The Plaintiff Insurance page allows you to view and record the details of plaintiffs' insurance policies that are relevant to the case.
The Structure of This Page
Add Insurance Companies button: Used to add a new insurance policy to the case file. See Adding an Insurance Policy.
Insurance Companies table: Contains the insurance policy details and allows various actions to be performed on them. See Insurance Companies Table.
Add New Note button: Used to add a new Plaintiff Insurance note to the case file. See Adding a Note.
Plaintiff Insurance Notes table: Contains Plaintiff Insurance notes and allows various actions to be performed on them. See Plaintiff Insurance Notes Table.
Plaintiff Insurance Companies Table
The Plaintiff Insurance Companies table is where the details of insurance policies are stored. Each row of the table represents an individual policy. See Tables for general information about table structure and usage, including all buttons and other tools in this table that are not mentioned below.
Columns in the Table
The Insurance Companies table contains the following available columns:
Add New Company button: Used to add new Plaintiff Insurance Company to the case file.
Checkbox: Used to multi-select two or more insurance companies, which can then be edited or deleted simultaneously.
Plaintiff: The plaintiff covered by the policy.
Insurance Company: The insurance company that wrote the policy and the company's address.
Insurance Type: The type of the insurance and whether it is the plaintiff's primary insurance.
Adjuster: The insurance adjuster for the policy and the adjuster's phone number.
Policy Info: The details of the policy (the named insured, the policy number, the policy dates, the claim number, the policy limits, and the UM/SUM limits).
Payments Made: Total payments made by the insurance company.
3rd Party Insurance: The details of the third-party administrator of the policy (the company administering the policy, the administrator's adjuster for the policy, the adjuster's phone number, and the claim number).
Comments: Any comments about the policy.
Docs: The number of documents associated with the policy and a link to the documents in the Documents case page.
[column with no title]: A Right-click icon; the right-click menu contains Edit, Copy and Delete. The Copy function cannot be utilized if more than one policy is chosen.
Editing an Insurance Policy:
There are two methods to edit an insurance policy:
The first is to click the right-click icon in the untitled column of the row representing the policy you wish to edit, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options.
Click the Edit option in the menu. This will bring up an Add/Edit panel for insurance policies, with the existing information filled in.
Fill the fields in with your desired information. See The Add/Edit Insurance Panel for details about the fields.
Click Save to save the changes and close the panel.
If you decide you do not wish to save the changes, click Cancel instead of clicking Save to undo the changes and close the panel. You can also click the white X at the upper right of the panel to do the same thing.
The second method to edit an insurance policy is to check two or more checkboxes to the left of the insurance companies you want to edit. Either click the right-click icon in the untitled column of the row representing the policies you wish to edit, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options. Click the Edit option. This will bring up an Add/Edit panel for insurance policies, with the existing information filled in, but only if that information is identical for all of the insurance companies chosen. Fill the any of the fields in with your desired information, which will then be saved in all of the chosen insurance companies.
Deleting an Insurance Policy
There are two methods to delete an insurance policy:
The first is to click the right-click icon in the untitled column of the row representing the policy you wish to delete, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options.
Click the Delete option in the menu. This will bring up a confirmation message (to avoid accidental deletions).
Click the OK button in the message to confirm the deletion.
If you decide you do not wish to delete the policy, click Cancel instead of clicking OK to cancel the deletion. You can also click the black X at the upper right of the message to do the same thing.
Until you either confirm or cancel the deletion, you may not be able to visit any other tab in your browser.
The second method to delete an insurance policy is to check two or more checkboxes to the left of the insurance companies you want to edit. Either click the right-click icon in the untitled column of the row representing the policies you wish to delete, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options. Click the Delete Selected option in the menu. This will bring up a confirmation message (to avoid accidental deletions). Click the OK button in the message to confirm the deletion.
Adding an Insurance Policy
To add a new insurance policy:
Click the Add Insurance Companies button. This will bring up an Add/Edit panel for insurance policies, completely blank.
Fill the fields in with your desired information. See The Add/Edit Insurance Panel for details about the fields.
Click Save to save the policy and close the panel.
If you decide you do not wish to save the policy, click Cancel instead of clicking Save to undo the changes and close the panel. You can also click the white X at the upper right of the panel to do the same thing.
Copying an Insurance Policy
You can add a new insurance policy by copying the information of an existing one, even from a different case. This can be useful if a policy applies to multiple plaintiffs in the case, if a plaintiff has multiple types of policies from the same insurer, or if the same policy covers one or several defendants in different cases. To copy an insurance policy:
Click the right-click icon in the Action column of the row representing the policy you wish to copy, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options.
Click the Copy option in the menu. This will bring up an Add/Edit panel for insurance policies, with the information from the policy being copied filled in. One additional field is provided, "Copy to different case". By default, this field is set to the current case you are in, however you can choose any other case and copy the policy to that case.
Make any changes necessary to the information in the fields. See The Add/Edit Insurance Panel for details about the fields.
Click Save to save the policy and close the panel.
If you decide you do not wish to save the policy, click Cancel instead of clicking Save to undo the copying and close the panel. You can also click the white X at the upper right of the panel to do the same thing.
The Add/Edit Insurance Panel
The Add/Edit Insurance Panel allows you to fill in the details of an insurance policy. See Add/Edit Panels for general information about panel structure and usage. This panel contains the following fields:
Plaintiff: The plaintiff covered by the policy.
Insurance Company: The insurance company providing the coverage.
Primary: Checkbox that indicates whether the policy is the plaintiff's primary insurance. No plaintiff can have more than one primary policy; if this field is selected when the policy is saved, it will automatically be deselected in every other policy covering the same plaintiff.
Insurance Type: The type of the insurance.
Include on the Case Summary: Checkbox to determine whether an insurance company that is not marked as Primary will be shown on the Case Summary page.
Adjuster: The insurance adjuster for the policy. If the Show All checkbox in the dropdown is not selected, the dropdown will only show adjusters employed by the contact in the Insurance Company field; otherwise, the dropdown will show all adjusters. Multiple adjusters can be assigned to the case, one of which can be designated as Primary.
[Adjuster Table]: List of all adjusters assigned to the case. The adjuster designated as Primary will always be displayed first in the list.
Name of Insured: The named insured of the policy. If the Select from Plaintiffs and/or Select from Defendants checkbox in the dropdown is selected, the dropdown will only show the plaintiffs and/or the defendants in the case, respectively.
Policy Number: The identification number of the policy.
Claim Number: The identification number of the claim on the policy related to the case.
Group Number: The identification number of the group plan.
ID Number: The identification number of the plaintiff in the group plan.
Policy Start Date: The start date of the policy.
Policy End Date The end date of the policy.
Policy Limits [Individual]: The maximum payment per individual event or injured person.
Policy Limits [Aggregate]: The maximum payment per policy period or across all injured people.
DED [general]: The deductible that applies to this insurance policy.
UM/SUM Policy Limits [Individual]: The maximum payment per injured person in accidents caused by an uninsured or underinsured driver.
UM/SUM Policy Limits [Aggregate]: The maximum payment across all injured people in accidents caused by an uninsured or underinsured driver.
DED [UM/SUM]: The deductible that applies to the UM/SUM coverage under this insurance policy.
Self Insured Amount: The amount that must be paid by the insured before the insurer pays anything.
100%: If checked, the policy is entirely self-insured.
Insurance Limit By Multiple Plaintiff: Whether the aggregate policy limits refer to multiple injured individuals or multiple events.
Carrier Has Lien?: Whether the insurance company has a lien on the case to recover payments. If this field is selected when a new policy record is created, a lienor record will be created in the Lien Tracking case page with the insurance company listed as the lienor and the insurance type listed as the lienor type. This checkbox does not function when editing an existing insurance record, however (to avoid accidentally creating multiple liens from a single insurance record).
Comments: Any comments about the policy.
Add to Total Coverage: Whether the coverage available under this policy should be considered part of the total available coverage in the case. If this field is selected, the value of the Current Coverage Amount field is part of the sum listed in the Liability Coverage line in the Case Summary page.
MV Leased: Whether the vehicle covered by the policy is leased.
Available Coverage Amount: The amount of coverage currently available through this policy. Unless the Amount to be Added to Total Coverage field is selected, this field is uneditable.
Authentication to Defense Counsel [Checkbox]: Whether the insurance company has been authorized to release the policy information to defense counsel.
Authentication to Defense Counsel [Date]: When the insurance company was authorized to release the policy information to defense counsel. Unless the Authentication to Defense Counsel [Checkbox] field is selected, this field is uneditable.
Organization [TPA]: The organization serving as third-party administrator of the insurance policy.
Adjuster [TPA]: The third-party administrator's insurance adjuster for the policy. If the Show All checkbox in the dropdown is not selected, the dropdown will only show adjusters employed by the contact in the Insurance Company field; otherwise, the dropdown will show all adjusters. When the selection in this field changes, the Phone Number [TPA] field is automatically set to the primary phone number of the selected adjuster
Claim Number [TPA]: The third-party administrator's identification number for the claim on the policy related to the case.
Plaintiff Insurance Notes Table
The Notes table displays the details of notes that have the Plaintiff Insurance type. Each row of the table represents an individual note. See Tables for general information about table structure and usage, including all buttons and other tools in this table that are not mentioned below. See the Notes case page for viewing notes of all types.
Columns in the Table
The Plaintiff Insurance Notes table contains the following available columns:
Add New Note button: Used to add new Plaintiff Insurance Note to the case file.
Clear Filters button: Used to clear any filters that have been placed in one or more columns.
Date: The date and time the note was created.
Staff: The staff member who created the note.
Type: The note's type.
Notes: The content of the note, including formatting.
[Priority]: The priority level of the note.
Action: A Right-click icon; the right-click menu contains Edit, Delete, Email, Print, Email and Copy.
Editing a Note
To edit a note:
Click the right-click icon in the Action column of the row representing the note you wish to edit, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options.
Click the Edit option in the menu. This will bring up an Add/Edit panel for notes, with the existing information filled in.
Fill out the note and save it. See Add a Note for how to fill out and save notes.
Emailing a Note
To email a note:
Click the right-click icon in the Action column of the row representing the note you wish to email, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options.
Click the Email option in the menu. This will open the Case Email panel with the note's creator, date and time of creation, and content automatically entered in the body of the email.
Fill out the email with any desired additional content.
Click Send to send the email. The email will automatically be entered in the Document or Email page.
If you decide you do not wish to send the email, click the white X at the upper right of the panel to close the panel without sending the email.
Printing a Note
To print a note:
Click the right-click icon in the Action column of the row representing the note you wish to print, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options.
Click the Print option in the menu. This will open a new tab containing the details of the note, and immediately bring up your browser's print options for that tab.
The details of the note include the number, name, type and status of the case of which the note is part; the note's type and priority level; the date the note was created; the staff member who created the note; the date the note was modified; the staff member who modified the note; and the contents of the note.
Select the print options you desire and print the note. (Since the printing is performed by the browser and not by SmartAdvocate, different users may have different printing interfaces. Consult your browser's help if you need further details at this point.)
Note that after printing, the tab containing the note will remain open. You may close this if you wish.
Copying a Note
To copy a note:
Click the right-click icon in the Action column of the row representing the note you wish to copy, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options.
Click the Copy option in the menu. This will bring up a panel allowing you to choose which case file to copy the note to. The panel contains a series of Radio buttons for the last ten cases you have visited (including the case the note is already in, in case you wish to put an additional copy of the note in the same file). It also includes a Text input field for a case number, in case you wish to copy the note to a case other than the ten listed.
If you wish to copy the note to one of the last ten cases you have visited, click the radio button associated with that case. If you wish to copy the note to some other case, type that case's case number in the text input field instead.
Click Copy to copy the note to the chosen case file.
If you decide you do not wish to copy the note, click Cancel instead of clicking Copy to cancel the copying and close the panel. You can also click the white X at the upper right of the panel to do the same thing.
Deleting a Note
To delete a note:
Click the right-click icon in the Action column of the row representing the note you wish to delete, or right-click anywhere in that row. This will bring up a menu of options.
Click the Delete option in the menu. This will bring up a confirmation message (to avoid accidental deletions).
Click the OK button in the message to confirm the deletion.
If you decide you do not wish to delete the note, click Cancel instead of clicking OK to cancel the deletion. You can also click the black X at the upper right of the message to do the same thing.
Until you either confirm or cancel the deletion, you may not be able to visit any other tab in your browser.
Adding a Note
To add a new note:
Click the Add New Note button. This will bring up The Add/Edit Note Panel with the Plaintiff Insurance type already selected.
The note type will still be editable; in theory, you could add any type of note starting from the Plaintiff Insurance page. However, it is generally better practice to use the Add Note icon for notes of types different than the type of note relating to the table you are currently in.
Fill out the note and save it. See Add a Note for how to fill out and save notes.