Client

Client Intake gathers demographic information on a client and tracks their problem from initial contact to closing. You can add a client by going to Add Client Client.

If you start your intake process on Eligibility, click on Save/Send at the top of the Eligibility form and designated information will move over to the client’s intake record. You can also send from a Callback record if you have no need for an Eligibility slip.

Intake Page 1

The Client Intake screen opens up to Intake Page 1, which contains general client information. Several of the fields have defaults but they can be changed.

1. Required fields are marked with an (*) and/or colored using Conditional Formatting.
2. Client Lookup – Described in the Eligibility section
3. Date Open – Described in the Eligibility section
4. Auto # (Case Number) – Described in the Eligibility section
5. Critical Date – Allows you to note and track a critical/drop-dead date for a case. Putting a date in here also creates a Calendar slip and drops it into the Calendar table.
6. Intake Type – Notes where the client intake was done; defaults to I (In-house).
7. Case Type – Indicates the status of the case; defaults to H (Hold).
   1. H (Hold) – This could mean that the case is on hold for more information, it hasn’t been through a Case Acceptance Meeting or the program is not sure who will be handling a case.
   2. S (Staff) – A staff member is handling the case
   3. P (PBI) – The case has been referred to a PBI (Pro Bono Involvement) Volunteer Attorney (Note: If you refer a case to PBI, make sure you change the case type to P)
   4. R (Rejected) – Indicates that this case has been rejected. LSC may require that the case be Deselected on the Closing tab, which means virtually the same thing.
   5. T (Transferred) – Indicates that this case has been transferred to another office or agency
8. Client Name – Enter the first, middle, and last name of the client. This information is transferred from eligibility if you started there. Note: be cognizant of name entry and the resulting search constraints as described in Eligibility above.
9. Non-Adverse Spouse – Add the name of the non-adverse spouse or party if there is one; click the Spouse to Conflicts button to add a non-adverse spouse or party to the conflict table as a client.
10. Safe Email Addr. – Enter a safe email address for the client. If it is not safe to send an email to this client, do not enter an email address
11. Address – Enter the client’s address; make sure to check if it is a safe address or it is not to be used for sensitive mailings.
12. Zip Code – If you type in a Zip Code and click on the City/State button, the city, state, and county populates
13. Phone Numbers – Enter phone (home or other), work, or cell phone numbers if available. If the number is safe to call, make sure you click on Safe next to the number
14. Phone Comments – Enter any comments here; e.g., “Client can be called anytime on the cell phone.” If the client has no phone, make sure to check No Phone.
15. Legal Issue County – Sometimes the problem is in a county different from the client’s county, select the county where the legal issue occurs here.
16. Problem Code – Select a problem for this client from the pull down.
17. Special Pcode – Special problem codes break down the problem codes, e.g., Private Landlord Tenant Problem code 63 has subdivisions. The special problem codes can have 100 entries under each problem code. Thus, you can have 100 types of landlord/tenant problems, 100 types of divorces, etc. For example:
    1. 6300 Lockout,
    2. 6310 Access,
    3. 6320 Repairs, and
    4. 6330 Evictions.
18. National index code is used like Special Pcode to be more specific about the problem.

Buttons across the bottom of Intake Page 1

1) Open Other Intakes – Allows you to open up multiple already completed intake sheets for the same or other clients. These open up in the Read-Only format. 2) Review Eligibility – Reviews the Eligibility form, if you began your intake there. However, if you began your intake on Client and click on the Review Eligibility button, you will get a prompt that there is no related Eligibility but one will be created for you 3) Review Callback – Reviews the associated call back record for this intake. However, if you did not start with Call Back, you will get a prompt that there is no related Callback but one will be created for you 4) Difficult Person – Described in Applicant Difficult People 5) Review Online Intake – If you are using the Online Application System, you can review Online Intakes here (Described in Advanced Features Online Application System)

Conflict Check tab

Many of the features on the Conflict Check tab are described in Eligibility and Call Back. We will only mention those features not covered.

Add More Adverse Info/Letters – Allows you to enter details on adverse parties and the opposing lawyers and create from letters to send to them

Conflict Help – Provides help about using conflict checking

Add Other Name for Client button – Takes you to the Conflict form so that you can add another name for the client to the conflict table, such as their birth name

Listed Names + Spouse button – Checks all the parties to the action and puts the results in a search screen so you can review any of the related intakes.

This is an example of the Conflict Search:

Intake Page 2

1. Required fields are marked with an (*)
2. Most fields are self-explanatory so we will discuss those that may be unclear.
3. Race 2 – Race 1 tracks the LSC required classification but Race 2 allows you to setup another racial classification that may be requested by other funders, e.g., Asian Korean, Asian Japanese, and Asian Chinese
4. Interpreter – If an interpreter is needed to converse with this client, make sure you check this box
5. Speak English – If the Client’s language is other than English but they speak some English, make sure you select how well.
6. Persons Helped – This field defaults to Adults plus Children. However, if you do an impact case, enter the appropriate value. For example, you might have helped 1 adult and 2 children, but changed a regulation that affects 4,000 people across the state.
7. Current Age automatically calculates the person’s age as of today, if a birthday was entered.
8. Clinic – If your office has clinics, such as Divorce, Landlord Tenant, etc., you can show that a client attended one of these clinics.
9. Veteran in Household and Veteran – These two fields satisfy LSC requirement to track veterans living in the household and state what type of veteran they are
10. LSC Eligible - The client and case meets LSC requirements
11. Office, Advocate (Staff Member), and Unit – Described in Applicant Eligibility
12. Intake Worker – Track the staff member who did the initial intake.
13. Cocounsel – Record a second attorney involved in the case.
14. Funds and Funds 2 – Indicates the funding you used to handle a case. If there is more than one funder, put a percentage attributable to each.
15. Funding Code Analyzer button starts a utility that analyzes a case and displays the funding codes that could be used. This is described in Advanced Features.
16. Start/Edit Interview – Takes you to the client interview system (Described in Advanced Features Interview System)
17. Advice – This button takes you to an Advice System that gives frequently asked questions and answers on a particular problem type (Described in Advanced Features Interview System)

Buttons at the bottom of Intake Page 2

1. Document Tracking – Allows you to upload case documents, such as contracts, into Prime for easy storage and retrieval; view documents from within the cases utilizing a simple tree structure with folders and subfolders; classify a case’s documents for use in a brief bank (Described in Advanced Features Document Management)
2. Other Services – Described in Other Services

Intake Page 3

Contains more demographic information

1. SPCODES 1, 2, and 3 – These are user defined fields that you can use for whatever you wish. See a further discussion under Advanced Features.
2. The Master Case feature allows you to link different cases together. No data is exchanged, but it makes relating the cases easier. This is useful if you have:
   1. Multiple clients with a single issue, such as a group of tenants who need repairs to their apartment complex.
   2. A single client with multiple cases that are related.

Master Cases are more fully described in Advanced Features.

1. Multi-Print Selection – Allows you to select one or more letters or forms to print out for this particular case in one easy process. Select all you want from the scrollable list then click the Print Preview button. You can add additional forms and reports to this list by going to the Setup Tables choice explained under the Administration Section.

Buttons on this page

1. LSC Compliance - Make sure you comply with LSC regulations by using this part of the client intake to remind staff what requirements there are and to make them check off the compliance of this case.
2. Case Calendar – View the related calendar events for this case
3. Trust Balance – Look at the trust balance for this case
4. Internal Msgs – Allows you to send and view Internal Messages related to this case (Described in Home Screen)
5. Project Mgt. - This is explained later under Advanced Features.
6. Referrals/Handouts
7. Form Letters
8. Litigation allows you to track a case through the administrative agencies, courts and appeals as mandated by LSC. It also allows you to store information about other parties to the action, docket numbers, etc.

The PBI Tab

If this is a Volunteer Lawyer/Private Bar Involvement (PBI) case, the PBI tab displays fields to enter information. It allows you to assign an unlimited number of lawyers to a case and keep track of their time, when they started on the case, when they ended, etc. 1) First change the case type on the first page to P and then go to the PBI tab.

2) To Find a Lawyer for the case i) Click on the Find/Assign Lawyer button to open a Search screen showing all the Lawyers who handle the type of problem the client has in the county the client lives in. ii) As you contact the Lawyers to see if they will take the case click on their row, make a record of your call to them using the Contacts button. iii) You can use the Multi-Criteria to further filter Lawyers by multiple case types, Counties, etc. iv) Once you find a Lawyer, click on them and push the Choose button. Doing this: (a) Puts them on the PBI tab as the Lawyer handling the case (b) Fills out the additional information, such as Starting Date, Primary Attorney, etc. ii) If you select another Lawyer because the first quit or they want to co-counsel, it will put that Lawyer in as the next on the list. An unlimited number of lawyers can be associated with a case.

3) You can anchor a case to a Law Firm by putting the firm’s number in the Primary Firm field. If you do this, you can identify the firm that should get credit for taking the case, even if the lawyer switches firms. 4) The Referral Date automatically defaults to today’s date 5) Add an Appointment date and hour if needed. 6) Track the time spent using the Add Time button i) This button opens up the PBI Time Stop Watch form (Described in Time Keeping) for entering time. ii) All you need to enter is the number of hours, although you can enter more details. iii) You can also enter Time directly from the Add choice on the Ribbon Bar for Lawyers who spend time on things other than direct services, such as fund raising or mentoring. iv) Once you enter time and the close the form, the total time is automatically calculated. To see it immediately, you can refresh the screen by pressing the Refresh Time button. 7) Track the PBI type, e.g., Pro Bono or Compensated i) If the case is compensated (Judicare), check the box that says Compensated and click on the Compensated button. This displays the Compensated intake form that tracks bills from the lawyers and your payments. ii) It also allows you to track the estimated value of donated time. 8) All Judicare cases are also PBI (Private Bar Involvement) cases. Therefore, the first place to start is to put a P in the case type field on Intake Page 1 of the Client Intake. This causes the PBI tab to display information. i) Once the PBI section is filled out and the appropriate attorney selected, check the box that says Compensated. You then need to press the Compensated button. This brings up the Compensated input screen. It is important to remember that any PBI case can have multiple compensated sheets attached to it.

ii) The Compensated screen shows you the client information and the lawyer handling the case. You can then enter information relevant to the case iii) Enter Bill Date and the amount billed iv) Enter Pay Date and the amount paid v) Hours – Hours spent by the attorney for this bill on this case vi) Hourly Rate – The rate the attorney charges vii) OK Dollar and OK Hour – These are the maximums of the dollar compensation and time the compensated lawyer can spend on the case. viii) Enter a break-down on the amount billed that fits into attorney time, expenses, or value of time the attorney donated to your program without charge ix) A pop-up Calculator is available to deal with unusual figures x) The blue box shows a general overview of the money situation in the case, including (a) Total compensated slips entered (b) Total bills (c) Total amount paid (d) The account balance (e) Highest dollar and hour amounts approved (f) If you click on View Account Balance, it displays the sum of all the previous slips entered and any outstanding balances xi) After entering the information, press the Close button to return to the Client Intake. xii) When the Attorney sends you a bill for services, use the Client Search screen to find the case and go to Intake Page 3. Click on the Compensated button to enter a compensated slip. (a) A Compensated slip can be entered for each occurrence of a billing on the case, or for separate attorneys who worked on the case. This makes it possible to enter different attorneys on a single case. It allows the case to be transferred to another attorney while still tracking the payments to the first. (b) An alternate method to filling out multiple compensated slips is to pull up the original compensated slip using the search screen. This slip can then be edited with the billing amount and payment amount to the private attorney. This is probably not a good idea because it leaves a defective audit trail.

Case Notes

Case Notes allow you to keep the facts of a case at your fingertips. You can keep track of your activities on a case and store information not contained in separate fields. It allows an unlimited entry of data. 1) Offices generally use the notes for five major reasons: i) First, they store unique information that lacks a specific field elsewhere on the intake, such as the client's work phone ii) Second, they put in the client's fact situation iii) Record and track the advice and information they gave the client iv) Third, they put in progress reports on the case v) Last, the managing attorney uses the case notes to supervise the progress of the case

2) Read Case Notes – Case Notes open up in a read-only mode with all the case notes appearing to be in one long file, with your most recent notes first. i) You can limit which notes you see by choosing a Tag Type. Only notes with that tag will show. ii) Search for a word or phrase in your notes iii) Reverse the order of your notes to look at oldest to newest iv) Save your notes to a file v) Print your notes 3) Notes also include your comments from i) Calendar ii) Meetings iii) Court Cases 4) Search Conflicts allows you to search conflicts while entering notes for a name that is mentioned. 5) Add Note

i) Click on New Note ii) This immediately populates your staff number, date, time, and drops down the Reason box, that allows you to select what type of case note it is. As mentioned earlier, you can search case notes by reason type. iii) Enter your notes in the Notes field next to your name iv) You also have the ability to enter canned notes or questions in your notes 6) Edit Case Notes i) Click on Edit Notes

ii) This displays your notes from most recent to oldest in individual edit fields iii) Click on the Edit/Zoom button to zoom a selected note into bigger form, where you can edit it. You can also edit without zooming. 7) To Other Cases i) Send a Note to up to six other cases, more if you repeat the process. ii) Press the To Other Cases button. iii) When the form comes up, either enter in the case numbers or use the Choose from Cases box to locate the case numbers with the client’s name. iv) Press Send when finished to copy the note to the other cases. v) Repeat this process if you need to send a note to more than six cases.

8) When the total number of notes exceed approximately 65,000 characters, Tabs appear breaking the notes down into 65,000 character bundles. You can still search for words or read in reverse order.

The Closure Tab

1) Major – A case that takes a lot of time. 2) Group – You are representing a group of clients, e.g., several tenants for a housing problem 3) Good Story – Check this box if this case is a good story. When it comes time to run reports for Board of Directors, Funders, or the community, this can give you a list of cases where you saved a client’s job, got a client medical care, or saved a family’s house. You can perform a search on all of your cases marked as a Good Story. 4) Impact – This case affects a lot of people. Most of the time, an impact case is a major one 5) Contested – Designates a case where there is an opposing party. For example, making a Will is usually not contested. An eviction case is usually contested. 6) Class Action – This is a case where you represent a group of clients (the class) having the same problem after being certified by the court. This type of representation may not be allowed for LSC funded offices. 7) Fee Generating – This case was a fee generating case 8) Needs Followup – you need to follow-up on this case or review it. 9) Packet Given Out – You gave the client self-help packets. What packets you gave the client can be tracked under Referrals / Handouts described earlier. 10) Unduplicated Service – Some funders require a count of unduplicated services rendered during a period. If a client comes into your office in a year with six problems, you might only be able to count one unduplicated client, e.g., Title III. Unduplicated service could also be used to track LSC unduplicated cases. This would tag a case for a client as one in which you don’t have another case in the same funding period with substantially the same fact situation. 11) Involved Domestic Violence – This case involves domestic violence even if it isn’t a Problem Code 37 Domestic Abuse Case. 12) Reviewed and Ok’d for Closure – This case has been reviewed by a Managing Attorney so it can be closed. 13) Reason Closed and Date Closed – Once you decide to close this case, you must indicate the date you closed it and the reason it was closed (Negotiated Settlement, Counsel and Advice, etc.). Both of these are filled out to close a case. Clicking the Close Date button will auto fill in today’s date. 14) File Destroy Date – If your office destroys files periodically, you can use this field to designate when a file needs to be destroyed. A date here doesn’t automatically destroy the file, but acts as a reminder to destroy the computer and/or paper file. There is a report that gives you a list of cases so marked. 15) Case Result – The outcome of the case, e.g., Lost, Won, etc. 16) Proof of Rep – LSC requires that there be written proof of representation. This lets you designate where the written proof is. 17) CSR Reportable and Deselect – LSC stated you can no longer reject a client once they have been accepted; you have to DESELECT them. When a case is closed it should have either: i) The box checked saying the case is CSR Reportable, OR ii) A reason why the case was Deselected. i) Total Hours – Every time you fill out a time slip on a case, this field automatically totals the hours for you. Because it is automatic, you can’t enter anything in the field. ii) Attorney Fees – If the lawsuit allows you to recover the Attorney Fees from the opposing party, enter that amount here. iii) Expenses – If expenses were incurred for this case, enter that amount here. Note: We have an optional Fees and Expenses add-on that tracks these fees and expenses. Contact us. iv) Billable Time button – This generates a report of timeslips that were marked as “billable time”. This could be billable to a funder or for a reduced fee case. k)

Outcomes – Main Benefits

1) LSC requires grantee programs to track Outcomes (formerly called Benefits) for extended service cases. Some state IOLTA programs also require the tracking of these outcomes. A separate Outcomes tab gathers this information. See the Administrator’s Functions section under Setup Tables to see how to add to or modify your list of outcomes.

2) Not all of the fields have to be filled out. Some can be made invisible if you don’t need to track all this information. 3) You have the ability to track an unlimited number of outcomes on a case. As you fill out one outcome, a blank one appears below it. 4) The Outcome pull down provides a list of benefits to track. Use the Find form to search for outcomes using the problem code or keyword. The Find button activates this form.

5) Tracking financial benefits is done in five fields i) Lump sum – this measures a one time recovery, such as back welfare benefits. ii) Lump avoidance – this is the value of a one time avoidance – such as alledged liability for an auto accident iii) Monthly Worth (months) – a monthy payment obtained for the client. An optional field tracks the number of months this will be received. An example would be an award of child support. iv) Monthly Avoid (months) - a monthy avoidance obtained for the client. There is an optional field where an estimated number of months can be entered. An example would be avoiding child support by showing the client was not the parent. An optional number of months can be entered. v) Value a Private attorney would have charged. Although not required, there are certain services that have value but don’t recover or avoid a dollar amount. Examples would be preparation of a Will, a Deed or an uncontested divorce. This field could use the average charged by the local bar for such a service. 6) Other fields i) Case Planning – there are several fields that can be used for case planning or made invisible. These fields are Planned, Attained, and Unplanned. They can set a goal and measure if it was achieved. ii) Date – Outcome was entered iii) Staff - This staff number may mean a person who enters the benefit may be someone other than the advocate for the case. iv) Adults and Children – It is possible that the number of family members affected by a particular benefit may vary. This allows the numbers to be adjusted. v) Notes – This can explain the benefit or how it was calculated. vi) Client Input – A field that tracks whether the client agrees with the benefit received, etc. 7) Outcomes Search Screen can act as a mini report writer to give you a view of Outcomes for: i) A specific range of outcomes ii) Certain Offices iii) Particular problem codes iv) A range of dates closed v) A particular funding code

8) Reports exist for Outcomes and how to access and use them is explained in the Report Section

Family

– The Family tab is where you list family members. This is essential in cases like divorces and benefits and might be required by funders.

i) Enter the first, middle, and last name of the family member ii) Enter the sex, birthdate, and age iii) Identify the relationship that the person has to the client iv) You can note whether the family member resides with and is supported by the client v) You can also add the family member name to the conflict checker as either a client (the family member is involved with the case) or as an adverse party (the family member is taking advantage of the senior client).

Contacts

– Contacts are people who are associated with a case. These people might be social workers, witnesses, or opposing counsel. For example, you could track all the cases a bad social worker was involved in.

i) You can first find an existing contact in the system using the pull down ii) If it is a new contact, start entering the information (a) Select a Contact Type (b) Enter the name, address, and other personal information (c) Indicate if the contact lives with the client by checking Lives With (d) Type in notes about the contact if needed (e) This automatically associates them with a case. If you need to disassociate that contact, just click on Disassociate Contact button when you have the desired contact selected. iii) You can add the Contact to the Conflict Table as a client (they came in with the client and are helping) or as an adverse party (they are a social worker who denied the client benefits). iv) The contact’s unique number includes their type of contact as a prefix, for example SW-783 would be a Social Worker.

Special Programs

is a feature in Prime that allows you to build custom intake sheets that link with a Client Intake or Eligibility Slip. 

1) Several Special Programs are included with Prime, and an unlimited number of new ones can be added. For example, a funder such as United Way might require you to report on information not on the Client Intake. A Special Program could be constructed to track this information. 2) You can build the needed Special Program or KCW can do it for you. There is a Help button that can assist you in building your Special Program 3) Prime comes with some Special Programs (SP) already built in. They are chosen from a pull down. For example, we give you a Litigation Expenses SP. 4) Find additional information about SP in the Advanced Features section.

Buttons across the top of the Client Intake

1) Save/Stay – Save this information and stay on this form 2) Add – Saves the information and opens a new, blank client intake 3) Print – Print this form and the information in it 4) Time – This button will take you to a Time Keeping form that you use to track the time spent on the case. (Described in Time Keeping) 5) Duplicate – This allows the copying of existing client data into a new record. It is discussed under Advanced Features. 6) Switch Client – Open a different case to work on using its case number 7) New Elig – Creates a new eligibility from the client Intake meaning you don’t have to go to the Add choice. 8) Calendar – Creates a calendar event for this client (Described in Scheduling). 9) Close – Saves the information and returns you to the menu system