Workflow Question for Legal Casefiles

DEVONthink
1

Hi all,

I’ve posted previously about indexing vs importing, so not going to go there per se, but have a workflow question(s) for those of you managing casefiles in Devonthink. I’ve been managing one list of numbered files in a database for all my active files. It’s been going okay, but I’ve been thinking that once a file gets big enough or active enough (i.e. close to litigation), I want to pull the file into its own database. Currently, I have all the numbered files/folders in devonthink. At this point, I may want my assistant or other colleagues to access the information. A few things I’ve been considering:

  1. If I were to move all my files to a oneDrive folder, my assistant could access them. Then, for my own purposes, is it okay to index that folder twice in two different databases? (i.e. one for all my files where the case is a group; and another database that just indexes that specific case).

  2. Or, would it be better to just keep all in devonthink, pull out the files when I want to create a file specific database with a reference to the new database in the old file? I’d have to sort out some other arrangement for my assistant (i.e. don’t index the comprehensive file list, but do index the specific case database)

This probably doesn’t make sense, but generally, I’m wondering how lawyers and other case file managers manage such workflows. I’ve heard some lawyers say that they create a database for a file when prepping for litigation, but it is unclear whether they are just indexing a file represented elsewhere, or just moving wholesale the specific group from one database into its own devoted database.

Hope this makes sense. I’ve seen a few lawyers flirth with sharing their workflow but I have difficulty finding examples of how lawyers are managing file(s) from start to finish in devonthink.

Tron

2

Have you considered the Server version of DT3? That’s what I use for collaborating on cases with assistance of staff. It is immensely easier and less prone to data catastrophe than any of other options you are considering.

1 Like
3

Yes this is possible to do.

I’ve heard some lawyers say that they create a database for a file when prepping for litigation, but it is unclear whether they are just indexing a file represented elsewhere, or just moving wholesale the specific group from one database into its own devoted database.

I know lawyers of some who create a separate database for each case (which also makes sense to me personally). You could still index a folder on OneDrive you share with others.

And yes, you could also look into the Server edition, if desired. The Server edition has a built-in web server allowing you to broadcast a database on a network. (See the Help referenced below regarding access over the Internet.) It has per-database, per-user permissions you can set to control access to the databases you have open.
More discussion of web sharing is covered in Help > Documentation > In & Out > Web sharing, Windows > Web Sharing, and Preferences > Server.

4

Okay, thank you for this. If I want to index everything in a folder or which gets added to that folder, do I have to have the parent listed in the Devonthink Left-Side list.

For example, I want to index “Documents/Files” at the database level but I don’t want the parent “Files” to be listed as a parent group in the database, just the contents (i.e. "01, 02, 03 but not Files/01, 02, 03.