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.

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.

Happy New Year! (And how to get help if it's not so happy so far.)

Doxpop's support staff will be heading for home an hour early (5 PM EST) on New Year's Eve, and we'll be closed all day on New Year's Day.

That means we won't be monitoring our phones or online chat between 5PM EST on December 31st and 8AM EST on January 2nd.

We understand that sometimes an emergency arises where you really need help during holidays. If you have a situation that can't wait, please send us an email with a brief description of your problem and a phone number where we can reach you to help. One of our managers will be checking email several times during New Year's Day to respond to emergencies.

Please be respectful when using this option, as our manager will have to cease his merrymaking in order to respond.

Have a great and safe celebration. We look forward to a great 2019 with all of you!

Merry Christmas from all of us at Doxpop. Here is when we'll be closed for the holiday.

Doxpop offices will be closed Monday, December 24th and Tuesday, December 25th for the Christmas holiday,

With that said, we understand that sometimes you have to deal with an emergency situation during a holiday so here's how to get help over the holiday:

We will not be monitoring phone lines, so you must use email. One of our managers will be checking email periodically throughout the Christmas break. If you have a real emergency, please send an email to support@doxpop.com that contains a brief description of the problem and a phone number we can call to reach you.

Please be respectful when using this option. It's for real emergencies that can't wait until Wednesday morning.

Our offices will re-open at 8am EST on Wednesday, December 26th. 

Welcome Lake County to e-filing! Now is the time to get your service contact attached to your cases.

On Wednesday, December 12th Lake County joined the list of counties in the Indiana e-file system. 

This is just a reminder that if you have open cases in any of these courts now is the time to use our batch service contact attachment feature to get your preferred service contact attached to all your cases. In addition to finding your Lake county cases, this will catch any other open cases you may not have your private service contact attached to yet in any e-filing county.

We have a quick video showing you how it works if you click on this link.
Note: Public service contacts are now available in your service contact tools as well!


For more information about how private and public service contacts may affect you, visit our initial and follow up blog posts linked below:

• Effective 1/1/18 the State Court is doing away with the public service contacts that each attorney sets up and maintains for themselves.
• E-file Reminder: Make sure you control your service contact!
• You can now attach your firm service contact to closed, as well as open, cases in our batch attachment tool!

Wells and Miami County Converts to Odyssey- Your Doxpop Access is Unaffected.

During the weekend of December 1st, the Courts in Wells & Miami County will convert to the Odyssey case tracking system, this means their Case Management System is now administered by Indiana Trial Court Technology.

This move does not affect Doxpop users because Doxpop buys access to a real-time feed of court data from the Odyssey system from the Division of State Court Administration. Your access to Wells and Miami County court information through Doxpop will not be interrupted during this transition. Wells County e-filers, please read this post regarding e-file during the transition. 

A few of the services we provide will look odd during the transition because there will be a four-six week period when both the old data and the new data are available. This is longer than when this transition typically happens due to the holidays. In particular:

• If you use the personal calendar feature to keep track of hearings connected to your Bar ID, you will see two colors for Wells or Miami County on your calendar. Every event will be available, but the older cases will have a different color from the newer cases. When we complete the merge process, these will go back to being a single color.
• When you look at our "County Details Page", you will find two entries for each court until the merge is complete.
• When you are doing searches, you will find two entries for some cases. This is because while we are loading the information from Odyssey, we will also be maintaining the old data until the operation is complete to ensure you don't miss anything. When you see two case entries, please look at both to ensure you have the most current information.
• If you use any of our "watch" services to keep an eye on cases or people of interest, we will be moving those watches over so they point to the cases and people that are a part of the Odyssey data feed. We run a process to convert these every hour, but it is possible for notification of events to slip through the cracks between conversion runs so you may want to periodically do a manual check between now and January 14th. After then, we'll be back to normal.

Tax warrants will not be affected at all by this transition.

Finally, one deficiency in the Odyssey system is that financial information is not exported in their data feed, so that detail will not be available after the transition. We regularly ask that TCT add this to the data feed, but so far, we are told that it is not allowed because the clerks using the Odyssey system have requested that TCT not make that information available to us. If this information is important to you, please encourage the clerks you work with to tell TCT differently so we can get the information back online.

As always, we are available to answer any questions in person, so don't hesitate to call support at 866-369-7671 if you have any questions.

Wells county e-filing: Important information while they transition to the Odyssey case management system.

Wells County will begin a transition to the Odyessy case management system on November 29th.

This transition will have a limiting effect on e-filing through the weekend. Here is the notice that was provided by the state court administration regarding this transfer:

--

Beginning THU, NOV 29 at 4:00pm through SAT, DEC 1 at 1:00pm, you will be able to e-file only into Wells cases in which you have e-filed before. Filings into other cases or that open a new case will not be possible during this time.

--

If you need to file into a Wells case and it does not pull up in e-file you will have to file it directly with the clerk. The same process will apply for any new cases.

This transition will only affect e-filing temporarily.

All other court case information and Doxpop features will remain unaffected. 

Doxpop offices will close 5pm EST Wednesday, November 21st in observance of Thanksgiving.

We understand that sometimes you have to deal with an emergency situation during a holiday so here's how to get help over the holiday:

We will not be monitoring phone lines, so you must use email. One of our managers will be checking email periodically throughout the Thanksgiving break. If you have a real emergency, please send an email to support@doxpop.com that contains a brief description of the problem and phone number we can call to reach you.

Please be respectful when using this option. It's for real emergencies that can't wait until Monday morning.

Our offices will re-open at 8am on Monday, November 26th. 

Keeping you on top of your court dates!

Introducing a new feature with the Doxpop Calendar.

Featured now on the 'court cases' tab at the top of the dashboard is the number of court calendar events you have scheduled for today and tomorrow*.

If you want more details or just want a quick way to get to the 'my calendar' page, just click on this spot and you will be taken directly to your calendar.

A couple things to note:

*On Friday and over the weekend Tomorrow will actually be Monday's count.
Also, this count does include canceled events so make sure you check the calendar before you run off to court.

For more about using the Doxpop calendars visit our help pages. 

If you have any questions feel free to contact us at support@doxpop.com or call us 8am-6pm EST at 866-369-7671

Putnam County Converts to Odyssey- Your Doxpop Access is Unaffected.

During the weekend of October 13th, the Courts in Putnam County converted to the Odyssey case tracking system, this means their Case Management System is now administered by Indiana Trial Court Technology.

This move does not affect Doxpop users because Doxpop buys access to a real-time feed of court data from the Odyssey system from the Division of State Court Administration. Your access to Putnam County court information through Doxpop will not be interrupted during this transition.

A few of the services we provide will look odd during the transition because there will be a four week period when both the old data and the new data are available. In particular:

• If you use the personal calendar feature to keep track of hearings connected to your Bar ID, you will see two colors for Wabash County on your calendar. Every event will be available, but the older cases will have a different color from the newer cases. When we complete the merge process, these will go back to being a single color.
• When you look at our "County Details Page", you will find two entries for each court until the merge is complete.
• When you are doing searches, you will find two entries for some cases. This is because while we are loading the information from Odyssey, we will also be maintaining the old data until the operation is complete to ensure you don't miss anything. When you see two case entries, please look at both to ensure you have the most current information.
• If you use any of our "watch" services to keep an eye on cases or people of interest, we will be moving those watches over so they point to the cases and people that are a part of the Odyssey data feed. We run a process to convert these every hour, but it is possible for notification of events to slip through the cracks between conversion runs so you may want to periodically do a manual check between now and November 11th. After then, we'll be back to normal.

Tax warrants will not be affected at all by this transition.

Finally, one deficiency in the Odyssey system is that financial information is not exported in their data feed, so that detail will not be available after the transition. We regularly ask that TCT add this to the data feed, but so far, we are told that it is not allowed because the clerks using the Odyssey system have requested that TCT not make that information available to us. If this information is important to you, please encourage the clerks you work with to tell TCT differently so we can get the information back online.

As always, we are available to answer any questions in person, so don't hesitate to call support at 866-369-7671 if you have any questions.