Document Type

Document types serve as a method of categorising documents in ContactsLaw.

They also influence the behaviour of the document, determining:

• The description of the document (dynamically generated)
• Folder in which the document is placed
• Parties to the document
• Custom fields

A document type can be assigned during upload or at any time afterwards (until the document is destroyed). If a type is assigned during upload, ContactsLaw will attempt to catalogue the document automatically (using metadata to populate any required parties); however, if this is not possible then cataloguing must be performed interactively instead. This behaviour can also be overridden for individual document types.

For documents generated using ContactsLaw, the document type is determined by the template configuration. The cataloguing information is collected as part of the process of generating the document.

Properties

Document types have the following properties:

• Name
• Optional category (used to group similar types)
• Default path to the folder on the destination (will be created during cataloguing if it does not already exist)
• Optional comments, which help users understand when to choose the document type
• Whether to disable automatic cataloguing
• Whether to treat documents as correspondence and, if so, the type of correspondence to assume (if not otherwise specified)

Purposes

Document types can be assigned a purpose, which causes the system to automatically select that type in certain situations:

Purpose	When Used
Correspondence	When uploading documents in a format used exclusively for correspondence (e.g. emails) When importing emails from an external provider (e.g. Microsoft 365)
Bundle	When creating a bundle from a brief

Multiple document types can be used for the same purpose. ContactsLaw will select the most-specific type that applies to a given document; for example, a document type in the same workgroup will be chosen over one in a parent workgroup or at the subscription level.

Description Definitions

If desired, document types can define how document descriptions are generated. Description definitions use the same syntax and semantics as templates (although they cannot contain Markdown).

An important difference, however, is that while templates draw upon the assets created by their author, description definitions can only draw upon assets which directly correspond to the parties and fields on the document (or its associated matter). When editing the definition, the available assets are listed for ease of access.

Note: Since the assets are derived from the properties of the document type, the system may modify their names slightly to fit within the required syntax.