Generating a Referral Packet when Assigning a Case to a Pro Bono Advocate

LegalServer provides a default process for recommending a Pro Bono Advocate for a case (see Recommending Pro Bono Advocates for Case Assignments), but site administrators can create a custom process in order to add more functionality to the process. In particular, site administrators can enable a feature that produces a "referral packet" containing information about a case for Pro Bono Advocates when they are recommended for a case. Site administrators can enable this feature by following these steps:

Administrative Setup

• Go to the Processes, Forms, and Profiles page in the Admin tab. Show me more.

• Select "Case/Matter" from the Select Module dropdown.

• Select Actions menu > New Auxiliary Form, to create a new auxiliary form called "Recommend Pro Bono Advocate". This is the form that will replace the form in the static process.

  • Add a header, field, and block as shown in the screenshot below.

  • The Case Status field is optional but can be set, for example, to "Referred to Pro Bono Advocate". (See Lookup Lists for instructions on setting the values in the Case Status lookup.)

  • Click the Continue button in the lower right corner of the screen to save the new form.

• Create another new auxiliary form called "Create Pro Bono Referral Packet". This form will allow users to select the documents they want to include in the referral packet.

  • Add a header, instruction, and the Document Selection block as shown in the screenshot below.

    • TIP: If you do not see the Document Selection block in your list of blocks, you need to enable it in the Pro Bono Settings page.

  • Select "Allow Email?" to enable users to e-mail the packet directly from the form.

    • TIP: When users select the "E-mail" option in this form, LegalServer automatically saves a copy of the packet to the Case Documents folder for the case. If users select "Mail" instead, no copy is automatically saved. This is important to consider when deciding whether and how to use the third form below.

    • NB: To create cover letters, your site must have the Publications module enabled.

  • Click the Continue button in the lower right corner of the screen to save the new form.

• Create a third new auxiliary form called "Download Pro Bono Referral Packet". This form will allow users to download the referral packet for printing or e-mailing.

  • TIP: This form is optional, but it provides users a way to save the packet and add it to the case documents folder if "Enable Email" was not selected in the previous form or users select "Mail" instead of "E-mail" in that form. To ensure a copy of the packet is always saved to the Case Documents folder, you must select "If Creating Packet, Create Document in Generated Documents" as shown below.

  • Add a header, instruction, and the Generated Packet Link block as shown in the screenshot below.

  • Click the Continue button in the lower right corner of the screen to save the new form.

• Create a new auxiliary process called "Recommend Pro Bono Advocate" (or whatever your organization chooses to call it). This is the process that will use the forms you just created to assign a case to an advocate and generate a referral packet.

• • Set the Link Category to N/A. In this instance, you do not want a link to this process to appear directly on a menu. You will access this process from the Assign link in the static Recommend Pro Bono/Other User screen, which appears by default when you click Recommend Pro Bono/Other Advocate in the Actions menu in a case profile.

  • Select each of the three forms you just created by dragging them up from "Disabled Forms" and dropping them into the "Enabled Forms" list as shown in the screenshot below.

  • Click the Continue button in the lower right corner of the screen to save the new process.

• You can easily create a referral packet for the client by copying the "Pro Bono Referral Packet Creation" and "Pro Bono Referral Packet Link" forms, making some minor edits, and adding them to your new process. Here's how to do it:

  • Locate the "Pro Bono Referral Packet Creation" form in the Primary Forms list in the Case/Matter module and click the Copy icon.

    • TIP: You can find the form quickly by entering part or all of the form's name in the search box, as shown in the screesnhot

• • The resulting screen is a copy of the form settings with the name field left blank.

  • Name the new form "Create Pro Bono Referral Packet - Client" and edit the header, instruction, and block as appropriate

• • Click the Continue button in the lower right corner of the screen to save the new form.

  • Repeat this process for the "Download Pro Bono Referral Packet - Client" form.

  • Add the client versions of the forms to the Recommend Pro Bono/Other Advocate process as shown above.

• The final step is to replace the default static process with this new dynamic process as follows:

  • In the Admin tab, locate the Process Settings page. Show me more.

• • Scroll down the page to the Probono Referral Assignment Process, click on the dropdown and select Recommend Pro Bono/Other Advocate (or whatever name you chose for the dynamic process) from the list of dynamic processes

  • Click the Continue button in the lower right corner of the screen to save the new settings.

• • Open the Main Profile for editing.

  • In the Side/Actions Elements section of the edit screen, make sure that the process selected for assigning pro bono advocates is the static process called Recommend Pro Bono/Other User.

    • If your site uses menu boxes in the Main Profile, you will need to open the appropriate menu box for editing and ensure that the link to the static process is included.