A GUIDE TO DOCUMENT FIELDS

INTRODUCTION

One of the key functions of the LegalSuite program is to generate legal documents by combining Word documents with the data stored in the SQL database..

The Word "template" is made up of regular text with Fields at specific places within the document to indicate where data from the program must be inserted. Fields are enclosed in double square brackets, e.g. [[FIELD NAME]]

There are a number of different field types that can be inserted into a document. Below is a comprehensive list of all the possible type of Fields that can be used.

MERGE FIELDS

Program Fields are designed to extract general information from the LegalSuite program. These are defined within the program under the Browse | Fields menu.

These are inserted into a Primary Document using this syntax:

[[field]]

where field is the name of a Merge Field defined in the program, i.e. the Name must appear in the list above.

Example:

[[FIRM_NAME]] à Assemble Document à Acme Attorneys

PARTY FIELDS

Party Fields are used to extract information about a specific Party linked to the Matter.

The syntax is as follows:

[[role.whichone.type.description.format]]

role	the role of the Party in the Matter (e.g. Defendant).
whichone	a nominal indicator (e.g. 1,2,3 . . . All ) to identify which Party.
type	an indicator of the field type (field, pronoun, telephone)
description	a description to identify the type
format	Optional. Only used when the whichone parameter is set to ‘All’ and the type parameter is set to ‘Field’. It tells the program how to separate multiple occurrences of the Field (if there is more than one Party with that role).

Examples:

Defendant.1.Field.IdentityNumber	First defendant's Identity Number
Seller.All.Field.Name	All the Sellers’ names separated with spaces
Opposing.All.Field.Name.Comma	All the opposing attorneys’ names separated by commas.
Buyer.All.pronoun.we are	The Buyers’ pronoun We are/ I am
Buyer.1.pronoun.we are	The first Buyer’s pronoun We are/ I am
Advocate.1.telephone.email	The first Advocate’s email address
Client.1.Field.Name	The Client’s name
Current.Party.Field.Postal address	For letters from the Party screen - the current parties postal Address

When the type parameter is set to “Field”, the Description parameter must exist in the list of Party Fields defined in the program.

When the type parameter is set to “Pronoun”, the Description parameter must exist in the list of Pronouns defined in the program.

When the type parameter is set to “Telephone”, the Description parameter must exist in the list of Telephone Types defined in the program.

FREE FORMAT FIELDS

Free Format Fields contain direct references to the actual data in the LegalSuite program.

Their syntax is as follows:

[[(reference)]]

where reference is an valid data field or expression.

Examples:

[[(MAT:FileRef)]]	The file reference of the Matter
[[(PAR:Name)]]	The party’s name
[[(GLO:TodaysDate)]]	Today’s date
[[(PL:Title & ‘ ‘ & PL:Name)]]	The Party’s title, a space and the surname (in the language of the document)

Note: The names of the data fields within LegalSuite can be found in the tooltip which is displayed when the mouse cursor hovers over the field, for example:

MISCELLANEOUS DATA FIELDS

The following Data Fields are available for to be inserted as Free Format Fields in a document:

CTL:RemoteWebsiteURL	The URL where LegalSuite Online is located
GLO:DeliveryCode	The code defining how the document is to be delivered
GLO:UserName^*	The name of the logged in Employee
GLO:LoginID^*	The Login of the logged in Employee
GLO:Reference^*	The personal reference of the logged in Employee
GLO:Email^*	The personal email address of the logged in Employee
GLO:Fax^*	The private fax number of the logged in Employee
GLO:Telephone^*	The private telephone number of the logged in Employee

^*These Data Fields are specified in the Employee setup:

VIRTUAL FIELDS

These data fields don’t exist in the SQL database, but are created by the program during the Document Assembly process to enable the user to easily insert the correct bank account descriptions in a document.

MAT:TrustBankAccount	The description of the Matter’s trust bank account
MAT:BusinessBankAccount	The description of the Matter’s business bank account

SPECIAL FIELD NAMES

There are also a number of “special” Fields (which don’t appear in the list of Merge Fields) which will insert various clauses or external documents into the main document

[[LETTERHEAD]]¹	Insert the letterhead at the top of the document
[[FAXHEAD]]¹	Insert the fax letterhead at the top of the document
[[ACCOUNTHEAD]]¹	Insert the accounting letterhead at the top of the document
[[PARTICULARS]]²	Insert the Particulars of Claim at this place in the document
[[NONPREJ CLAUSE]]³	Insert the Non-prejudice Clause at this place in the document
[[EMPLOYEE CLAUSE]]³	Insert the Employee Clause at this place in the document
[[HEADER]]⁴	Insert the Header at this place in the document
[[FOOTER]]⁴	Insert the Header at this place in the document
[[LOGO:]]⁵	Insert the Logo at this place in the document
[[IMAGE:]]⁶	Insert the Trademark Image at this place in the document
[[INCLUDE(filename)]]	Insert filename at this place in the document

Notes:

1. The various letterheads are specified in the Employee setup:

2. The PARTICULARS are specified in the Litigation Document Database:

3. The NONPREJ CLAUSE and EMPLOYEE clauses are found in the Conveyancing Document Database:

4. The Headers and Footers are found in the Language section of the Document Set:

5. The LOGO: is found in the Conveyancing Tab of the Document set

6. The IMAGE: is specified per Trademark or Registration in the Registrations section of the program (optional). It is useful if you want to include the image of the item in a document – the program will retrieve the image and insert it into the Word document at this place.

DIRECTIVES

These directives perform certain tasks.

[[LANGUAGE=LanguageID]]	Change the language of the document
[[MESSAGE(message)]]	Display a message
[[WARNING(message)]]	Display a message and give the user the option to abort the Document Assembly Process
[[ABORT(message)]]	Display a message and then abort the Document Assembly Process

(See How do I stop users from assembling a Document if they have left out some important information? for more information)

CONDITIONAL STATEMENTS

You can use logical “IF ELSE” statements to conditional include or exclude certain blocks of text at any point within a document.

(See Using IF conditions in a Document and Using Conditional Statements for more information)

SPECIAL FUNCTIONS

Functions perform complex tasks to retrieve information from the database which is not stored in a single Data Field. A function returns a value which can be inserted into a document or used in conditional statements.

STAGES

Function

Description

Example

GetStageDate(‘code’)

Returns the date a Stage was completed

[[(FORMAT(GetStageDate(‘0001’),@D18))]]

CheckStage(‘code’)

Returns the 1 if the Stage has been reached (i.e. there is a File Note with this Stage code) or 0 if it has not been reached.

This is commonly used in [[IF]] statements

[[IF(CheckStage(‘0001’)=1)]]This Matter has passed this stage.[[ENDIF]]

EXTRA SCREENS

Function	Description	Example
GetDocumentField (aka GDF)	Gets a specific field from a Desktop Extra Screen	See Extra Screens White Paper for more information
GetPartyField (aka GPF)	Gets a specific field from an Address Book Extra Screen
GetPartyRoleField (aka GPRF)	Gets a specific field from a Party Extra Screen

PARTIES

Function	Description	Example
PartyTypeDescription (aka Type)
PartyTypeEntity
PartyTypeStatus
EntityDescription (aka Entity)
EntityLangDescription
EntityJuristicFlag

DATES

Function	Description	Example
GetDayofWeek
GetMonthName
GetYearOnly
FindDate
FindDates
FindDateByMonth
FindDateByWeek
GetPlanDate

MISCELLANEOUS

Function	Description	Example
Convert
CountParties
RecordNumber
RecordTotal