Tip #159 - How to Set SOL Reminders Using WorkPlans

This week’s tip is a little different from our usual topic because it is directed primarily towards the Admin person in your firm who generally creates WorkPlans, and it is a bit longer than usual.
 
Here at SmartAdvocate, we are frequently asked questions like, ”Does SmartAdvocate give automatic deadline reminders?”, or ”How can I get a pop-up reminder 30 days before the SOL expires”. The answer is that you can create simple WorkPlans that can automatically populate reminders of upcoming SOLs.
 
The following example shows how to create a WorkPlan for Auto Accident Cases that will automatically populate 90, 60, 30 and 7 day “SOL Reminders”. (In this example, the reminders are populated based on a 3-year SOL. You will need to make the appropriate adjustments based on the actual SOL for your Case Type and/or jurisdiction). 

1. From the Admin Tool Bar, select “WorkPlans”, then “WorkPlan Management” from the resulting drop-down menu. 

2. Click the ”New WorkPlan” button in the top left corner of the screen. 

3. Enter a name, optional description and optional “Special Notes” for the WorkPlan. 

4. Click the “Update” button to save the new WorkPlan name.

5. Locate the WorkPlan name you just created from the list of WorkPlans displayed. Click the “Open WorkPlan” icon to the right of the pencil/edit icon. 

6. Right click on the WorkPlan name and select “Add Critical Deadline” from the drop-down menu.

7. Click the “Add Empty Item” button from the dialog box.

8. For the General Information, enter a Name (such as “90 Day SOL Reminder”), select “CriticalDeadline” for the Type, enter an optional “Description” and optional “Special Instructions” if desired.

9. Click the “Scheduling Setting” Tab and click the drop-down for “Item Entered Date” and select the “Incident Date (DOI)” option. In the box to the right of “And then add additional”, enter the number of days less 90 days for the actual SOL. In the following example, I entered 1005 which represent 90 days less than the total number of days for a 3-year SOL (a three-year statute is 1095 days).

10. Click the “Contacts Information” tab and then click the “New Contact” button. 

11. Click the “Role from the Case” check box and then select “Attorney”’ from the drop-down. Check the box for “Is responsible for the WorkPlan item”.  Click the “Update” button.

Repeat steps 10 and 11, selecting different roles, if desired. In our example, we selected Paralegal as the second role from the drop-down. (In the foregoing examples, the staff members assigned as Attorney and Paralegal in the case will have the 90-day SOL Reminder sent to them). 

12. Click the “OK” button to save the entered information. 

[Repeat steps 6 through 12 for a 60-day, 30-day and 7-day reminder if desired. For each subsequent reminder in step 9, make the appropriate calculation for 60 days, 30 days and 7 days less than the actual SOL as appropriate]

Here is the completed WorkPlan shown in both the traditional and graphical (drag-and-drop) views

Now, assign the WorkPlan to your cases based on the desired criteria. In this example, we will assign the WorkPlan to a specific Auto Accident Case Type. 

13. To do so, go to Admin, WorkPlans, WorkPlan Assignments, then click the “New WorkPlan Assignment” button in the top left corner of your screen. 

14. Create a name/role for the WorkPlan Assignment (In this example we called the assignment “90, 60, 30, 7 Day SOL Reminder”).

15. Select the WorkPlan you just created from the drop-down list of WorkPlans (in our example, “90, 60, 30, 7 Day SOL Reminders”) 

16. Select the Case Type(s) and State(s) from the drop-down lists that you want to assign the WorkPlan to (here we want to limit the assignment to specific Case Type(s) and State(s) since SOLs may be Case Type and State Specific) 

17. Click the “Update” button to save your selections and assignment (Tip: You may initially want to assign the WorkPlan to one specific case so that you can verify that the WorkPlan is functioning as expected prior to assigning it to all your cases. Go to Admin > WorkPlans > WorkPlan in Cases to do so) 

In our example, once a new case of the type Auto-Not Mun-Not Death AND located in New York is entered into SmartAdvocate, the WorkPlan will be automatically assigned to it.
 
Once the SOL Reminder WorkPlan is assigned to a case, the WorkPlan page in the case will look similar to the following:

And the SOL Reminders may look like this on the Summary Screen of the case: