External Forms

Purpose: Allows you to send a link to someone from a case, often the client. Information filled out on the form is saved to the case it was sent from.

The link starts an External Process, which can contain one or more External Forms.

You can send the link by email, SMS (if enabled on your site), or by getting a URL that can be copied and sent via whatever means you desire (external chat program, etc.). 

Cost: None. We removed the charge for this module at the beginning of the COVID 19 lock down restrictions and enabled it on all sites.

Watch: Jeff Hogue's presentation on External Forms during a community call here: https://youtu.be/mJt0zDOz-vM

In this article:

Quick Summary for the Impatient

  • Create your External Profile (what the person will see after they submit the external form).
  • Create your External Auxiliary Form (the form the person will fill out). Can be multiple forms.
  • Create your External Auxiliary Process to call your shiny new form(s), and use your shiny new External Profile as the Followup Profile.
  • NB: Note the "External" labels above. They are important.
  • If you don't already have a "Send Forms" process for cases:
    • Create a standard auxiliary form and put the Client Survey Send Request block on it (this is what staff will use to select an External Auxiliary Process and send the link).
    • Create a standard auxiliary process to call that form.
    • Add your shiny new standard auxiliary process to the Actions menu (for staff to pick the external process and get/send the link).
    • Go to a case, click your new link, pick your new external auxiliary process, send.

Create the External Process, Form, and Profile

This is done from the main Admin > Processes, Forms, and Profiles page, with the Module set to the default Matter/Case.

Create an External Profile: 

  • Actions > New Matter External Profile
  • The person will see this profile after the external process is completed. This can be as simple as an Instruction element that says "Thank you for your response.", or as complicated as you want it (see the Retainer Example link below).

Create an External Auxiliary Form:

  • Actions > New External Auxiliary Form 
  • This is the form the person will see when they click the external form link and verify their identity. It contains the fields and other elements you want them to see.
  • You may also want to include the Send Email block on your form to have an email sent when the client submits the external form. Optional, but recommended, is to have the Send Email block create a case note.

Create an External Auxiliary Process: 

  • Actions > New External Auxiliary Process 
  • Enable the form(s) you just created. 
  • Make sure you select your shiny new external profile as the Followup Profile. Without a followup profile, the person filling out the form will get a generic, unhelpful page, and the Completed date will not be recorded.
  • After you save the process, optionally edit it if you want to change the Identity Verification Type. This is what the person you send the link to will need to enter to actually see the form. The options are Date of Birth (the default), Zip/Postal Code, Home Phone Number, Mobile Phone Number, and Bar Number. Bar Number is useful when sending an external form to a user, such as a pro bono attorney. The other options are the client's information as stored on the case. So if you send an external form to someone other than the client, they will need to know the client's information.
  • The Identity Verification text someone will see can be changed on the Admin > Process Settings page in the "Identity Verification Help" setting. That box supports line breaks, so if you need to display it in more than one language you can enter text in one language then some space then text in another language. Unfortunately, this is a global setting for all your external forms. You can't choose the text for each Identity Verification Type.

Create a Form and a Process for Staff to Send a Link to Clients

Skip this section if your site already has a "Send Forms" or similar process.

This is done from the main Admin > Processes, Forms, and Profiles page, with the Module set to the default Matter/Case.

Auxiliary Form:

  • Place the 'Client Survey Send Request' block on a standard (not external) auxiliary form called something like 'Send External Form'.
  • Set "Survey Type" in the block to "Client Related To A Case - Matter Aux Form".
  • Configure the SMS and Email options as desired. NB: You can change the Default Email Body text (and Default SMS text if you have it), but you must include the "[External Link]", including the brackets, or everyone will be sad. The "[External Link]" text is a marker that will replaced by the link the person will click on. LegalServer generates the link and replaces "[External Link]" with it when you click Send.

Auxiliary Process:

  • Create a standard (not external) auxiliary process, something like 'Send External Form Process', and enable the form 'Send External Form' form you just created.
  • You can create multiple auxiliary "send" processes, but that's not required. Staff can pick from any External Auxiliary Processes enabled on a single send form.

Actions Menu:

Add your process to the Actions menu for cases. Where to do this varies depending on your site setup. A common setup is in "Main Profile Boxes" on the Menu Boxes tab of the Admin > Processes, Forms, and Profiles page. You may instead have Side/Action Elements configured directly on the Main Profile.

What the Recipient Sees

Send an Email When a Form is Completed

The Send Email block is often used on an external form to notify staff when an external form is completed.

View Log of Responses on the Case Profile

Put the Client Survey Results block in the desired location on your case profile(s).

Retainer Example

Community contributed example for a retainer. External Forms - Retainer Example.

Financial Attestation Example

Example External Forms for Income Attestation

Optionally Let Staff Edit or View the External Form from within the Case

You may want to let staff fill out the same form using a separate process. For example, if staff already have the client on the phone, they could use "Staff Complete Demographics Update" instead of "Send Client External Form" and choosing the Demographics Update external process.

You may want to do this as a convenient way for staff to see the information the person entered.

If this is desired, add another standard auxiliary process like External Form Completion by Staff. This can be used by staff to fill out the same form for the client (over the phone for example) instead of sending the external form.

Instead of having this process set to display the External Profile, consider creating another step that has summary or display only fields for your staff to see a summary of what they entered.

Reports

Currently only limited information is available for external forms in reports. Create a report based on the top level "Survey Questions" table.

A System Log with Changes report (see Example Reports) can be used to see how someone filled out an external form.

Notes and Known Issues

  • Embedded reports using the Report Part Block will not display on an External Form. This is intentional and not a bug that will be fixed.
  • "Process type Mismatch. Please contact us 64 !=1" error. This error usually comes from the Signature Attestation block having an invalid Attestation Type. Often from a form or Guided Navigation dialogue being imported from another site. The fix is to select another Attestation Type in the block. If the Attestation Type looks correct, try "resetting" the block's configuration by picking a different Attestation Type, saving the form (or GN segment), editing again and then selecting the desired Attestation Type.
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