Filed against the matter, held on your storage
Legal document management inside the firm's own storage
The papers on a matter are the matter. Keeping them in a shared drive with a naming convention works until somebody leaves, a version is overwritten, or a client asks which draft was sent on the twelfth.
Filing that follows the work
A store per client and matter.
Documents are filed against a client and a matter rather than into a folder path, which means they are found the way people ask for them — by the matter, not by remembering who saved it and where.
- Versioning. Uploading again creates a version; earlier versions stay retrievable.
- Permission-aware access. If you cannot see the matter, you cannot reach its documents. Viewing and managing are separate grants.
- One store for everything. Matter documents, expense receipts and rendered invoices sit in the same place, so producing a bill exactly as it was issued three years ago is retrieval rather than reconstruction.
A shared drive with a naming convention works until somebody leaves.
Where the files sit
On your hardware, either way.
The file store is pluggable. A single-server installation can keep documents on the server itself, with the firm’s existing backup regime covering them. A larger larger installation uses dedicated storage on the firm’s own hardware, which adds replication and retention rules without involving anyone outside the firm.
Either way, the store belongs to the installation. There is no upload to a service of ours, and no copy of a client’s papers anywhere except where the firm put it.
What this is not
An honest boundary.
This is a document store attached to a practice-management system, and it is the right answer for a firm currently running on a shared drive. It is not a specialist legal DMS: there is no full-text search across a decade of archives, no email filing from Outlook, and no automated retention schedule.
If you already run a system that does those things well, run it alongside. Being clear about the edge is more useful to you than a feature list that implies otherwise.
Questions this raises
Straight answers.
Where are the files actually stored?
On storage you control — either the firm’s own server or storage of your own alongside it. Nothing is placed with a third party unless you deliberately choose one.
Does it version documents?
Yes. A new upload of the same document creates a version rather than overwriting, and earlier versions stay retrievable.
Can we control who sees a document?
Access follows the permission system and the matter. Someone who cannot see a matter cannot reach the documents filed under it, and the document permissions are separate grants from the ability to manage matters.
Does it replace our document management system?
For most firms it replaces a shared folder tree, which is what they actually have. If you run a dedicated legal DMS with matter-centric filing and full-text search across decades of archive, keep it — AntChambers stores what belongs to the live matter and the billing record.
What about receipts and invoices?
They use the same store. Expense receipts and rendered invoices are held alongside matter documents, which is why an invoice can be produced years later exactly as it was issued.
Where to read next
Related
- Matters
What documents are filed against.
- Deployment and security
Who can reach the store, and from where.
- All modules
What else can be switched on.
See it against your own matters
A working demo takes about forty minutes. Bring a real fee note and a real timesheet week — we would rather show you the awkward parts than the polished ones.