Richard Harrison looks at modern ways of storing and accessing client information
It used to be so simple. You had a client. Who had a “matter”. For each particular matter, there was a cardboard “file”, labelled with the name of the client and the description of the matter.
There were various methods of organisation but generally you had a clip for “correspondence”: (letters in letters out, attendance notes, instructions to counsel), which would generally be in ascending chronological order. Then there was a flap for loose drafts and documents and possibly a separate folder for important documents such as contracts or pleadings.
Original court documents could be identified as such because they were sewn up with green tape. This practice gradually declined among progressive practitioners, to be superseded by the branded folded corner.
If the matter was complex or long-running, you would have several such folders or would transfer everything into nicely labelled lever-arch files.
To understand what had happened in the case previously, and its current status and future intentions, you looked at “the file”. If the client wanted it for a
