Does It Compute?

Worldox Salvage Bin

There are a number of “housekeeping” features in Worldox that can help make your system cleaner and more efficient, as well as protecting the firm. Two of these are the Salvage Bin and Archiving.

The Salvage Bin is just what it sounds like: a Worldox equivalent of the Recycle Bin on your local PC (unfortunately Microsoft does not offer a network equivalent of this option). You can (and should) set Worldox up so that this is the only option when someone wants to delete a file. There are two reasons for this. First, it eliminates the “oh darn, I didn’t mean to do that” problem when someone deletes a file by mistake. Deleted files can be restored from the Salvage Bin (which is also indexed and searchable) by authorized users. Secondly, it counteracts potentially malicious deletion of files by discontented users. Unfortunate, but a reality in today’s world. Restricting rights to restore documents is also essential in maintaining security.

Many firms then just allow the salvage bin to sit there (just as many people don’t clean the recycle bin on their PC). You should then set the indexer to permanently delete anything that has been in the Salvage Bin for longer than, say, 2-3 months. This helps keep your system clean.

Archiving. You can also archive closed files to a different storage area if desired. This can be useful if you want to put some things on a different storage device to free up disk space or simply make your index more efficient. You can then mark the closed files as “inactive” and make your system more efficient for end users.

You can create a system that automatically archives certain files older than a given amount of time. However, since a firm typically retains different types of files (Wills vs. Real Estate Closings for example) for different amounts of time, this can be a bit complicated.

Worldox also has a bulk archiving system if you wish to archive large amounts of data. Firms that are moving to a hosted solution, for example, may want to archive data locally to avoid extra storage charges. It makes retrieving data a bit more complex, but can save the firm a significant amount of money.

Note also that if you have cloud system (hosted or otherwise) you cannot “archive” directly to a local PC.

Personal Documents in Worldox

When a firm first adopts a document management system such as Worldox, one of the questions users inevitably ask is “what about my personal documents?” Technically, of course, any document produced on the computer of a law firm or corporation belongs to the firm: there is no such thing as “personal” documents. In nearly 25 years as a consultant, however, I have only ever seen one firm try to enforce this position aggressively.

So what about personal documents? Traditionally, users put personal documents on their local C: drive or on a network share personal to them. The key question about personal documents, however, is what is personal and what is a firm document? Many users, for example, keep drafts “personal” until they are done on the grounds that they don’t want other people to see them. This is a sign of a dysfunctional firm since it presumes the firm does not have the right to see work product until the individual user decides it is “ready” to share with other users.

How do you define “personal?” Recently, for example, the name partner of one of my clients complained that Worldox was “not working” because he couldn’t find a document entitled “firm blog - topic”. It turns out that one of the attorneys had saved the document in her “personal” matter to which other users (including the partner) did not have access. So there has to be a clear firm policy about what is personal and what belongs to the firm. For most firms, it seems reasonable to say that any document dealing with firm or client matters is a “firm” document no matter what state it is in. Depending on the firm’s culture, one might even want to say that if the user persists in storing firm documents in their personal space, they lose exclusive rights to that space.

Worldox has a way to protect both interests. By creating personal “matters” that only the user can see, the individual is protected. In addition since these documents are indexed along with other documents, they are searchable and thus actually more readily available to the user than if they were on a C: drive. Documents are also backed up, so in the event of a particular user’s PC crashing, documents are not lost. At the same time, if necessary, a firm administrator can override those rights and view the documents, thus protecting the firm as well.

Configuring personal documents is generally done either via a personal “matter” in the main client cabinet (client=personal; matter=JH), or an entirely separate “personal” cabinet. While the former solution is a bit more work to set up and maintain, it is easier for users, since they don’t have to access a different cabinet, and is the solution I prefer for smaller firms.