Daily hearing roll template
A daily hearing roll lists the office’s hearings for one day, sorted by court, then time, showing for each the case number, parties, purpose, attending lawyer and what to prepare, with a decision column filled in afterwards. It is prepared the evening before and given to lawyers and court representatives each morning.
The roll is prepared by the secretary or the office manager from the hearings recorded in the cases, and reviewed by a partner or senior lawyer to make sure every hearing has a lawyer attending and that what it needs is ready. Lawyers and court representatives take it to the courts in the morning, and it comes back at the end of the day with each hearing’s decision and the date of the next hearing, so that the decisions can be entered in the case files before the day is closed. Sorting it by court and then time is deliberate, because it answers the real morning question: who goes to which building, and which hearings clash and need a colleague delegated before the day begins?
When do you need this template?
- Every working evening, to prepare and review the next day’s roll.
- On the morning itself, to print it or send it to the lawyers and court representatives and confirm attendance.
- When two hearings clash before two different bodies, to decide who is delegated and issue the delegation letter.
- After the last hearing, to check the decisions written on it against what has been recorded in the case files.
- At the start of the week, to look over each day’s roll and spot busy days early.
What must it include?
- The date and day, and the names of whoever prepared and reviewed the roll.
- The time of each hearing, and the competent court, circuit and courtroom.
- The case number and year, and the roll number if known.
- The parties and their capacities, naming every client on the file.
- The purpose of the hearing as set by the previous hearing’s decision.
- The attending lawyer, even if not the lawyer responsible for the case.
- What must be prepared: a memorandum, a bundle of documents, a witness or fees.
- A column for the decision and the next hearing date, filled in after the hearing.
Daily Hearing Roll
For internal use in the Firm. Return this roll to [Name of the person in charge of the roll] once the decision column has been filled in for every hearing.
| Time | Court, circuit and courtroom | Case No. | Parties | Purpose of the hearing | Attending lawyer | To prepare | Decision and next hearing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Time] | Court of First Instance – Civil Circuits – [Circuit] – Courtroom [Courtroom number] | [Case number]/[Year] – Roll [Roll number] | [Client name] ([Capacity]) v. [Opponent name] | [Purpose of the hearing] | [Lawyer name] | [Memorandum / bundle of documents / witness] | [Decision] – Next: [Date] |
| [Time] | Court of First Instance – Civil Circuits – [Circuit] – Courtroom [Courtroom number] | [Case number]/[Year] – Roll [Roll number] | [Client name] ([Capacity]) v. [Opponent name] | [Purpose of the hearing] | [Lawyer name] | [What to prepare] | [Decision] – Next: [Date] |
| [Time] | Investment and Trade Court – [Circuit] – Courtroom [Courtroom number] | [Case number]/[Year] – Roll [Roll number] | [Client name] ([Capacity]) v. [Opponent name] | [Purpose of the hearing] | [Lawyer name] | [What to prepare] | [Decision] – Next: [Date] |
| [Time] | Family Court – [Circuit] – Courtroom [Courtroom number] | [Case number]/[Year] – Roll [Roll number] | [Client name] ([Capacity]) v. [Opponent name] | [Purpose of the hearing] | [Lawyer name] | [What to prepare] | [Decision] – Next: [Date] |
| [Time] | Court of Appeal – [Circuit] – Courtroom [Courtroom number] | [Case number]/[Year] – Roll [Roll number] | [Client name] ([Capacity]) v. [Opponent name] | [Purpose of the hearing] | [Lawyer name] | [What to prepare] | [Decision] – Next: [Date] |
Notes for the day:
- Clashing hearings needing delegation: case [Case number] and case [Case number] – delegation letter issued to [Lawyer name].
- Hearings requiring the client’s personal attendance: case [Case number] – client notified on [Date].
- Documents to be collected from the client before the hearing: [List of documents] – case [Case number].
- Fees or expenses to be paid today: [Description] – QAR [Amount].
After the hearings: all hearing decisions recorded in the case files and next hearing dates created: [Yes / No]; cases outstanding: [Case numbers].
Print the roll in landscape so the columns fit, and leave out what the court representative does not need on confidential files.
How to fill in the template
Collect the hearings from the case files
Start from the hearing decisions recorded in the case files, not from a side notebook or the lawyers’ memory: every hearing on the roll must have its source in its case file, with its date and time.
Sort by court, then time
Group each court’s hearings together and sort them by time within it, so that a first glance shows who goes to which building and where two hearings clash.
Assign attendance and resolve clashes
Name an attending lawyer for each hearing. If two hearings clash before bodies far apart, assign a colleague to one of them, issue a delegation letter the evening before, and note it in the day’s notes.
Write what is needed for someone who was not there last time
The word “memorandum” alone is not enough: write its type and what it replies to, and the bundle if there is one. Tomorrow’s attending lawyer may not be the one who attended the last hearing.
Distribute the roll and confirm it has arrived
Print it or send the PDF in the morning through the channel the office uses, make sure every lawyer and court representative has received their copy, and deal with any last-minute change before anyone heads to court.
Close the roll at the end of the day
After the last hearing, the decision column is filled in for every hearing, then each decision and next hearing date is entered in its case file; the roll is not closed until every line on it has been checked.
Common mistakes
- Writing the decision on the paper roll without entering it in the case file, so the next hearing is missing from its day’s roll.
- Sorting the roll by lawyer or file number, so a clash between two hearings in different buildings only shows up in the morning.
- Writing a single client’s name on a file with several clients, so the court representative is confused outside the courtroom when the case is called.
- Writing “memorandum” or “documents” without detail, so the lawyer attends the hearing without what it called for.
- Leaving the printed roll on desks, or sending it to personal chat groups, when it carries the names of clients and opponents.
Issue this document from your office’s data
In Murafe, the roll is not written by hand: on the “Hearings” page you choose the day and its hearings appear sorted by court and time, then you print the roll or save it as a PDF to hand to the lawyers and court representatives. Each hearing on it was added from its case file with its date, time, type, attending lawyer and requirements; when a file has more than one client, the hearing shows on screen under the first client’s name followed by “and 1 other” or “and 3 others”, and the roll prints all their names in full. After the hearing, the decision is recorded with a ready-made phrase or free text, together with the hearing’s status and the next hearing’s date, time and requirements; the next hearing is created automatically and appears on its day’s roll. The responsible lawyer and the case team are alerted before every hearing; printing the roll is a separate permission in “Roles & permissions”, and every print is recorded in the audit log.