SimpleJustice Pro Bono Opportunities - Case Administration
Administrators - Cases
In LegalServer, administrators can create a matter record for users to view in the SimpleJustice Cases view, review expressions of interest for those cases, and manage the lifecycle of the case, including pro bono time and closing, rejecting and reopening cases. Administrators will do this management in their LegalServer instance, which will send the relevant information to SimpleJustice via API.
Initial LegalServer Setup
An administrator will want to make sure that they have already set-up functionality for assigning pro bono advocates to cases and the Pro Bono Opportunities tools configured on LegalServer.
Cases Set-up and Creation
Once a matter has been created on LegalServer, the admin can go through the typical pro bono opportunity creation process, which can generally be found by accessing a specific case profile > Action menu > Pro Bono Opportunity. Here they can indicate the case is a pro bono opportunity for display on SimpleJustice and provide opportunity details that will be passed along to SimpleJustice via API. The form will collect the requisite information such as:
- Pro Bono Opportunity Status
- Urgent Status
- Pro Bono Opportunity Headline
- County of PB Opportunity
- Pro Bono Opening Memo
- Pro Bono Opportunity Synopsis
- Show this opportunity to display for all volunteers?
- Guardianship/Ad Litem Certification Needed
- Eligibility for Statement of Inability to Afford Court Costs and Filing Feeds
- SimpleJustice Opportunity Legal Topic
- SimpleJustice Opportunity Engagement Type
- SimpleJustice Opportunity Skill Type
- SimpleJustice Opportunity Communities - please note here that if you do NOT select an option, this opportunity will appear for all communities
Please note that Matter/Case ID information will automatically pass from an agency’s version of LegalServer to SimpleJustice, along with client name, date of birth, and address for volunteers to run their own conflict check. Once approved to work a case, the adverse party information on the case will also display for the volunteer on the case listing in SimpleJustice.
Assigning Volunteers to Cases
- An admin can receive an expression of interest under Users > Cases Opportunity Interest where they can then go to Actions and mark either as Approved or Not approved, which will simultaneously update the status of the expression of interest for the volunteer on SimpleJustice and also send an email.
An administrator may also see a red flag icon, which will appear if a SimpleJustice volunteer does not have pro bono restricted access to the relevant LegalServer instance. Administrators may approve them for access via the User Module > SimpleJustice Pending Users or “SimpleJustice Rejected Users” by going to Actions column > Approve SJ Volunteer User.
On the next screen, the admin can select “Click here to approve this request and create a new user.”
The user will then be granted user access to LegalServer to view and work the case in LegalServer.
- Administrators can then view details about the Cases and their volunteer assignments on the Case Profile.
If set-up with the appropriate Community access, administrators will also be able to view an overview of this on SimpleJustice under Dashboard > [Name of Community] > Open Cases.
- During the lifecycle of the case on LegalServer, if a volunteer advocate adds time associated with their work on the case via the actions menu, the time will be reflected on their Dashboard. Additionally, if that user is affiliated with an organization via the Work History tab, time will also be associated with that organization’s Dashboard in SimpleJustice. This will occur for relevant SimpleJustice community associations, too.
- When the case is moved to the Close Disposition in LegalServer, the status of the case will also be reflected in the relevant SimpleJustice Dashboard, along with relevant details, like fulfillment of case obligations. It will also be removed from the Opportunities > Cases listing. If a case is reopened, it will be reflected in the relevant SimpleJustice Dashboards and reappear in the Opportunities > Cases listing.