SharePoint Frequently Asked Questions

• Can we prevent staff from uploading files to the LegalServer document store and force everything to SharePoint? The short answer is: No. There are still several places within LegalServer that don't yet support uploading directly to SharePoint (Activities, Discovery, Services, Time, the Add Document block, or the Add Document with Title block).
• Can attachments to emails sent to a case be uploaded to SharePoint instead of the LegalServer document storage? Yes. File a support request (Help menu > Support Request) from your site asking to have that feature enabled. There is no additional cost.
• We don't want to give Legal Server Global Admin for the configuration; we'll want to have them walk us through the configuration. We can give you a Powershell script and directions that will create the apps necessary. If you want someone to do it through the UI, we have longer directions we can supply. We've also worked with groups who will give us Global Admin settings for a few hours to create the apps and then reduce the permissions down to a standard user once the back end settings are configured. The SharePoint Sites and Libraries can be created after the authentication apps are created. The details for the apps can be entered directly in LegalServer with the SharePoint Settings page.
• What kind of on-going access will LegalServer need to our Microsoft 365 environment to support the solution and what level of access is required for them to do their jobs. We request that you supply us with a user account that has read/write permissions to the sites/libraries that are storing LegalServer data. This will let us know if the integration is working and allows us to troubleshoot if there is a problem. The user account does not need an O365 license or access to anything beyond the LegalServer sites/libraries.
• Will the SharePoint site be accessible to anything/anyone other than the Legal Server application? If users can / should be able to directly access the site, what kind of permissions need to be setup on it? Users should have access to the SharePoint site. They need read/write permissions on the library to be able to add documents or modify them. You can restrict users to only certain libraries. You can also establish user permissions or tie ins to specific folders. Please consult an SharePoint expert for additional planning. 
• Are there requirements for how the SharePoint sites are provisioned? Any SharePoint site will work. The one requirement is that the document check-in feature be disabled. That is enabled by default only on the Document Repository site type.
• Do we need to create any lists or other items in the SharePoint sites or will the Legal Server product take care of creating any required libraries or objects in SharePoint? We request that you create the sites and libraries that you intend to use. You can have any number of subsites and libraries connected to LegalServer, but we need to know one specific default site and library that we will hard code. Other sites and libraries can be added in the User Interface by a site administrator in the future. We recommend two separate sites - one for Demo, one for Live - at a minimum. The standard "Shared Documents" library in those sites is often sufficient for Demo, but many groups want more granularity on Live.  For the case folders within the library, LegalServer will automatically create the case folders via the integration.
• Are there any retention policies that need to be configured or any other policies needed for the SharePoint sites? Not by LegalServer.
• Are there naming standards for the SharePoint site that LegalServer can provide? No standards are established. Many groups will use "LegalServer Demo" for their demo site and then "LegalServer" for their live site. Other groups divide their Live work between practice Areas - "Consumer", "Healthcare", etc. Case folders are stored in the root folder of the Library. Case folders are named for the case matter number in LegalServer. That folder name is the link between LegalServer and SharePoint and should not be modified unless you intend to break the relationship between LegalServer and the SharePoint case folder.
• Can we migrate our LegalServer documents to SharePoint? At a cost, yes. Exporting the documents as a whole from LegalServer in a format that can be imported into SharePoint and easily connect with LegalServer is not a simple task. Document storage in LegalServer operates differently than it does in SharePoint, so the folder structure needs to be revised in the export. 
• If we move the SharePoint folder, will LegalServer still know where the case files are? No. SharePoint folders do not have unique IDs. Moving the folder to a different directory, Library, or Site will break any connection to the folder. 
• How can I tell if a case has a SharePoint Folder? Using reports there are two options, although neither is foolproof. You can search for the SharePoint case folder creation note (which only works if the folder was created by LegalServer and not as a result of a document import). Or you can search for the SharePoint Site and Library lookup being populated in LegalServer (which only works if you are setting that to some value and not leaving it blank when saving to the original default library). 

• How many SharePoint Sites/Libraries should we plan for? Plan for future expansion.

  We caution organizations against just using a single SharePoint Library to integrate with. SharePoint has some native limitations of ~500,000 items before it stops indexing properly and a 26.4 TB size limit. When you start reaching SharePoint limits, it can be a real headache, so don't wait until it is too late to enable a second library or start sharing the file load.

  We typically recommend creating a new library for each year.

• How are the SharePoint folders named? The SharePoint folder related to the LegalServer case is named after the case number, like 14-0000123 and 23-0001234.
• Can the case folders in SharePoint have the client name? Only with the Tracer File feature also enabled. SharePoint does not create unique IDs for folders, only for files. As a result, we search for a folder with the client case number since that will be unique in LegalServer or we need to use the Tracer File feature. 
• We're experiencing delays in the SharePoint folder being created for cases. Can we see how long it is taking? Yes, a Case Data report in LegalServer has two relevant fields for each case: Sharepoint Case Folder Creation Enqueue Time and Sharepoint Case Folder Creation Time. Check your site for a "SharePoint Timing" report (it may be inactive) that shows the difference between the two times in hours/minutes/seconds, or ask support to upload the report to your site if you don't have one.

• How are generated template documents named when they are saved to SharePoint? The date and file name depends on three things: 1) Are you using the Recommended Documents block or the Guided Navigation Action: Generate a Document? 2) Is the template configured to save as DOCX or RTF? 3) Is the template configured to use the Download feature or the Process feature? The current naming result is a combination of dates and either the file name or the file title. 

  

  Our goal is to eventually standardize this with the ISO-8601 date format (today is 2023-12-18 instead of 12-18-2023, 121823, or 12182023) and the Document Title instead of the filename. The ISO format makes sorting by date in the file name straightforward. The Document Title is also modifiable in the UI as opposed to the filename of the template which will get a Unique Identifier in some cases automatically.

  Note: If a file is generated from a template a second time on a case on the same day, the original generated file is replaced.