Law Office
Reference
Public
Administration & Controls
Administering the Law Office module: the permission model, restricted matters and access logging, module settings, the reminder cron job, the demo seeder, and both API surfaces.
Guide version: r1
Module version: 1.0.0 Updated: 2026-08-20 Estimated time: 3 min 8 views 0% helpful
Governance
Administration & Controls
Access control, confidentiality enforcement, settings, automation, sample data, and the
module's two API surfaces — everything a firm administrator owns.
The permission model (25 keys)
| Area | Keys | Notes |
|---|
| Module | law_office | Base access; gates the menu group and the Command Center. |
| Parties | law_office_parties + _create/_update/_delete | The registry and its aliases/relationships. |
| Intakes | law_office_intakes + CRUD, law_office_intakes_decide | Decide = accept/decline authority. |
| Conflicts | law_office_conflicts, law_office_conflicts_decide | Run searches vs record dispositions. Holding either also makes the user a confidential-intake reviewer. |
| Matters | law_office_matters + CRUD, law_office_matters_restrict, law_office_restricted_view | Restrict = may flag/unflag and edit teams; restricted-view = firm-wide bypass (partners/compliance only). |
| Docket | law_office_docket, law_office_docket_manage, law_office_deadlines_verify | Verify is the lawyer-only trust gate. |
| Work product | law_office_tasks_manage, law_office_documents_manage | Matter tab actions. |
| Reports / Settings | law_office_reports, law_office_settings | Reports remain visibility-scoped even for report users. |
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The key set is frozen. Permission keys are serialized
into role/user grants, so they never get renamed; the module's test suite pins the exact 25-key set.
Confidentiality enforcement (how it actually works)
- Restricted matters — one SQL visibility rule (open, OR creator, OR lead, OR on the team roster,
OR restricted-view holder) is applied inside the database query for every cross-matter read:
listings, the firm calendar, the deadline register, reports, dashboard, widgets, and the end-user API.
There is no code path that lists matters without it.
- Confidential intakes — visible only to creator, intended lead, and conflict reviewers.
- Access logging — every permitted view of a restricted matter or confidential intake writes an
insert-only row (who, what, when) to the module's access log; exports from reports are logged the same way.
- Audit trail — every mutation (create/update/status/verify/team/restrict/document) writes a
system log entry, and matter/intake timelines record the business events.
Module settings (Law Office → Settings)
| Tab | What it manages |
|---|
| Module Settings | Reference formats (MAT-{YYYY}-{####}, INT-{YYYY}-{####}) and the reminder ladder (10,5,3,1,0 days before due). |
| Practice Areas | The firm's area catalog; deleting is blocked while matters use an area. |
| Matter Types | Per-area types; the litigation flag drives court/docket fields on the matter form. |
Automation (Advanced Cron)
| Job | Schedule | What it does |
|---|
law_office_deadline_sweep | Daily 05:30 | Reminds assignees at each ladder rung (exactly once per rung), flags overdue verified deadlines, nags about drafts unverified 3+ days. Writes its markers before notifying; runs per tenant; self-gates on the module toggle. |
php erpat cron:dry-run law_office_deadline_sweep # preview
php erpat cron:run law_office_deadline_sweep # manual run
Demo / sample data
php erpat db:seed LawOfficeDemo [--tenant=<company_key>|--all|--dry-run]
php erpat db:seed LawOfficeDemo --remove # reversible (soft delete)
Also available from the Bulk Database Seeder modal. Demo rows are identified by their
*-DEMO-* references; removal soft-deletes exactly those rows, children before parents.
API surfaces
| Surface | Endpoints | Access rules |
|---|
Integration API
/api/v1/law-office/* | matters, matters/{id}, parties, deadlines (all GET) | OAuth client credentials + scope law_office:read (grant per client under Settings → API Access). Restricted matters are never exposed, and intakes/conflict data have no machine surface at all. |
End-User API
/v1/api/me/law-office/* | tasks, deadlines, matters (all GET) | Employee JWT; strictly self-scoped; the same team-visibility rules as the web UI, with no bypass. |
OpenAPI specs regenerate with php erpat api:openapi / php erpat euapi:openapi.
Multi-tenancy notes
- All
law_* tables are per-tenant; migrations and the sweep run per tenant automatically.
- Document files store under the tenant-aware storage pipeline (local
files/general/law_office/… or S3 with tenant-slug prefixes).
- Seed a single tenant with
--tenant=<company_key>, or everything with --all.
