# Conflict Check

> Establish whether this firm may act at all, before any substantive work on a new matter.

- Skill: `tinyhumansai/conflict-check` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tinyhumansai/conflict-check`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tinyhumansai/conflict-check/raw
- Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: tinyhumansai (https://skillmd.com/u/tinyhumansai)
- Updated: 2026-09-22
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tinyhumansai/conflict-check

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# Conflict Check

The first thing that happens on any new matter, and the one place in this
company where the correct outcome may be to stop entirely.

## When to use

- A prospective client asks for anything.
- An existing client brings a new matter.
- A matter's parties change — a new defendant, an acquired entity, a joined
  third party.

## Steps

1. **Name every party**, not just the client: counterparties, affiliates,
   parents and subsidiaries, and the individuals behind them where the firm
   would recognise them.
2. **Search the `matters` ledger** for each name, including closed and declined
   rows. A declined matter is kept precisely because its reason is usually a
   conflict.
3. **Check adversity in both directions.** Acting *against* a current client is
   the obvious one; acting for a party whose interests diverge from an existing
   client's on the same question is the one that gets missed.
4. **Check information, not just parties.** Confidential knowledge from a past
   matter can disqualify the firm even where nobody is adverse today.
5. **Record the result on the matter row** — `conflicts`, with what was searched
   and when. `none found` and `not run` are different answers and only one of
   them unblocks work.
6. **Escalate anything unclear to the operator.** A close call is a licensed
   human's call, always.

## Output

The `conflicts` field on the matter, stating what was searched, what was found,
and the date. Where a conflict exists, a `declined` matter row with the reason
recorded — which is worth more to the firm than the matter would have been.