AppColl prevents contact records from being deleted if the contact is associated with one or more of matters, tasks, billing items and invoices. This is to prevent unforeseen consequences. For example, AppColl prevents deletion of an inventor contact listed as an inventor on one or more applications. The association between the application and the inventor would have to be removed first (i.e., delete the inventor form the matter itself.)

This mechanism exists to prevent disastrous results. For example, John Smith is an inventor on 400 patent matters. If the inventor contact record could easily be deleted, all 400 patent matters will now have incorrect information.  

There are other situations where a contact can be associated with other items. Examples include:

• Paralegal record cannot be deleted if they have billing items and/or invoices they are associated with
• Attorney record cannot be deleted if they are listed as the attorney for one or more matters
• Outside Counsel cannot be deleted if they are the owner of one or more tasks

Any time the above popup appears when trying to delete contact records, AppColl is alerting you that the record is associated with one or more other items. There is a UsedBy column that lists which types of items the contact is associated to which you can add via the Columns link in the upper-right of the Contacts module page to view Used By information.

In the above example, Aaron Cohen is associated with one or more matters. This could include him being the attorney, paralegal, partner, contributor, inventor, and/or matter contact.

Clicking the corresponding Matters link next to Aaron Cohen's name will show which Matters he is associated with so you can adjust any associations: