Using By Lawyers Precedents within LEAP

Accessing Precedents

• Open any Matter.
• Click the ‘Guides & Precedents’ button at the top of the Matter.

Searching Precedents 

• If you cannot find the precedent you need, click the ‘Search’ tab and type in the precedent name in the top left hand corner of the screen and click the Search button.

Creating Precedents

You can create new Precedents or modify the ones already in LEAP.

Need help modifying a precedent? LEAP Certified Consultants specialise in making advanced changes to precedents. Click here to find a consultant.

Note : All precedents are based on Document Types. If you wish to modify any information on a precedent such as an address, letterhead, signature refer to the section on “Document Types”.

To create your own precedents:

• Open the matter type you wish to create the precedent in e.g. Letter to Vendor Regarding Signing of Contract, open a Sale matter.
• Click on the ‘Guides & Precedents’ button at the top of the matter.
• Right click anywhere on the screen and click New > Word or Excel Precedent.

• Select the template you wish to use and then select the recipient of the template. Click ‘OK’.

• Enter the contents of your precedent where the body bookmark is placed, i.e Below the “RE” line and above “Yours Faithfully”.

Inserting Fields

Fields can be inserted into your precedent to make it automated.

• Have the precedent open in Word
• Click the LEAP tab
• Select the editing button, then click insert.  A list of fields will appear on the right hand side of the screen.

• Make sure your cursor is in the correct location on the precedent.
• Select the appropriate section where the field is located. For example, If you need the completion date, select ‘Matter’.
• Select the appropriate field from the list E.g. ‘Completion/Settlement Date’.
• Click ‘insert’ at the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

• Continue inserting fields in the appropriate locations on your precedent.

• Once you have completed your precedent. Click ‘Save & Close’ in the top left hand corner of word.

• Rename your precedent and click ok.

The precedent will now be available in all matters of the same matter type.

Modifying Precedents

To modify an existing precedent:

1. Click once on the ‘Guides and Precedents’ button at the top of your matter.
2. Locate the precedent you wish to amend.
3. Right click on the precedent you wish to modify and then select ‘Modify Precedent’.

Your precedent will open in Microsoft Word allowing you to make any necessary amendments within the letter.

Importing a Precedent

You can also import precedents into LEAP that are saved on your computer. Make sure you open a matter that corresponds with the matter type that the precedent is for, then click the ‘Guides & Precedents’ button at the top of the matter. Simply right click on the screen and select ‘Import Precedent’.

You will be presented with a navigation screen. Navigate to where your precedent is saved on your computer and double click the precedent. This will import it to the location that you have opened in LEAP. You can then modify the precedent to add in fields.

Move, Shortcut or Duplicate Precedents

Move Precedents

There are two ways to move a precedent. Either right click on the precedent to cut and paste or follow the drag and drop method described below.

• Open any Matter
• Select the ‘Guides & Precedents’ button
• Expand the folders on the left hand side of the window so that the folder that the precedent will be moved to is displayed
• Locate the precedent to be moved
• Click on the precedent so it is highlighted
• Drag and drop the precedent into the correct folder.

Precedent folders can also be dragged and dropped into other precedent folders.

If a precedent has been moved and needs to be returned to it original location, right click on the precedent and select ‘Reset Precedent’s Location to Original’.

Shortcut Precedents

A shortcut creates a link to an original precedent. Shortcuts are useful when the same precedent is required in two different locations.

Using a shortcut instead of duplicating a precedent means that only one precedent needs to be updated and maintained.

To shortcut the precedent:

• Open any Matter
• Select the ‘Guides & Precedents’ button
• Locate the precedent that you need a link to
• Right click on the precedent and select ‘Create Shortcut’

The shortcut to the precedent will appear. A shortcut can be identified as it contains the icon.  If required, the shortcut can then be moved to a new location.

Shortcuts can also be created from a precedent folder. Removing a precedent from the original folder will also remove the precedent from the shortcut folder and vise versa.

To locate the original precedent or precedent folder from a shortcut, right click on the shortcut and select ‘Find Target Precedent/Folder’.

Duplicate Precedents

Duplicating creates an exact copy of the precedent, but does not contain a link back to the original document. This is useful when you want to create a new precedent based on an existing document.

Once a precedent is duplicated, any changes to the original document will not flow through to the duplicated version.

There are two ways to duplicate a precedent. Either right click on the precedent to copy and paste, or follow the method described below.

To duplicate a precedent:

• Open any Matter
• Select the ‘Guides & Precedents’ button
• Locate the precedent that you need to duplicate
• Right click on the precedent and select ‘Duplicate Precedent’

Another version of the precedent will appear and if required, can be moved to a new location.

Precedent Folders

Folders can be added to the ‘Guides & Precedents’ window. This allows users to customise the Guides & Precedents interface. It also allows user Precedents to be separated from LEAP Precedents.

Creating new Precedent Folders

• Open the type of matter which you would like to add a folder.
• Select the ‘Guides & Precedents’ button
• Right-click on an empty space in the Precedent window
• Select New > Folder
• Name the new folder

Folders can also be created within other folders:

Deleting a Folder

• Open the type of matter which contains the folder.
• Select the ‘Guides & Precedents’ button
• Locate the folder
• Right click on the folder to be deleted
• Click ‘Delete’

Reversing a Folder Deletion

• Open the type of matter which contains the folder.
• Select the ‘Guides & Precedents’ button
• If known, find the location the folder was deleted from
• Select ‘Tools’
• Click on ‘View Deleted Precedents’
• Right click on the folder you would like to retrieve
• Select ‘Undelete’
• To hide deleted folders, click on ‘Tools’ and deselect ‘View Deleted Precedents’.

Precedent History

The history of a precedent is recorded to allow you to monitor what version of the precedent you are using and to revert back to a previous version if required.

• Follow the instructions at the top of the page under “Accessing Precedents” to locate the document.
• Right-click on the precedent and select “History of Changes”

From this window, you will be able to see how many changes have been made to the precedent and when they were made. You can also use the buttons at the top to preview a certain version of the document, compare two versions or set a particular version as the current one.

Adding a Christmas Message to LEAP

This article demonstrates how to add a Christmas message to your correspondence.

Before modifying the document types you need to have your firms Christmas Message ready. An example is shown below:

Adding the Christmas message to the LEAP

To edit the document types in LEAP:

• Open a matter.
• Click the ‘More Types’ button at the top of the matter
• You will be presented with a list of document types. Right click on ‘Letter’ and then click ‘Edit’. This will open the document in edit mode where you are able to insert your Christmas Message.
• Once you have added your Christmas Message to the document, click the LEAP ‘Save & Close’ button in Microsoft Office Word.
• Continue on editing any other document types you wish to use. E.g. Fax, File Note etc. These changes will go through to all precedents that use these document types.

Removing the Christmas message from the LEAP

When the Christmas period is over and the New Year has started, we will need to remove the Christmas message from the document types.  Please do the following:

• Open a matter.
• Click the ‘More’ button at the top of the matter.
• You will be presented with a list of document types. Right click on ‘Letter’ and then click ‘History of Changes’. This will open the History of changes window.
• In the History of changes window, select the document that was being used before the Christmas Message was added and hit ‘Set as Current’.

External Precedents Folder

The ‘External Precedents Folder’ functionality allows your firm to maintain and keep your precedents locally on your machine or a networked location outside of LEAP. The selected folder will appear in the ‘Guides & Precedents’ window under the ‘External Precedents Folder’ tab. This eliminates the need to manually import your precedents into LEAP every time.

To set an ‘External Precedents Folder’:

• Open ‘Guides & Precedents’ in a Matter.
• Select the ‘External Precedents Folder’ tab.
• Click ‘Select Folder’.

Select the folder you want to display your local or networked precedents from. All folders and documents from within the selected folder will appear in the ‘Guides & Precedents’ window under the folder tree structure on the ‘External Precedents Folder’ tab.

If documents are added to the file structure, the ‘External Precedents Folder’ can be refreshed via the right-click menus ‘Refresh List’ option. You can also open the target location of any file via the right-click menus ‘Show in File Explorer’ option.

An external folder can be deselected by choosing ‘Deselect Current Folder’ from the options menu.

Custom Precedents Tab

Custom precedents can be viewed from a single tab in the ‘Guides & Precedents’ window. This can be enabled by selecting ‘Show Custom Precedents Tab’ from the options menu.

The ‘Custom Precedents’ tab will appear after the Search tab, listing every custom precedent created by the firm.

Inserting Fields

Fields can be inserted into your precedent to make it automated.

• Have the precedent open in Word.
• Click the LEAP tab.
• Select the editing button, then click insert.  A list of fields will appear on the right hand side of the screen.

• Make sure your cursor is in the correct location on the precedent.
• Select the appropriate section where the field is located. For example, If you need the completion date, select ‘Matter’.
• Select the appropriate field from the list E.g. ‘Completion/Settlement Date’.
• Click ‘insert’ at the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

• Continue inserting fields in the appropriate locations on your precedent.

• Once you have completed your precedent. Click ‘Save & Close’ in the top left hand corner of word.

• Rename your precedent and click “OK”.

The precedent will now be available in all matters of the same matter type.

Converting Fields to Text 

When generating a document in LEAP, all of your client information is merged onto that document using ‘Field Codes’.

The advantage of this is that when you make a change to your matter in LEAP, those changes will carry over to the document, either when it is re-generated or when you click the ‘Update’ button at the top of Microsoft Word.

If you want to make a change to a particular document without that field being updated when a change takes place, you can convert that field to text and enter the desired information directly into the document.

To do this:

• Open the desired document
• Highlight the field you want to convert to text. If you are unsure if the highlighted text is a field, press Alt + F9 to view the field code.
• Once the field is highlighted, select ‘Convert Fields to Text’ from the ‘Advanced Functions’ toolbar.

The converted field will no longer update when information is changed in LEAP for this document only. If you create a new document, it will still pull the relevant information from the Matter.

Customising Fields 

You can add custom ‘Ask’, ‘Fillin’ and ‘If Then Else’ fields into your documents that will appear when you open it.

Ask Fields

An ‘Ask’ field will ask one question upon opening the document that can be filled into multiple locations. For example, if you want your name to appear at three different points on the document, it will ask ‘What is your name’ upon opening and the answer will be filled into all three locations.

To do this:

• Open the desired document.
• Click ‘Editing’ on the LEAP toolbar, then ‘Insert’.
• Click on th ‘Ask’ tab.
• In the ‘Bookmark’ field, type the name of the bookmark, this is for your reference only.
• Type the question into the ‘Prompt’ field and then the ‘Default Answer’ underneath.
• Click above the section that you want to insert your answer, then click ‘Insert’ to place it into the document. An example dialogue box will open to show you how this will look.

• Go to the ‘Ask Result’ tab and click where you want your answers displayed on the document. Click ‘Insert’ to place the answer. The ‘Default Answer’ will be displayed as a placeholder.

Fillin Fields 

A ‘Fillin Field’ works similarly to an ‘Ask’ field but is only useful when the answer is to be displayed at one point in the document.

To do this:

• Open the desired document.
• Click ‘Editing’ on the LEAP toolbar, then ‘Insert’.
• Click on the ‘Fillin’ tab.
• Fill out the ‘Prompt’ and ‘Default Answer’ field, then click ‘Insert’ to place the answer into the document.

If Then Else Fields

An ‘If Then Else’ statement will display information on a conditional basis.

To do this:

• Open the desired document.
• Click ‘Editing’ on the LEAP toolbar, then ‘Insert’.
• Click on the ‘If..Then..Else’ tab
• You can choose to make the ‘Field’, ‘Fillin’ or ‘Ask’ field the comparable field. We’ll use ‘Field’ for this example.
• Next, choose the field by clicking ‘Select’.
• Fill out ‘Step 2’ with the comparison. You can choose a different comparison type by clicking on the drop down menu.
• Next, select the values for ‘True’ and ‘False’
• Click ‘Insert’ when completed to put it into the document.

In this example, if the matter field ‘Person Responsible Initials’ is equal to ‘MH’, it will display ‘True. If it is anything else, it will display ‘False’.