Tip #53 - How to search for cases using UDFs

Did you know that you can use information entered in UDFs (User Defined Fields)[1]to search for cases? The most common section of SmartAdvocate where UDFs are used is on the Incident Screen (generally referred to as the questionnaire section). Most of the information entered on the Incident Screen are entered during Intake using Case Wizard.

Sample Incident Screen in a Slip-And-Fall case

If you are using the most recent version of SmartAdvocate, you will see UDF as one of the choices available in the drop down for top search. Here you can use the top search to find cases using the data entered in any UDF field. Please note, however, that you can only search text fields. For example, if you were to select UDF as your Top Search and search for ‘weather’, the system will return a list of cases that have the word ‘Weather’ in the UDF and display the value(s) that were in that UDF field. Please bear in mind also that UDFs are Case Type specific.
 
Example of Top Search results where ‘weather’ was used as the UDF search criteria

You can use Case Browse to search for cases that have specific values entered in any of the UDFs. Because UDFs are Case Type specific, however, please bear in mind that you are required to select the Case Type before you can select the UDF you want to search in Case Browse. It is important to note also that you should select only one Case Type when using this feature in Case Browse. For example, let’s say you want to get a list of all your automobile accident cases where it is reported that it was snowing at the time of the accident, or a list of all your birth injury medical malpractice cases where forceps were used.
 
For the auto accident case scenario, assuming that one of the questions asked in your automobile cases is what was the weather condition at the time of the accident and the answers available to choose from include snowing, raining, sunny, you would then be able to use any of those answers to find the appropriate case. You would select Auto Accident as the Case Type first, then click the UDF tab, then select which UDF you want to search.
 
Similarly, for your birth injury case, if one of the questions asked is whether forceps were used during the delivery (if that information is captured), you would be able to easily search for all the cases where forceps were used. The procedure would be to select Case Type, then choose Medical Malpractice from the list of Case Types, then select the UDF tab, then choose the specific UDF to search.
 
Example of Case Type and Appropriate UDF selected in Case Browse (Auto Accident Case Type)

Let’s look at another example in a Product Liability type matter . . .

Let’s say your firm handles Products Liability cases and you are working on the 3M Earplugs campaign. One piece of information you capture on the Incident Screen is whether the claimant used CAEv2 earplugs as a civilian at any time. You can easily use Case Browse to get a list of cases that satisfy those criteria using the procedures outlined above.

[1] UDFs can be created on the following screens:
Case, Case Wizard, Court, Defendant, Expert, PFS, Plaintiff and 5 “Other” pages which can be made available on any tab. By default, those 5 UDF pages are placed on the ‘Other’ tab on the left menu of the case Summary Screen.