Client Search and Related Tables

Basic Information

Note: Most of the Search Screens look and work the same, with some minor differences. Learning to use one means you will understand how to use the others. Since the Client Search screen is used the most, we will use it as an example. Once you understand this screen, you will understand the others.

Clients

Allows you to locate a single client or a group of clients based on criteria you select.

1) You can change the fields that are displayed on the screen by using the pull downs located at the top of each column. Here we are changing date closed to display county. When you exit a Search screen and reopen it, the displayed fields will return to their original settings. Tip – rather than scrolling through the list, type the first few letters of the field you want to use. This is much faster.

2) You can change the sort order by which the cases are displayed by: i:) Clicking on a value in the column you want to sort by.

ii) Go to the Filter Sort Group on the Home or Search Ribbon Bar choices.

iii) Press sort A-Z or Z-A to get the sort order you need.

iv) Here we chose a client last name and are sorting it A to Z.

3) The gray speed bar allows you to quickly locate cases based upon the choice you click on:

i) Only My Office - cases from your default office

ii) Only My Staff - cases with your staff number as advocate

iii) Only My Unit - cases from your default unit

iv) See All - all cases, works like the Show All button

v) Only Intake Worker - cases that have your staff number as the intake worker.

vi) Only Cocounsel - cases that have your staff number as cocounsel.

4) There are three primary methods to search for clients.

i) Search Field

ii) Drill Down

iii) Advanced.

Below are examples of using each.

5) The Search Field method – This method allows you to choose the field desired from the Search Field pull down. The Search Field lists almost all the fields on the intake sheet so whatever data you are able to gather, you can also search for it

i) Select the field you want to search for and then type in your value or search criteria in the Word or # box

ii) Fields that end with a question mark are yes/no fields and will trigger a drop-down box with choices for yes or no

iii) You put the value you want in the blank field labeled Word or # and tap enter. For example, if you select Problem Code then enter 63, only Landlord/Tenant cases will be displayed (Pcode 63)

iv) Search for first and last name – You can search for a client’s name using first and last name. Choose last name from the pull down and then enter the last name and the first name, separated by a comma. For example, enter Smith, John to search for John Smith.

v) Wild Cards – Wild cards are characters that represent any character. They can be used in virtually any order

(a) ? – Represents a single character. For example, if you can’t remember if a client’s last name is spelled Cain or Kain, you can type in ?ain and it will find all of the four letter last names ending in ain. The ? can be placed anywhere in the word; front, middle, or at the end.

(b) * – Represents any number of characters. Typing in *man finds all clients with the last name ending with man, e.g. Coleman, Freeman, etc.

(c) Choosing to search by address and using *main* finds all the clients who live on main street. Certain fields, such as staff number, problem code, and office number trigger a drop-down with a list of values that are valid for the field

(d) Entering criteria 1/1/2017 – 3/31/2017 next to call date will give you all of your calls made in the first quarter of 2017

(e) Here we looked for all clients who had far anywhere in their last name by setting the search up for last name and putting in *far*.

vi) Entering criteria Null (it means blank) next to Date Closed will give you all your open cases, since open cases don’t have a date closed.

vii) You can also use >, <, and a dash for range of dates

(i) Entering criteria > 12/31/2016 next to Date Open will give you all cases opened in 2017 forward

(ii) Entering criteria < 1/1/2017 next to Date Open will give you all the cases opened before 2017

(iii) Entering criteria 1/1/16-12/31/16 next to Date Open will give you cases opened in 2016

6) The Drill Down method – This lets you choose the records to display by clicking on certain values and then choose to display records that:

(i) Equal that value

(ii) Contain that value

(iii) Don’t equal that value

(iv) Don’t contain that value

i) Highlight all or a portion of a field value on the screen. Click on either Home or Search on the Ribbon Bar. Then in the Sort and Filter section, choose Selection. You will then be able to select how you use the value as described above.

ii) When you have selected your field or choice and entered your value, press Enter. This displays the records that contain that value. For example, highlight the CLName (client’s last name) Simmons. Then go to Selection and choose Equals Simmons

iii) You will have all of your Clients with the last name Simmons

iv) Here we clicked on the date open and then picked selection. The choices you get depend upon the type of field such as date, text, number, etc.

v) You also can get quite a few other choices by

(a) Clicking on a date

(b) Clicking on the Filter funnel

(c) Asking for a date filter.

vi) Remember, you can repeat this and drill down. For example start with date, then problem code, then office, etc.

7) The Advanced Method

i) The Advanced Method allows you to use a ‘grid’ like screen that looks like a normal query and put in multiple sort levels and criteria at one time.

ii) You apply the filter to the Search screen. This opens the grid with your choices pre-entered onto the query. You can then add fields, sorts, etc.

iii) You can also add other tables to the search when you use this method.

iv) Look at queries to understand using the grid method.

Here is an example of sorting on two fields at once, the first by client’s last name and secondly by date opened.

8) Sounds Like – This feature uses the U.S. Census Bureau’s Soundex formula to take a particular word you type in and find a list of words that ‘sound’ like it. For example putting in Bird also finds Byrd and other last names that sound similar.

9) Project View – Allows you to look at which project(s) the selected case is currently part of or have this case join a pending or completed project (Described in Advanced Features Project Management)

10) Limit – Allows you to limit the client search based on Only Open or Only Closed Cases, LSC Eligible cases, and beginning and ending Dates Open and Closed

11) Difficult Person – Checks to see if the selected call back is a difficult person and pulls up the DP Search screen with all of their instances. You can also use the DP Search Screen to search for difficult people other than the client.

12) Open Intake – Opens the selected Client intake. Click on a row so that the arrow points at it and then press the Open Intake button. You can also double-click on any field displayed in the row to open the intake

13) Status/Search Closes – To prevent the search screen from disappearing when opening a record and returning to it, press the Status button. The label changes from ‘Search Closes’ to ‘Search Stays Open’. This is especially helpful if you have filtered your search and you wish to return to your filtered list

14) Show All displays all Clients. It allows you to reset your screen after doing a search. This button may be hidden in your office to prevent an overload of the system showing all the clients in the database

15) Close – Closes this search screen and returns you to the menu screen

16) Help – Displays help for using the search screen

17) Staff – Gives you the staff number and name responsible for entering that call back

18) If a red exclamation mark appears in the Use column, the record is in use and shouldn't be entered.

i) If you select that client record and click on Using, it will let you know what staff member is using and the date and time they accessed the record

ii) You are warned not to open or save the record

iii) If you need to ask the user a question, give them information on the client, or need for them to release the record because you need to use it, click on Send Message to send an internal message to the user. Note: There are times the record may not be in use but the user still has it open on their screen. Sending the user an internal message will let you know if the record really is in use. The Internal Message screen will open with a subject line asking if the record is in use and a default message that you can add to or edit

iv) Find the user by clicking on the To, add to the subject or message if needed, add a priority, and click on Send

19) Difficult People – Locates difficult people entered in the system. This is explained more in detail elsewhere in the documentation.

20) Critical Date – Allows you to note and track a critical/drop dead date for a case. Creating a critical date also creates a Calendar slip. This means this date will also show on all the calendars and notifications that use the Calendar entries.

21) Closing – Pulls up a Closing Review form for Managing Attorneys to review case closings. This is a report authorizing the closing of a case. It is a helpful form if offices’ procedures require that a case must be signed off on before it is closed. You can review the time slips, notes, and all other relevant information on the case. This shows page 1 of the 2 page review.

Client Case Notes

Searches case notes using the Microsoft SQL Server Full Text feature

1) To use this search, you must first install the Full-Text Search Engine from the SQL Server Enterprise Manager on the Server or from an administrative workstation. A wizard makes this about a five minute process. IMPORTANT: Set this to update the index fairly often or users will be upset when it doesn't recognize the changes they recently made to case notes.

2) You must first enter the words or phrases you want to search for in the five boxes. Next, choose the type of search you want. There are six choices.

i) Contains exact Words(s) – This search allows a user to search for an exact word or phrase. The NOT phrase can be used in the list of entered words or phrases. However, there are three rules that must be followed:

(a) It must not be next to the first word

(b) The Include all Words' (AND) box must be selected

(c) It must be entered as the first word in the box and have a space after it, e.g., NOT trial

ii) NEAR (must be at least two entries) – This search allows the user to narrow down the occurrence of multiple words, by finding only ones that are close to each other. To see how it works, first look for two words, such as trial and date. Use the Contains exact Words and use the Check all Words box. Then run the NEAR search. The number of records should be lower, as some of the case notes do not have these words NEAR each other. Microsoft defines NEAR as being within 50 characters.

iii) All versions of the Word (Formsof) – This returns the variations of a word. For example, searching for do not also returns does not

iv) Fuzzy Search (freetext, use phrases) – This search is best used for phrases, although it will work with single words. It is most useful where you want to match case notes that approximate the phrases that you suggest, but might not contain the specific words or word forms in your expression. You can pass phrases, sentences or even paragraphs, and it will find similar words and phrases

v) Includes All Words (And) – Checking this box means that it will check for all the words or phrases in the five entry boxes. It will join them with AND. For Example, if box one is case and box two is trial:

(a) If Include All Words is not checked it will look for; case OR trial

(b) If it is checked; case AND trial

vi) Beginning of word (Word*) – This is the same as putting a wild card at the end of your search. For example, using the above example, if the 'Beginning of word' is not checked, it will look for: case or trial. If it is checked; case* or trial* and thus find cases, trials, etc.

3) The bottom of the screen displays the case notes for the case that has the record selector next to it (the gray arrow).

i) The case notes cannot be edited here. Press on the Edit Notes button to pop the note up in an edit box. This is caused by the way the full-text search engine returns the records

ii) To see who the Advocate is that is handling the case click on the case you want and press the Staff button. This pops up a box with the name of the Advocate

iii) To locate words or phrases in the case notes, enter them in the box next to Search Word in the Case Notes section and press the Find/Again button. This will highlight the first occurrence of the word. Pressing the button again will bring you to the second occurrence. If there are no matches, a box pops open and tells you this

iv) The Position box shows you the number of characters from the beginning that the word occurs. It resets to 1 if you change cases or change the phrase you're searching for.

v) The Count box displays the number of cases (records) returned by your search

Compensated

Locates one or more PBI compensation payments or bills

Family

Retrieves family members entered into Prime

Interview Answers

Lists a client’s answers to the interview system’s questions. You can view answers by case number, a word in memo response, or an Interview number

Litigation

Retrieves a list of all cases that have an attached Litigation record

Outcomes

Locates outcomes (main benefits) attached to cases

PBI Clients

Locates a particular PBI case or group of cases by selected criteria. Here we asked to display all the lawyers involved in the Ann Adams case.

Stale Case

The Stale Case screen helps you find cases that haven’t had any activity in a set period of time. For example, you might want to see a list of all your cases that haven’t had any activity in 180 days.