Case Bundles


Purpose: To give a name and shared information view to a group of cases, which may or may not have the same client.


Example uses:

    • a housing advocate may want to group 5 cases in the same building as a bundle

    • a family law advocate may want to group the divorce, custody, and child support cases into a bundle

    • a public defender may want to group 3 co-defendants into a bundle


Status: Currently in beta testing. File a ticket from your site (Help menu > Support Request) if you want it enabled.


NB: Some lists may take longer to display with bundles enabled, for example Case Notes and Timeslips on cases, because they are potentially pulling information from many cases. Work continues to reduce the additional display time as much as possible.


Cost: There is no cost for this module.


Site Administrators see Case Bundles - Admin Setup.


Motto: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, and bundle them for a beautiful display.

Summary

A bundle can be any group of cases and bundles.


Bundles viewed from a case profile:

Effect of Making a Case Part of a Bundle

After a case is added to a bundle, the following lists on the case will show the case's records and all records from other cases in the bundle: Activities, Case Notes, Documents, and Timekeeping.


Most of the lists will display a column indicating if the note, timeslip, etc. is from the case you are viewing, or show the name and case number of the case the record is from.


The Bundle Record

There is a top-level bundle record, which you can name whatever you like. The top-level bundle provides a name for the bundle, and a dynamic bundle profile on which to view information about all of the cases in that bundle (the bundlemates). The profile above includes an added list view element.


Display Information from Bundled Cases: It is not necessary to store any information on the main bundle record - it can hold just the name of the bundle of cases (as above). Events, notes, time, case contacts, and documents from *any* bundlemate cases are viewable on the main bundle record, so one could keep, for instance, the divorce pleading on the divorce case and the support petition in the support case, and still see those documents in the bundle profile.


Optionally Store Information on the Bundle Itself: Some agencies may want to store data on the main bundle, in the same way that one can store data on a lead case in the similar lead-member case feature.


Bundle records can contain:

    • Custom fields

    • Documents

    • Calendar Events

    • Family Member/Non-Adverse Parties


NB: If you decide to later remove cases from the bundle, the data stored on the bundle record stays with the bundle and will not be visible from the unbundled cases.

How Bundles are different from Associated, Related, and Lead/Member Cases

  • Associated cases have the same client.

  • Related cases require you to define how they are related, like: siblings, or co-defendants, etc.

  • Lead/Member cases are very close to bundles, but in bundles, all cases can be on the same logical level. The 'bundle' record is somewhat similar to a lead case, but need not have a client.


A case being in a bundle does not prevent you from using any of the other case relationship options.


A case can be in multiple bundles.


Working with Bundles

NB: Whether you can see, add, and edit bundles, and whether you can see the bundles a case part of, add a case to a bundle, and remove a case from a bundle are all controlled by user role permissions. Contact a site administrator at your organization.


Add a case to a bundle

Bundles can be created directly from one of the bundle cases; you don't have to go to the bundle record first. One case can be in multiple bundles.


You do not need to create a top level or master bundle record first, you can simply add a case to a bundle and create a name for that bundle in one process.

The "Add to Case Bundle" block needs to be on an auxiliary process. That changes the functionality of the block from displaying the bundles (as on the profile) to having the ability to add to the bundle. Any existing bundles will be displayed in the "Associated Case Bundles" field. If you want to add to an existing bundle, you can start typing the name of the bundle in that field and it will look for a matching bundle name. Once you've selected a potential bundle, the existing bundle cases will display in the listview below that is part of the block. If you want to create a new bundle, the listview disappears in favor of a text field for the Bundle Label.


View a bundle

A Bundle record is a matter-like record that has a profile where the user can view grouped information, like all the case notes on all bundlemates.


To see a bundle from a case profile, add the block "Add to Case Bundle" to the profile. When on a profile, that will display a list of bundles the case is linked to.


Bundle Action Menu

Bundles can have documents, events, and notes added to them. You can also display time for all the bundlemates.

Documents on a bundle (note that the first section is for the bundle, and then you see the documents for each bundlemate):

For Events, Time, and Notes, they are all displayed as more typical listviews with an additional column indicating the original case.


Finding a Bundle

Administrators can enable a Navigation tab for Case Bundles. This displays a list with two columns -- the Bundle Labels and the Cases within those bundles. Since no fields are required on the bundles and there are no system fields, there is no filtering available for this list.

You can also search for case bundles within the search button below the navigation bar.

Notes and Known Issues


  • The top level Bundle page doesn't show a bundle until at least one case is added; a bundle with no cases is invisible, but can cause an error because of the unique name requirement for bundles. Workaround: Go to any case and associate it with the "hidden" bundle. (Ref: LS-73724)