Applies To
LexWorkplace Starter, Core, Advanced
Overview
The Trash Bin in LexWorkplace serves as a safety net for deleted objects, allowing you to restore them if needed or permanently remove them when appropriate. Whether you’re deleting clients, matters, documents, emails, or notes, the Trash Bin provides a centralized location to manage these actions, apply permission rules, and track deletion activity.
Terminology
Operation | Result |
|---|---|
Move Object to Trash Bin | Sends one or more objects (Clients, Matters, Documents, Email, Notes) to the Trash Bin for potential restoration or permanent deletion later. |
Restore Object from Trash Bin | Object is restored from the Trash Bin to its original location |
Permanently Delete Object in Trash | Permanently delete an Object in the Trash Bin. This action cannot be undone. |
How Objects in the Trash Bin Behave
Objects that are in the Trash Bin (Clients, Matters, Documents, Folders, Email, Notes) are restricted in terms of allowable operations/actions.
Clients in the Trash Bin
Matters cannot be assigned to a Client in the Trash Bin.
Clients in the Trash Bin cannot be edited.
Matters in the Trash Bin
Matters in the Trash Bin cannot be edited.
Documents, Folders, Email and Matter Notes in a Matter that is in the Trash Bin cannot be opened, edited or moved.
Documents and Email cannot be uploaded/saved to a Matter that is in the Trash Bin.
Documents in the Trash Bin
Documents in the Trash Bin cannot be opened, edited or have new versions uploaded.
The properties of a Documents in the Trash Bin cannot be edited/changed.
Documents in the Trash Bin cannot be renamed, moved or duplicated.
Documents in the Trash Bin cannot be used with LexWorkplace Compare, Litera Compare or Document AI.
Documents in the Trash Bin cannot be converted to a PDF.
Documents in any folder in the Trash Bin cannot be opened, edited or have new versions uploaded.
Email in the Trash Bin
The Short Note of an Email in the Trash Bin (or a folder in the Trash Bin) cannot be changed.
Email in the Trash Bin cannot be moved.
Folders in the Trash Bin
Documents: All rules for Documents in the Trash Bin (above) also apply to documents in a folder that has been moved to the Trash Bin.
Email: All rules for Email in Trash Bin (above) also apply to email in a folder that has been moved to the Trash Bin.
Additionally, folders that have been moved to the Trash Bin will appear with the trash can icon in the breadcrumbs of that Matter or Firm Documents.
Object Delete Flow
Move one or more items to the Trash Bin.
Items appear in the Trash Bin screen, organized by tabs (Clients, Matters, Documents, Email, Notes, Activity).
From here you can:
Restore the object to its original location.
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Permanently Delete the object.
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WARNING
Permanently deleting any object is truly permanent and cannot be undone.
Accessing the Trash Bin
The trash bin’s location will be on the bottom of the main (left) menu, under the Development Tab.
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Trash Bin Tabs
Here you will see all objects that have been moved to the Trash Bin, organized by object type across 5 tabs:
Clients - Clients sent to the trash bin.
Matters - Matters sent to the trash bin (INCLUDING all documents contained in those matters.)
Documents - Documents sent to the trash bin from either Matters, or Firm Documents.
Email - Emails sent to the trash bin from a Matter.
Notes - Notes sent to the trash bin from the Notes tab inside of a Matter.
(Plus an additional tab called Activity, which we’ll describe shortly.)
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You can filter and sort on all column headings, just like elsewhere in LexWorkplace.
For instance, on the Documents tab, you could apply a filter to just see documents from a specific matter, or in a specific location/folder.
A Note on Access/Permissions
When it comes to the question of “who can see what in the Trash Bin,” regular access/permission rules apply, and access rights behave no differently in the Trash Bin than elsewhere in LexWorkplace.
Firm Admins have access to all objects (clients, matters, documents, email and notes) in the Trash Bin
All other Users will see only the objects in the Trash Bin that they have access to.
Objects and Containers
Some objects contain others, such as a Client containing one or more Matters, and Folders containing one or more Documents.
In the Trash Bin (screen), when browsing trashed items on any given tab, it’s important to understand that when a user moves an object (parent) that contains other objects (child objects) to the Trash Bin, the child objects will be moved to the Trash with the parent object, in most cases. However, only the parent object will appear in the Trash Bin list for that object type.
Parent Object | Child Object(s) | Behavior if Moved to Trash |
|---|---|---|
Client | Matter | Only Client (record) moved to Trash Bin, (child) Matters remain unchanged |
Matter | Folders, Documents, Email, Notes | All child objects also moved to Trash Bin |
Folder | Folders, Documents, Email, Notes | All child objects also moved to Trash Bin |
Documents | (None) | Selected Document(s) moved to Trash Bin (and nothing more) |
(None) | Selected Email(s) moved to Trash Bin (and nothing more) | |
Notes | (None) | Selected Matter Note(s) moved to Trash Bin (and nothing more) |
Here are two examples:
Example #1: User Deletes a Matter
A user moves the matter XYZ Matter to the Trash Bin. This matter holds, among other things, a particular document named FindMeLater.docx. All child objects (folders, documents, email, etc.) have also been moved to the Trash Bin, but the user will not see FindMeLater.docx in the Documents tab of the Trash Bin. FindMeLater.docx is in the Trash Bin, but not visible here because it was not the specific object that was deleted (it’s parent, XYZ Matter, was). The user will see XYZ Matter in the Matters tab of the Trash Bin, where they can navigate to and find FindMeLater.docx.Example #2: User Deletes a Client
A user moves the Client ABC Co. to the Trash Bin. That Client had 3 Matters assigned to it in LexWorkplace (a mix of open and closed), called Matter 01, Matter 02, and Matter 03. The Client, ABC Co, has been moved to the Trash Bin, but the three Matters assigned to this Client are not also moved to the Trash Bin. (Matters can exist with deleted Clients or even no Client assigned.) As outlined in the table above, Clients/Matters behave uniquely in this way.
Activity Log
In addition to the tabs for Clients, Matters, Documents, Email and Notes, you’ll find a tab for Activity.
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Every time a user permanently deletes one or more objects, the requested delete operation will run and log the details of its activity here.
Because a single deletion could contain hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of folders, documents and other child objects, a permanent delete operation could take less than a second, or could run for multiple hours.
Click View Details next to any permanent delete operation to see additional information about this particular job. The Permanent delete operation captures and logs the following information:
Who (what LexWorkplace user) started the operation.
When (date/time) the operation was started.
Date/time the operation completed.
Summary/Count of objects permanently deleted in this operation.
Each row in the activity log is a specific permanent delete operation that is running or ran in the past. Using this tab you are able to confirm job deletion.
Protective Order/Compliance for Deletion
The activity tab can be helpful for informing parties that confidential information has been permanently deleted from LexWorkplace. The job detail log will describe when the deletion actions are complete.
No List of Deleted Objects
LexWorkplace records the count/quantity of each type of object that was permanently deleted as part of a given operation (eg: X Documents, Y Folders, Z Emails), but does not maintain a list of each document that was deleted (name, ID) in the permanent delete activity log.