As a lawyer, you will be a member of the law society of your state or country. However, you may also be required to deposit a specified amount from your general trust account into an ADI maintained by your local law society. Your law society will hold the funds, but must repay it on demand.

Set-up for Statutory Deposits

Create a new matter for the statutory deposits and assign it to a trust account.

1. Click the +Create button, then Matter.
2. Give the new matter a meaningful title, such as “Law Society Statutory Deposits”.
3. Choose Administration for the Practice Area, and fill in any other necessary fields.
4. Click Save to create the matter.
5. Once created, go to System in the left navigation menu, then Trust & Bank Accounts.
6. Find the relevant trust account for the statutory deposit funds.
7. In the Statutory Matter field, enter the new matter.

Creating a Statutory Deposit Payment

Determining the amount of a payment depends on the guidelines of your law society and are out of the scope for this article. Consult your law society for payment advice.

Your law society may also provide a calculator for determining the necessary amount to be deposited, which the New South Wales Law Society provides here:

• https://www.lawsociety.com.au/practising-law-in-NSW/trust-money-and-fidelity-fund/statutory-deposits/calculator

To make a payment in mattero:

1. click on the Create button located on the Top Navigation bar, then click on Trust Record then Payment.  The Create Payment form is displayed.
2. Fill in the Create Payment form, making sure to choose the law society matter created above.
3. Choose the law society contact in the Paid to field, or create it if you haven’t already.
4. Click Save.

The payment will be listed in the Trust tab of the law society matter.

Receiving Funds from Your Law Society

Once you have requested and received back funds from your law society, ensure that you record the received amount in Mattero.

1. click on the Create button located on the Top Navigation bar, then click on Trust Record then Receipt.  The Create Receipt form is displayed.
2. Fill in the Create Receipt form, making sure to choose your Law Society in the Received From field and the Law Society matter in the Matter field.
3. Click Save.

The payment will be listed in the Trust tab of the law society matter.

Statutory Deposits and Reporting

Statutory deposits are recorded on the Trust Trial Balance report as part of the header that lists the Total Matter Balance, Statutory Deposit, Trust Cashbook Balance, and Variance:

The total matter balance amount plus the statutory deposit amount should equal the cash book closing balance, leaving the variance to be zero.

Note that while statutory deposits to the law society are recorded in Mattero as payments, they are funds that are held by the law society and can be repaid upon demand, so Mattero does not view them as overdrawn and they are not included in the Overdrawn Report.