Cases - Limiting Changes to Closed Cases

Agencies often want to prevent changes to closed cases in general, and may often want to "close out a year" — prevent changes to cases closed in the previous years after determining the cases that will be counted for reporting purposes. LegalServer provides several means of accomplishing these goals.

Main Profile - Make Fields Read Only on Closed Cases

Fields and blocks in the main part of a case profile are controlled by their individual "Editable Dispositions" configuration. Most of these elements will be on various Tab Blocks that make up the main profile. An agency can, for example, allow a client's SSN to be changed while a case is pending or open, but not after it is closed. Administrators edit the main profile and tab blocks from the Admin / Processes, Forms, and Profiles page.

Also editable on the Main Profile, the Side/Actions element Closing Options (if used) has several configuration options that determine which links are displayed as Options on a closed case.

Process Links - Hide Links based on User Roles

Many of the processes on the Processes tab of the Processes, Forms, and Profiles page make links available in the sidebar or Actions menu of cases. These can be displayed, or not, per role, and can also be displayed, or not, per disposition.

The "Edit closing information" link, for example, is typically set to only appear on closed cases, and is often restricted to the Administrator role. Other links like "Edit Family Information" may be available to all roles, but only appear on pending and open cases.

Preventing Time from Being Added to Closed Cases

Remove the user role permission "Add Time to Closed Cases".

Minimum/Maximum Values on Dates liked Date Closed

Many date fields can be configured with minimum and maximum dates, including Intake Date and Date Closed. After the beginning of a new year, an administrator can set the minimum and maximum dates for intake date to 1/1/20xx and 12/31/20xx to prevent creating intakes with a date outside that range.

After a previous year is 'closed out', the minimum date on the Date Closed field is often set to 1/1 of the current year to prevent cases from being closed with a date in previous years. For both fields, administrators edit the relevant primary form to set the minimums and maximums on the Processes, Forms, and Profiles page.

Restricting Re-Opening of Closed Cases based on Date Closed

Administrators can use the "Restrict Case Re-Open" block on a dynamic re-open form to set an Earliest Closing Date. A case with a date closed before the date set in that block cannot be re-opened. After the beginning of a year, for example, administrators could set that date to 1/1/20xx to prevent cases closed in previous years from being re-opened, while allowing cases in the current year to be re-opened. See Matters - Re-Opening and Rejecting for more information.