do not think you should ignore layers 
but I see your point
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Nothing against lawyers! Also not at all about not wanting to see, and participate in lawyer-centric use cases. I just see a potential for seeing the same DEVONthink issues/features/solutions being discussed in the main DEVONthink category as well as in a lawyer-specific category. Which could be tiresome for this of us who choose to read all the discussions here. Plus you know if lawyers get their own category, the educators will want one also! 
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Me, as C++ developer, want my own category… own and alone 
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Has a decision been made on where the lawyers’ group will live? I’m an attorney in Minnesota, managing a small firm, and am just in the early stages of learning and setting up DT. I haven’t even set up my first database yet. I’m trying to learn from the group on preferred formats, workflows, scripts, etc., so I can be up and running as out of the gate as possible. I’m the managing attorney and head of our litigation team, so I’m looking for ways to manage all those cases and make sure we are on top of everything.
A place where the lawyers can share experiences and resources specific to our industry would be really excellent. I was looking forward to @Frederiko’s series on this, but it looks like that never got beyond the first post. (I understand that entirely; I have plenty of started projects that never gained steam.)
Anyway—count me in!
Welcome @Graham.martin
No decision internally at this point but there is plenty of info in the built in Help and all over these forums.
Another lawyer. No litigation for me though. I’m just starting out with the software and trying to determine the best way to begin. I thought I would start with my 13Gb “downloads” folder, so I imported it as my first database with intent to sort through it all to put in the appropriate place. I then realized that all of these docs relate to different matters, but I have not imported my client files so I’m not sure where to begin. I am concerned about just letting everything live in DT, but importing all files is going to create a double instance of everything. I could also see danger in opening a doc from DT, working on it, and ending up with two different versions, one in DT and one in Finder. If I index, I could see it getting out of hand if I move or delete files and forget to update.
I have been reading here, reading the manual, and watching videos. I’m the kind of person who generally sorts by piles, relying on memory for locations, and I’m trying to change that method. Much of my work builds on previous work and research, so archiving old files and moving them out would not be helpful to me. What I’m hoping to do is adopt a new organizational system that allows me to quickly identify relationships and gain deeper insight into relevant information from my files that may apply to current matters while still being able to locate in the finder similar to my method now which is Firm>Client>etc
Appreciate any thoughts.
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Welcome @BillR
Did you read the Help > Documentation > Getting Started section? If not, I suggest you do.
Also check out this blog post…
Read through it. I think at the moment I’m just going to start using a little with current matters and learn as I go. At the moment, I can see that I’m really just using as a glorified finder to put files in groups, but as I learn hopefully I can start to really use this to its potential. One thing I notice- I have many files, for instance Word docs, that are redline versions of other docs, but they seem to be flagged as duplicates. The same with pdf versions of Word docs. Is there a rule I can apply to the Duplicates smart group to further filter within those search results? I looked at modifying the rule, but for now I’d rather make it a two step process.
Redlined or PDF version of a Word document would definitely be considered duplicates since the content is the same,
Enable Preferences > General > Stricter recognition of duplicates to have the app consider file size and type as well in duplicate detection.
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LEXIS
is running some promotions and pricing is good.
National State & Federal plus Briefs & Pleadings and other addons for about $200/mo.
fyi.
Hi Sidvicious
has a decision been made about the own lawyer/DT3 blog yet? Otherwise, I will set up something an dlet you know.
Best
Steffi
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hey man!
I’m not sure BUT to get things started I purchased;
to kick things off. I’ll donate them to the cause.
CAVEAT: It’s beyond my pay grade to go beyond the purchasing of the domains.
send me contact info and you can take it from here if you want to use these domains as a stand-alone site.
is it possible to PM on here? if not, I’ll submit a link were we [or anyone else] can hook up.
+1 for that; I would join!
Count me in
How do you name each client group? I am thinking of doing the same. However, I’ve always assigned case numbers by year to clients. Now I’ve had a number of them and that I’ve done several cases over the years. Do you just keep those by name or keep them fully separate by matter?
I’m not a lawyer but an advocate with about 30 cases on the go at any time and about 50 to 60 cases per year. Only a third of these end up in litigation (med/arb). I’ve been reading this thread with great interest but unfortunately I still can’t decide: one DB with groups for matters or many DB ? Lots of good points raised on both sides of the divide.
One problem that I have had with one DB (which is what I’m currently doing) is that every so often an email will be relevant to more than one matter and you cannot import an email twice. Haven’t figured that out yet, which is probably what led me to research whether a DT database per matter would be too cumbersome.
There are a few other threads by/for lawyers as you no doubt know. One was recently closed in Jan 2021, but the final post in that thread was from a medical expert offering to host a regular meeting for legal practitioners using DT. I’m not sure if this has gone anywhere but here is that thread: Using Devonthink for lawyers
After the email is imported, you can either Replicate it (wihtin the same database) or Duplicate it (within the same database or any other database).
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I put all active cases in one database where I create one folder per case and divide it into several subfolders, usually with the division client - opposing party - court - insurance - drafts. When the case is finished, I move it to an separate archive database.
The big advantage of having all active cases in one database is that after scanning new documents, the "See Also & Classify "function can be fully used. This way DTP immediately assigns the new document to the right case and there to the right subfolder. I label the files themselves beforehand using TextExpander starting with “year-month-day” - for example "2022 03 06 … ", so that I can sort the documents within the folder according to their date, regardless of the date added.
If you create a new database for each case, all databases must be open so that the “See Also & Classify” function really is a time-saving work aid. And it was this function that prompted me to file my files in DTP.
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Silly I didn’t think of that. Although right now I’ve been indexing my OneDrive case folder so that my assistant can access and monitor and rename and sort files as required. So I’m not sure if that makes a difference
But I’ve been digging into batch renaming and smart groups an am perhaps realizing that I don’t really need her to do that - which is good because I’ve always been a bit nervous about indexing folders that are in regular and active use (probably for no reason). It may just be better to export and reimport if I need her to work on a file (she is on windows unfortunately).
I very rarely have cases get too large and when they do it is because they are in active litigation. At that point I think I may just create a new database as needed for that single case with a reference link in the case file database ( ie structure is earned over time). So maybe hybrid is the better option for me.
I would not ever think of indexing for a professional case where I have an obligation to retain records.
There are gotchas which can cause you to inadvertently lose indexed files or at least lose track of them.
It’s one thing if this is for your short-term personal ideas folder - but quite another if there are professional obligations involved.
If the documents are imported into the Devonthink file then they will always be available.
Also if there may be future legal requests for production of documents, it is a whole lot simpler to just export imported items than to be concerned with the possibility that a legally discoverably document is indexed and for some reason not available.