Product Tour

Creating a Quick case

Create 'Client A and B' by entering all basic information. This allows basic information to be entered for both clients. This forms the basis of information used for letters and all elements of a case.

If the clients enter mediation, the remaining client information can be entered, enabling the LAA forms and case letters can be automatically populated.

Additional mirror buttons enable details to be quickly replicated from client A to B. A conflict check can be performed by clicking another button to see if either clients have been previously seen for another case.

Case activity

This enables the recording case activity. This information details all correspondence, official forms and time spent working on the case. This information is then used to track all aspects of the case, which is used to determine the case invoices and tracking.

We've created preset activities so all you need to do is select an activity from the drop-down. This has default times associated with each task. The activity also provides links to letter templates.

If you upload a document to the case, this is also listed in the case activities.

Key case stages

We've divided the case into four key stages :

• Willingnes
• Intake
• Mediaton
• Completion

Rather than displaying all the information one a single screen, we break it down relative to stages. We then group letter or email templates to each of these stages to reduce the number of letters administrators or mediators have to choose from.

Mediator calendar

The practice calendar is integrated into Progress showing case appointments, and other activities. Non-case activities are highlighted in a different colour enabled you to easily differentiate from appointments.

With the admin calendar, all mediator diaries can be viewed in parallel. For firms with more than five mediators, our calendar scroll feature allows you to scroll through additional mediator calendars quickly.

This can also be integrated into Outlook to view the activities for the practice using Outlook ICS files across the internet, or viewed on an iPhone/iPad or Windows phone.

Todo / task list

Users can create general tasks, or link tasks to cases. These can be viewed and when finished, mark as completed and they are removed from the list. A comprehensive filtering system enables different task types to be extracted on the screen.

The list can be viewed on screen or printed via Microsoft Word (if installed) for reference. System administrators can view a list of outstanding tasks for all mediators, mediators only see their own tasks.

The example report below shows the internal messaging and tasks included on the report.

Templates

Progress Mediation can be configured for anywhere between 180 standard letters/email templates 'out of the box' each can be customised for your practice. In addition new templates can be created to compliement existing templates.

The letter templates in Progress are created to enable you to send letters to clients / partners or the solicitors involved in a case with minimal effort. Each template is able to import the names of the clients, partners and many other parameters. These determine the sex of the client / partner and can then use gender specific phrases through the letter. These give the client the impression that the letter has been hand crafted for them - with the least amount of effort from you.

Letter templates can be used for each stage of the case. Simply defined a template and the file can be uploaded to the server and made available from the activity screen. Each template is given an ID number to enable the more common templates to be listed at the top of the drop down list for easy access.

Invoices

Progress Mediation provides the feature to create invoices at different stages during case. Standard tempaltes are provided to ease the printing of invoices with the practice details and client address.

In addition to the invoice template, we've also designed a number of invoice presents. These are default descriptions and values that can be defined for the various stages. Therefore once the invoice presets have been set for your practice, creating an invoice just requires a few clicks.

Once the invoice type has been selected, the invoice will be generated as an RTF document and opened in Microsoft Word (if installed) for printing. In addition where invoices are Legal Aid these will be shown as internal invoices.

System Reports

A key factor in any business is to generate reports to show the status of various parameters. Progress Mediation is no different. We've grouped the results into sectors - general, cases, solicitors, mediators, LAA returns, referrals and invoices

These reports are limited to system administrators only.

Forms

Where official forms are required, these can be created in the same way as letter templates and linked for access from each case. We've created a number of specialist forms for LAA contracts including :- Consolidated work, start work, Means7 and CW5.

As and when other forms are required, these are added to the system. These are then immediately available for use without any site visits.

Messages

Passing information between various people within an organisationis essential. Because of the distribution of work between administrators and mediators, it is vital that information is passed effectively. The messaging system provides this in two ways :-

Internal messages where a direct message (DM) between individuals or the entire organisation can be sent. This can include linking a case reference. When a new message is received it is instantly flagged to the user.

Emails this enables Progress to be directly connected with an email account for sending and receiving email messages. Users can check for new email messages and link to a case without leaving Progress. Emails communications (including attachments) are integrated to build a complete audit trail of the case.