Tip #147 - How to use the “Confirm Document” UDF(User Defined Field)

UDFs (User Defined Fields) are fields that SmartAdvocate enables you to create. There are several pages where you can do this. The most common one being the Incident Page/Screen, where you typically customize the questionnaire section to include questions that are generally asked at intake. You can also create UDFs on the following pages:

• Case

• New Case Wizard

• Court

• Defendant

• Expert

• Plaintiff

• PFS (Plaintiff Fact Sheet)

• Other (Other Pages numbered 1 through 5 that are usually located under the “Other” main section accessible from the Summary Screen)

 
The field types available as UDFs include: Checkbox, Combobox, Comment, Confirm Documents, Currency, Date, Drug, Label, Text, Yes/No, and more.
 
Confirm Documents
The Confirm Documents field-type, is very useful where you want to verify the receipt of certain documents, without having to navigate to the Documents Page and filter among the available documents to locate them. Putting that field type on a specific page (such as a list of required documents in all auto accident cases) serves as a convenient checklist as well.

An additional benefit of using the “Confirm Documents” feature for a UDF is that you can simply reference a document that may have already been saved to the case, and is already reflected on the Documents Page. In other words, you will not need to upload the document again separately.
 
Here’s an example:
Let’s assume that your firm mandates that the police accident report, motor vehicle insurance policy declarations page, signed HIPAA authorization, copy of the client’s driver license and photographs of all damages are all required for all auto accident cases. You could create these six UDFs as “Confirm Documents” field types and list them on the Case UDF page. Responsible staff could simply check those documents off when received, and reference each document on the Case UDF page itself. A quick glance on the Case UDF page will show whether a specific required document has been received or if it is still outstanding.