Doxpop - Tools for Attorneys and Public Information Researchers: January 2019

Monday, January 28, 2019

E-filing account maintenance: Let's talk payment accounts.


So in our last article, we gave you plenty to read, so this week I’m going to try and keep it simple. This week we’ll talk about payment accounts which is probably the number one subject we get calls about.

If you’ve missed our previous articles here are links to them:
      Have a new employee? Here's what to do.
      Did someone leave your firm? Here's what to do.

The key thing to remember is you two places that payment account information is stored. Remembering that e-file is a separate system that you log in to through Doxpop is an important thing to keep in mind.

Doxpop Payment Information-

Doxpop payment information is accessible to any Doxpop account admin on the ‘my doxpop’ tab. The payment information stored here is just for your Doxpop monthly service and recorded document purchases.

E-file payment information-

E-file payment accounts are managed on the e-file account administration page. This is accessible to any e-file user that has been granted administrative rights on the e-file account. An e-file account admin does not necessarily have to be a doxpop admin.

To access the e-file account administration page follow these steps:

  • Click on the ‘e-filing’ tab
  • Then on the left side of the page, in the links under our welcome message, you should find a link titled “E-filing Account Administration”. If you do not have this link, you are not an e-file account admin. 

With that understood, here is the top tip we suggest:

If you have multiple e-file users, have more than one account administrator. This way, if your normal account administrator is unavailable and a payment account, or other information, needs to be updated in order to make that critical filing, you can do so. Note that since the e-file account is really with the state e-file system, Doxpop support does not have direct access to users e-file accounts. Click here to learn how to grant administrative rights to an e-file user.

Now, lets actually talk about e-file payment accounts:

Once on the e-filing account administration page, you’ll see the payment accounts in the upper right corner. Here you will see the name (or nickname) of the payment account(s) saved on the account. Currently, in Indiana, there are two types of payments accounts- Credit Card and Waiver.

Credit Card:

This is a credit card that is used to pay for your filing fees. Filing fees include the actual filing fee, sheriff service fees, and the state “convenience fee”. These are charged by the state’s credit card processor, not Doxpop.

Its also good to know that the credit card is not actually charged until a filing is accepted by the clerk. When a filing is submitted the e-file credit card processor will do a pre-authorization and place a hold on the amount of the filing. Should the filing be canceled or rejected that hold will be released after a few days. 

When it comes time to update your payment account you’ll need to open the existing “old” information and delete that account, then you can click the ‘new payment account’ button and add the updated card. The e-file system doesn’t permit credit cards to be edited.

When adding a new payment account. The “name” field that comes up first is a free form place for you to assign a “nickname” for that card. This is the name that your e-file users will see when they need to select a payment account.

Waiver:

Just as the name implies, a waiver account is used when you have a situation that filing fees are to be waived. We suggest adding a waiver account when you set-up the e-file account so that if it becomes needed, you already have it set-up and another user doesn’t have to scramble to find someone to add it.

That just about covers it. If you have any questions, always feel free to pick up the phone and give our support team a call at 866-396-7671. A real human will answer the phone and help walk you through the process!

Subscribe today to get notifications in your email each time we post a new blog entry. Next time we’ll start covering service and service contacts for E-file.

Friday, January 25, 2019

Added search capabilities are here!


We’re happy to be able to announce that new search ability for Recorded Documents and Tax Warrants will be released on January 24th towards the end of the day!

We find the vast majority of our users perform their searches from the welcome tab and for some time we only had searching available by name. Last year we released a pilot on the court search that allowed a user from the welcome tab to select which of multiple search fields they wanted to search by and this went over well so we’ve now expanded that feature to recorded documents and tax warrants.

Here is what the previous search options look like:

Now, you’ll find a drop down and you can select the primary field you would like to search by:
You’ll also notice as you navigate around our site that we’ve made this consistent on all these simple search ‘widgets’ as we call them. Remember you can always get the advanced search just by clicking the ‘advance search’ link in that widget.

If you have and questions or feedback give our support team a call at 866-396-7671 or email us at support@doxpop.com

Subscribe today to get notifications in your email each time we post a new blog entry. Next time we’ll cover payment accounts for E-file and Doxpop.







Monday, January 21, 2019

E-filing account maintenance: Did someone leave your firm? Here's what to do.


In the second of our e-file account maintenance series, we’ll cover what steps you will want to take when an employee leaves your firm. Hang in there, this one is a long one but important if you run into this situation. Did you miss part one of the series? If so click here to learn what needs to be done when you have a new user. 

Let's talk about Doxpop changes that will be needed first. 

First, you’ll want to remove any saved alerts so that none of them are being counted against your account limits.
  • Go to the ‘my doxpop’ tab.
  • Then in the blue menu to the left click on the ‘View Users’ link.
  • Locate the user that has left your firm and click the ‘Details’ link.
  • Remove any bar ID alerts by clicking ‘View user ID list’ and disable notifications on any saved bar IDs.
  • Use your browser's back button to navigate back to the user information screen.
  • Remove scheduled searches or search watches by clicking on ‘View user's searches and notifications’ link. 
  • Here you can then delete or modify any of the user’s saved searches. 
With that done, you will now want to inactivate that user by using the browser’s back button to get back to the Doxpop account user list. Then, just click the ‘Inactivate’ link for that user. This will remove them from your firm's list of active Doxpop users and prevent them from accessing your firm’s account.

Note that if the person leaving is an admin, you may want to make sure you grant admin rights to another user that will be replacing their duties. If you need a user reactivated, give us call and our support team has the ability to reactivate a user if needed. 

Now, let's dive into e-file.

This can get complicated depending on the situation, so we’ll cover the basics, but if you have a more complicated situation, give us a call and we can help you through it. What you need to do first depends on the role the person served in your firm so just scroll down to the section that applies to your situation.

Paralegal, assistant or another user that files on behalf of an attorney but is not an attorney-

This is pretty simple, the e-file account administrator needs to take the following steps:
  • Navigate to the ‘e-filing’ tab.
  • Click the ‘E-filing Account Administration’ link.
  • In the Users box click on the name of the user that has left.
  • Click [Delete User] button.
  • Confirm by clicking [Yes, delete it].
That's it! You’ve removed that e-file user from your firm but will still be able to see filings that user made on behalf of the firm in the My Electronic Filings area.

You may want to check if this person was listed to get administrative copies of service in the service contacts. This is done by just clicking on a service contact name, then just remove their email from the Administrative Copy field. Make sure to replace it with someone else if needed.

Okay, that's the easy situation, now let's go over steps if an attorney is leaving your firm. There can be quite a few scenarios here, but we’ll cover the easy ones.

An attorney is leaving and taking all of their cases with them.

Service Contacts- You will want to remove the service contact from your firm from their cases:
  • On the ‘E-filing Account Administration’ page click the [Additional Tools] button in Service Contacts
  • Use the second tool to detach your firm’s service contact from all the cases it is attached to.
  • Choose the firm service contact from the drop down. (The “firm” service contact, is the one without the globe symbol).
  • Click [Detach]
  • This will run a process detaching that service contact from all of the cases it's attached to. 
  • We suggest re-running this process on the public service contact also (the one with the globe)*. 
  • With each of these, you will get an email that lists what actions were taken on what cases. 
  • Click on the [< Account Administration] button above the service contact tools
  • Click on the attorney’s name in the Service Contacts box 
  • Click [Delete]
  • Confirm by clicking [Yes, delete it]
*While the public service contact will update with their new information when they update the roll of attorneys, it can only be detached by the firm that attached it to a case originally. This way the parting attorney can then decided once at their new firm which service contact they wish to use and attach it appropriately to all their cases.

Now, remove the attorney from the firm’s e-file account. Again, on the E-filing Account Administration page follow these steps:
  • In the Attorney's box, click on the attorney’s name
  • Click [Delete]
  • Confirm by clicking [Yes, delete it]
Next, if they have an e-file user, you'll want to go and remove that user from the e-file account following the steps in above in the paralegal/assistant section to remove the e-file user for them. 
You are done! You may want to coordinate this process with the attorney once they are set-up at their new firm. If you detach your firm’s service contact on all the cases before the attorney (or their new firm admin) has the ability to get a new service contact attached to their cases it’s quite possible for them to miss electronic service on an active case. 

An attorney is leaving but ALL of their cases stay with the firm. 

Before making changes on the e-file account you will want to ensure that you have taken care of the legal process to replace the attorney of record on the case. This entails filing an appearance for the attorney that is taking over the case and adding them as an attorney of record during that filing as well as filing the withdrawal for the departing attorney. Once you've completed that on all the cases you can take the following administrative steps in e-file.

Service Contacts- You will want to replace the service contact for that attorney with that of one that is not leaving your firm.
  • On the ‘E-filing Account Administration’ page click the [Additional Tools] button in Service Contacts
  • Use the third tool to replace that attorney’s firm’s service contact on all the cases it is attached to with someone else at your firm. 
  • Choose the firm service contact to be replaced from the drop down. (The “firm” service contact, is the one without the globe symbol).
  • Choose the firm preferred service contact you want that one to be replaced with
  • Click [Replace]
  • This will run a process that detaches the outgoing attorney’s service contact on any cases its attached to and then attaches the specified replacement service contact. 
  • We suggest re-running this process on the outgoing attorney’s public service contact also as this will catch any cases that the public service contact was attached to. 
  • With each of these, you will get an email that lists what actions were taken on what cases. 
  • Click on the [< Account Administration] button above the service contact tools
  • Click on the attorney’s name in the Service Contacts box 
  • Click [Delete]
  • Confirm by clicking [Yes, delete it]
Now, remove the attorney from the firm’s e-file account. Again, on the E-filing Account Administration page follow these steps:
  • In the Attorney's box, click on the attorney’s name
  • Click [Delete]
  • Confirm by clicking [Yes, delete it]
Next, if they have an e-file user, you'll want to go and remove that user from the e-file account following the steps in above in the paralegal/assistant section to remove the e-file user for them. 
And that's it, you’ve replaced and then removed that attorney from the firm’s e-file account. Don’t forget that this will only modify the attorney as it related to the e-file system itself and not the official case record. Your firm will need to act appropriately with each case through the court system to replace the attorney of record on any affected cases.

An attorney is leaving but some cases stay and some cases go with them. 

This gets a bit more complicated and is where we’d advise you to just give us a call.

Essentially, depending on the volume of cases that are staying or leaving, you are going to follow one of the two instructions above for service contacts and then manually correct any cases changed that didn’t need to be. Also, depending on the volume of cases you may find it will be easier to just manually update the service contacts on affected cases one by one. We can help you decide the more efficient route. Once you have worked out service contacts you will still end up removing the attorney from the firm’s listed attorneys.

If you run into any issues during this process always feel free to pick up the phone and give our support team a call at 866-396-7671. A real human will answer the phone and help walk you through the process!

Subscribe today to get notifications in your email each time we post a new blog entry. Next time we’ll cover payment accounts for E-file and Doxpop.

Thursday, January 10, 2019

E-filing account maintenance: Have a new employee? Here's what to do.


It’s easy to forget that Doxpop and E-file are actually two separate systems. We work hard to make them seamless for your efficiency. This though can cause some confusion when it comes time to manage users on these accounts, whether that's getting a new employee setup or ensuring you made the appropriate modifications when someone leaves the firm.
In the next few blog posts, we’ll elaborate and document the steps you'll want to follow in common situations in the hope to make things a little clearer.

Have a new employee? Here are the steps to get them added to Doxpop & E-file-

First, let's get them their own Doxpop user.

You can add an unlimited number of users on your Doxpop account at no additional cost, so why not give everyone their own login. The following steps will need to be done by the Doxpop account administrator.

  • Navigate to the ‘my doxpop’ tab.
  • Then on the blue menu to the left, click the ‘add a user’ link
  • Enter the new employee's information and assign them a password (they can change this later). 
  • Click [Done]. They are not sent an email from Doxpop so you'll want to provide that information to the new user. 

Now that they are set for Doxpop, let's get them added to your firm's e-file account.

This will need to be done by an e-file account administrator, that may or may not be the same as the Doxpop account administrator.

  • Navigate to the ‘e-filing’ tab
  • Then on the links to the left, click on the ‘E-filing Account Administration’ link
  • In the lower left box is the users for e-file. 
  • To add a user click the [New User] button
  • Enter their information and select if you would like them to be an Admin on the e-file account.
  • Click [Save & Send Activation Email] 

The new user will then be sent an activation email from tylerhost.net. We’ll cover the steps they need to follow at the end of this post, but as an account admin, there are a couple other things you may need to check or set up while we are here.


Is the new user a paralegal or assistant that needs to get a copy of service emails for the attorney(s) they work for?
  • If yes, you will want to add that in the service contact under that attorney's name.
  • This is done by clicking on the appropriate service contact name in the Service Contact section. 
  • Then you can add multiple email addresses to get copied anytime that service contact is served in the 'administrative copy' field.
  • If you need multiple people copied just separate the multiple emails by a comma. 

Is the new user also a firm attorney?
  • If yes, you will want to add them to the firm service contacts by clicking the [New Service Contact] button.
  • Then you will also need to add them as a firm attorney by clicking the [New Attorney] button. 
  • Then, if they are bringing cases with them to the firm you will want to make sure you get their service contact attached to all their cases and we have a tool that will help with that!
    • In the 'Service Contacts' section, click on [Additional Tools] button.
    • Here you can use the first tool to attach the service contact to all the public cases the new attorney’s bar ID is a party of record on.
    • Once that process completes you will get an email that lists all the cases that were found and that they were attached to. 

This wraps up the administrator's steps to be done. Now the new user is ready to finish their setup.

New User actions-


Here are the steps the new user will need to follow:
  • Click the validation email in the tylerhost.net email for e-file.
  • Log into Doxpop with the Doxpop credentials you supplied them. 
    • If they wish to change the Doxpop password, have them visit the ‘my doxpop’ tab and use the [change password] button to change that.
  • Navigate to the ‘e-filing’ tab.
  • Click the ‘Log Into E-filing’ link on the left side.
  • Enter the password provided in the tylerhost.net email. Note: it's probably best to copy & paste this.
  • Ensure the ‘Remember my e-filing credentials’ checkbox is checked. This will allow us to store their e-file credentials and have them always logged into e-file anytime they are logged into Doxpop.
That's it! Your new user should be all set to start filing on your firm’s behalf!

If you run into any issues during this process always feel free to pick up the phone and give our support team a call at 866-396-7671. A real human will answer the phone and help walk you through the process!

Make sure and sign up to follow us by email over to your left to get notifications in your email each time we post a new blog entry. Next time we’ll cover what to do when someone leaves the firm.