Glossary

A

Acknowledgement. A permanent record that a person read a new version of a procedure, or that someone responded to a page. Some notifications and procedures require one.

Allowed actions. The actions a person may take on a work item, fixed from its type when the item is created.

Attorney gate. A point in a workflow or a work item where work cannot continue without an attorney's decision. Gates default on wherever legal work product leaves the firm.

Attorney-only. The highest sensitivity of a matter, note or fact. It needs an attorney role, an assignment or an explicit, time-limited grant.

Audit log. The firm's append-only, hash-chained record of who did what, when and from where. See The audit log.

B

Binding. A rule that delivers a procedure or playbook in a particular context, such as a work item type or caller class.

Brand. A name the firm answers the phone under, with its own colour and logo.

Break-glass. Time-bound emergency access by LegalBook security staff, audited and reviewed afterwards.

C

Callback. A promise to call someone back within a window, tracked until completed.

Candidate fact. A fact recorded but not yet verified by a person. AI-extracted facts are always candidates first.

Capability. In the client portal, what an access may do: view documents, upload, message, view payments, pay, manage appointments, complete questionnaires, sign.

Client-safe. A view or label written for clients. Milestones appear in the portal only with a client-safe label.

Conflict search. A search of the firm's people and matters for possible conflicts of interest. Only an attorney decides the result.

D

Dead letter. A sync job or event that failed too many times, kept for an operator to replay or discard.

Discrepancy. Two sources disagreeing about the same fact. A person resolves it; nothing is overwritten.

Disposition. The recorded outcome of a call, chosen at wrap-up.

Docketing queue. The queue where proposed deadlines and agency appointments are checked and verified.

E

Engagement. The record of what the firm agreed to do, for whom and on what terms.

Escalation. Raising something to a person with more authority. Legal-judgment escalations go to an attorney.

Escalation tree. The firm's chains of who is paged, in what order and how fast, for each kind of escalation.

F

Firm. One law firm in LegalBook (also called a tenant). A firm with several locations is one firm with several offices.

Firm strip. The bar at the top of the screen showing which firm you are working in, its local time and any standing instruction.

I

Intake. One run of a questionnaire for a prospect or client.

L

Lease. The hold a person has on a work item while working it. Only the lease holder can change the item.

Legal hold. A preservation order on records. It always wins over retention.

M

Matter. The firm's record of one piece of legal work for a client.

N

Notice. A piece of government or court correspondence, matched to a matter and verified.

O

Office. One location of a firm.

P

Pack. A set of workflow definitions and related content for a kind of matter, such as the nine immigration packs.

Playbook. A step-by-step script that runs inside a call, a work item or an intake.

Prospect. A person who has contacted the firm about new work.

Q

QA review. A structured review of completed work against a scorecard.

Queue. A collection of work of one kind, for the firm, one office or a shared pool.

R

Recent sign-in. A sign-in within the last few minutes, required for sensitive actions.

Request slot. One item in a document request, such as a passport photo page.

Rework. Work returned to be corrected after a failed QA review or an attorney's return.

Role app. A workspace for a kind of work: Firm, Reception, Production, Attorney, Supervisor, Client portal.

S

Sandbox. Test mode during onboarding. Sandbox activity is tagged and kept out of reports and usage.

Service level (SLA). The time allowed for a kind of work, with a clock that warns before breach.

Shared workforce. Trained staff who serve several firms, each authorized per firm with specific roles.

Signed link. A short-lived, single-purpose address for a file, created after a permission check.

Supersede. Replace a record with a new one while keeping the old one in history. Deadlines, decisions and facts are superseded, never edited.

T

Two-step verification. A second step at sign-in: an authenticator app or a passkey, with recovery codes.

V

Version. One fixed edition of a document, workflow, form, template or procedure. Published versions do not change.

W

Work item. A unit of work with a queue, a service level, allowed actions and an escalation path.

Workflow. The firm's process for a kind of matter, run by LegalBook with every instance pinned to its version.