Tip #140 - Use Case Browse and Predefined Templatesto Send Mass Communications to Clients and Other Case Contacts

Use Case Browse and Email, Text or Document Templates to send mass communications to clients and other case contacts, including Defendants’ Attorneys, Insurance Adjusters, Lienors, Judges, Referred Out Attorneys and Referring Attorney/Law Firm.[1] The most efficient way of sending mass communications to a select group is to use a predefined template. Using a template, allows the maximum flexibility in that you can have the contact’s name, etc. automatically inserted in the document, email or text. To create an Email or Text[2] Template, you will need to have Admin privileges. For Email Templates, go to Admin > Email/Note/Appointment/View Templates. To create a Text Template, go to Admin > Text Message Templates to create your Text Template.  
 
Sample Email Template

Sample Text Template

1. Use Case Browse to generate a list of your cases. Since you only need a list, it is not necessary to select customized columns. The default columns available in Case Browse should be fine.  Use the appropriate filter(s) to generate the desired list (e.g., open cases for clients, cases from a specific referral source, etc.). If the list is going to be particularly large, you may want to run a separate Case Browse (e.g., by Case Group, etc.) so that your lists are more manageable.

 
Sample Case Browse Result

2. Click the check box in the left column for the cases you want to select (or click the check box at the top of the column headings to select all cases).
 

3. After you have selected your cases, the ‘Mass Update’ function (button in the top left corner of your screen) will become available, i.e., no longer greyed out.

4. Click the Mass Update button to display a drop-down list of options.

5. Select ‘Generate Document’, ‘Generate Email’ or ‘Generate Text’ as appropriate. The resulting page will allow you to make certain selections (e.g., have the email go to the primary plaintiff only, primary contact only, primary plaintiff and primary contact or all, or select certain contact types from the case). Unless there is some compelling reason why you would want to include contacts that have been flagged as ‘Exclude Prevent Mailing’ and ‘Exclude Deceased, Incompetent and Infants,’ it is recommended that you leave those boxes checked. These two options are generally selected by default and may have been checked on the respective contact card.

6. If using the email option, either select an appropriate email template to automatically have the email content generated by the template or type the content of the email manually. [Tip – you may want to deselect the signature depending on the setup of your template. If signature is selected and you have a default signature set up in SmartAdvocate, the email will go out with the signature line of the person sending the mass mail].

7. Follow Steps 5 and 6 above using ‘Generate Text’ and then use an appropriate text template or type the text message manually as appropriate for texting.  
 

8. To generate a document (letter) for mass mailing, select ‘Generate Document’ at Step 5 then select the appropriate document template. Here also, you have the option of selecting the contacts you want to include in your mailing. The options are: Primary Plaintiff, Primary Plaintiff and Primary Contact, Primary Contact or All or you can select certain contact types from the case. Unless there is some compelling reason why you would want to include contacts that have been flagged as ‘Exclude Prevent Mailing’ and ‘Exclude Deceased, Incompetent and Infants,’ it is recommended that you leave those boxes checked. These two options are generally selected by default and may have been checked on the respective contact card. If you changed the default selection from Primary Plaintiff, click the ‘Search’ button in the ‘Select case contacts to include’ panel to refresh/update your search results.  

9. Click the ‘Generate’ button to generate the merged documents. Open and print your documents (letters). [Tip – To print envelopes for the exact same list – if you have an envelope template in your system – select Envelope from the Template Group and Template in step 8 above]

[1] Mass document generation can only be done using a Document Template

[2] You will need Texting Integration installed to be able to use the texting feature