Tip #293 - Best Practices for Preventing the Creation of Duplicate Contacts

If you attempt to add a contact (individual or organization) in SmartAdvocate, the system automatically checks if that contact already exists. If it finds a match for an individual, you will get a “pop-up” displaying identifying information, such as: Address, Phone #, DOB and Social Security #. If it matches to an organization, you will see what role the contact played in the other matters in which they appear (plaintiff, defendant, etc.). You should not be adding the same contact again if it already exists.

Many firms struggle with keeping their contacts “clean” (meaning, no duplicates). Unfortunately, some staff will ignore the pop-up warning and will add the contact again.

One control that you may consider implementing, is to limit the ability to add new contacts. Naturally, this option is restrictive, adding an inherent level of “inconvenience” for the affected users. You, as an Admin, can configure the appropriate User Permission Groups.

Here’s How:

Go to Admin
User Permission Groups
Locate the Group you want to work with and click the edit button (pencil) to edit the group parameters
Scroll down towards the bottom of the page
Click the drop down for Contact Card Types
Uncheck all the categories

Another control that you may consider implementing, is to allow users to be able to create individual contacts (such as defendants, adjusters, defense attorneys, etc.), but do not want them to be able to create organizations (Insurance Companies, Law Firms, etc.). In that case you would uncheck the box for Organizations and check the other categories (individual, etc.). This is perhaps a more reasonable approach, since the problem of duplicate contacts is more common when dealing with organizations.

Admittedly, restricting the ability to create or edit contact cards may pose some efficiency issues with the staff, so some firms may be reluctant to implement such measures. Instead, you may consider making use of some of the standard reports that will allow you to monitor changes made to contact cards. Two such reports include the Contact Rename Report and the Created/Modified Contact Search Report. They are accessed by going to Reports> Staff Management Reports > Contact Rename Report or Created/Modified Contact Search.

The Contact Rename Report will allow you to run a report that will show contacts that were modified over a selected period, displaying the old name and new name. It will also show the person who made the modification.

The Created/Modified Contact Search Report will allow you to run a report showing contacts that were created or modified during a specific date (or days) range.

If you chose not to implement the restrictions mentioned above, the reports will at least allow you to monitor changes made to contacts.

Those firms that have generally restricted the ability of all staff to be able to add contacts usually designate certain staff members that will be allowed to do so.