How CounselLink Assigns a LEDES1998B or LEDES1998BI Invoice to a Matter

The following is a brief description on a few of the headings found in LEDES files:

• The CLIENT_ID field, which is the third field in a LEDES1998B file, is the corporate customer ID that you see at the bottom of the law firm profile, and/or for each law office profile in CounselLink^®.
• The CLIENT_MATTER_ID field, which is the last field in a LEDES1998B file, is the corporate customer matter ID or client matter ID on the matter in the CounselLink service. The Corporate Client enters this information, or uses the system-generated number, which usually combines M and the CounselLink tracking number.
• The LAW_FIRM_MATTER_ID field, which is the fourth field in a LEDES1998B file, is the law office matter ID or matter ID on the matter in the CounselLink service. The law firm enters this information.
• The CLIENT_MATTER_ID field is at the same position in the LEDES1998BI, the international version which has more than 24 fields. It is not the last field, however, because there are more fields in this file type.

• The law firm enters the corporate customer ID at the bottom of the law firm profile, and/or each law office profile
• The law firm profile, and each law office profile, can have a different corporate customer ID
• The corporate customer ID at the law firm profile applies to all offices in the law firm profile that do not have a different corporate customer ID
• The corporate customer ID at the law office profile applies to only to that law firm office

1. The CounselLink service matches the Client ID (third field) and Client Matter ID (last field) in the LEDES1998B file to the corporate customer ID in the law firm profile or law firm office profile, and to the corporate customer matter ID on the matter in the service. If it finds one and only one match, it assigns the invoice to that matter on that law firm office. The service uses the law firm matter ID as a tie breaker if it needs to. If the firm has not set the Corporate Customer ID field in the law firm profile or law firm office profile in the CounselLink service, or it does not match the third field of the LEDES1998B file, this step does not apply and the service moves on to the second step.
2. The CounselLink service matches the Law Firm Matter ID (LEDES1998 file must have a value in LAW_FIRM_MATTER_ID field.  This is a LEDES required field, however the law firm matter ID Field within CounselLink can be left blank).  The LEDES1998B file with the law firm matter ID that the law firm enters in the service when the law firm edits the matter. If it finds one and only 1=one match, it applies the invoice to that matter. If it finds more than one matter (or if it has assigned the matter to more than one office, and it finds more than one match), the law firm receives one of the following error messages: No matters assigned to firm with Corporate ID... or No matters assigned to firm with Law Firm ID... Once the CounselLink service gets to the second step, it does not look again at the third or last field of the LEDES1998B file because it only does that in the first step.
3. If the CounselLink service finds no match for the law firm matter ID in step 2, because it failed to find only one match on step 1 or 2, the law firm receives one of the following error messages: No matters assigned to firm with Corporate ID... or No matters assigned to firm with Law Firm ID... These errors occur only after the service has checked for the first and second step and failed to find an exact match on either.