written on the back of a sheet of paper; then hearings and calls follow one after another, and the decision reaches the register two days later, or never. That is where the chain begins: a hearing missing from the roll, a required document not prepared, a client who hears about the adjournment from someone other than their own lawyers. Certain signs keep recurring in offices and show that the way hearings are followed up needs a review:

• A single hearings notebook on the secretary’s desk, updated only when someone happens to pass by.
• Decisions written in different styles that are hard to understand a month later.
• A lawyer attending a hearing without knowing what it requires, because a colleague is in charge of the file.
• Clients calling every week to ask when their next hearing is.

Putting these right does not take complicated tools, just four steady pillars: a decision recorded on the day, a daily roll that is reviewed and handed out, a named lawyer attending each hearing, and a reminder that reaches whoever needs it. A decision recorded on the day replaces the notebook that always lags behind; standard phrases replace conflicting wording; a precisely written “required” note is all the attending colleague needs; and a reminder saves the client a phone call.

Record the decision, and let the next hearing create itself

The first rule is that a hearing’s decision is recorded on the day, and that recording it is quicker than writing it on paper. So the lawyer needs ready-made phrases for recurring decisions, and needs to enter the next date in the same step, not on another screen. In Murafe, this is done from the case file or from the hearings page, on a phone as on a computer, so the lawyer records the decision while still in the court building, in these steps:

1. Tap “Decision” next to the hearing once it has been held.
2. Write what happened, or choose a ready-made phrase such as “Adjourned for documents to be submitted” or “Case reserved for judgment”.
3. Set the hearing’s status: held, adjourned or cancelled.
4. Enter the date and time of the next hearing and what it requires.
5. Save: the next hearing is created automatically, and you can notify the client of what happened by WhatsApp or email.

Ready-made phrases do more than save time: they give the office one language for recording decisions, so a decision is understood the same way months later, whoever wrote it and whoever reads it. The lawyer can still add the details of the hearing, such as the opponent asking for time to review, or the court directing one of the parties to submit a particular document, so that whoever opens the file later finds the full picture.

From “required” to done: preparing for the next hearing

Recording what is required is not enough unless it becomes a task with an owner and a date. If a memorandum is required, it is created from the case file with its type, the lawyer assigned to write it, the reviewer and the submission date, and it moves through its statuses: “memorandum being drafted”, then “under review”, then “ready to submit”, then “submitted”, with the actual submission date. As the submission date approaches, the assigned lawyer and the reviewer receive an alert, so a delay is not discovered on the morning of the hearing.

If a document is required from the client, the message to them goes out on the day of the hearing itself, not the day before the next one, saying exactly what is needed and by when. If what is required is an application to the court, such as a stay of execution or a precautionary attachment, it is recorded under “Requests” with its subject, the body it is filed with and the person responsible for following it up, and its status is updated when a decision on it is issued.

The daily hearing roll: the office’s morning sheet

The hearing roll is a list of one day’s hearings sorted by court and time, and it is the most important sheet that leaves the office every morning. Sorting it by court makes sharing out attendance logical: neighbouring hearings in one building go to one lawyer, and simultaneous hearings at bodies far apart go to different lawyers. In Murafe, the roll for any day is shown on the “Hearings” page and can be printed or saved as a PDF to hand out to the lawyers and court representatives, with each line showing what the hearing requires and the attending lawyer. To keep the roll accurate, give it a fixed daily routine:

1. The evening before: review tomorrow’s roll, and check that every hearing has an attending lawyer and a clear requirement.
2. Resolve clashes early: two hearings at the same time before two different bodies mean delegating a colleague.
3. That morning: print the roll or send it as a PDF to the lawyers and court representatives.
4. After the last hearing: check that a decision has been recorded for every hearing on the roll.

When a file has more than one client, such as heirs or partners, the hearing appears on screen under the first client’s name followed by “and one other” or “and 3 others”; hovering over the name shows them all, while the printed roll carries their names in full, and the search finds the hearing under any of their names. A small detail, but it saves the court representative from calling the office to check the parties’ names outside the courtroom.

Sharing out attendance and delegating between lawyers

Every hearing has an attending lawyer, set when the hearing is added, who may not be the lawyer in charge of the file. The separation is deliberate: the lawyer in charge follows the whole case and prepares its memoranda, while the attending lawyer represents the office at that particular hearing. When the lawyer in charge cannot attend or two hearings clash, a colleague is assigned and issued a delegation letter, so everyone knows who will stand before the circuit before the day of the hearing, not on its morning.

The delegation letter is one of the office’s most frequent papers, and one of the most error-prone when written by hand in a hurry. So in Murafe, the letter takes from the case file everything already recorded there: the details of the body (court, circuit and courtroom), the date and time of the next hearing, the case number, subject and parties with their capacities, the latest decision issued in it, and the client’s valid power of attorney with its number. All that is left for the employee is the floor, the roll number and the requests, choosing the delegating lawyer and the delegated colleague, and printing it on the office’s form, with the “Court’s decision” box left blank for the colleague to complete in the courtroom.

Reminders: always for the team, and for the client when the office decides

A good reminder reaches whoever needs it, on time, through the channel they actually read. Within the office, the lawyer in charge and the case team are alerted before the hearing, and every employee can switch on device notifications from their personal menu, so alerts reach them on a computer or phone even when the system is closed. That way a reminder does not depend on the lawyer happening to open the system at the right moment.

The client is sent a reminder by email or WhatsApp if client reminders are switched on and the hearing is visible to them. When adding a hearing, the lawyer decides whether it appears to the client in the client portal and whether its reminders are sent to them; some hearings are procedural, and the client has no need to follow them personally. The message texts are written once, as templates with variables such as the client’s name, the case number and the hearing date. A good reminder answers the client’s questions before they ask them:

• Which case it concerns, with its number and subject as the client knows them.
• The court or body, and the date and time of the hearing.
• The office’s name and phone number for enquiries.
• Short, courteous wording that can be read on a phone screen in seconds.

Adjournments and cancellations: how to keep the chain unbroken

An adjournment is not the end of one hearing but the start of another, so it is recorded the same way: the hearing’s status set to “adjourned”, the reason for the adjournment in clear words, and the date of the next hearing and what it requires. When a hearing is cancelled, it is recorded as “cancelled” with its reason, so it does not vanish from the file’s history. This way the hearings tab in the case file tells the whole story: when each hearing was held, why it was adjourned, who attended, and what was required at it.

When a case is reserved for judgment, the nature of the follow-up changes: the case status is updated to “reserved for judgment”, and the date set for pronouncing the judgment becomes the most important date in the file. It is a good moment to review the whole file: have all the memoranda been submitted, and does the client know the date? Once the judgment is issued, a different countdown begins, to the appeal deadline, which is the subject of this guide’s companion on tracking appeal and grievance deadlines.

Confidentiality: the roll is a sheet that passes from hand to hand

The printed roll leaves the office and passes between lawyers and court representatives in court corridors, and it may carry the names of clients and opponents in sensitive cases. So treat it as you would any client document: print only as many copies as needed, do not leave it lying on desks, and send it as a PDF only through the channels the office has approved, not in personal chat groups on a phone. These controls help:

• The hearings of a confidential case follow the case itself: they appear in the hearings list and on the printed roll only for those who can see the case, and for whoever has been assigned to attend the hearing.
• Printing the roll is a separate permission, in the “Print” column of roles and permissions, and the audit log keeps the name of whoever printed the roll and when.
• In the portal, the client sees only the hearings marked “visible to the client”.

In the most sensitive files, the attending lawyer need carry only what that hearing requires. A document restricted to named individuals stays hidden from everyone else, even members of the case team, and an employee who has not been given download rights reads the document on screen without leaving with a copy. That way, what leaves the office is limited to what is needed, and everything else stays in its file.