In the Federal Republic of Germany the heterogeneity of community psychiatric care for patients with chronic mental disorders leads to specific requirements for documentation. The standardized base documentation system (BADO-K) developed by the psychiatric university departments in Dresden and Leipzig, currently tested in the Free State of Saxony and perspectively implemented in all relevant institutions of this federal state, tries to meet these requirements. Compatibility with resp. consideration of substantial legal positions has to be viewed as one of this system's quality factors. Corresponding problems and established ways of solution in the BADO-K are demonstrated. These refer especially to the principle of client-centered documentation and possible conflicts with the right of informational self-determination. Of high practical relevance is the BADO-K-option for client-centered information transfer (in so called »complex« institutions) that precludes violation of private secrets. Rights of the institutional staff and functions of program-supervisors have to be delimitated carefully. Various levels of using and processing the documented data require that each community-oriented psychiatric care institution can anonymize and aggregate their BADO-K-data observing the relevant restrictions referred to data-protection. The last part of the paper discusses legal problems of data-processing for research purposes and requirements for continuous maintenance of the BADO-K-system.