Clerks and Judges to add Misc Sections and Documents

Recently updated on October 9th, 2024 at 10:20 pm

Current Design  (September 2024)

Today LegalAtoms implements a workflow to capture how the legal case progresses from the following stages

  1. Preparation:  The client creates the official Washington State forms
  2. Filing:   The client submits, and then the clerk may accept the case and enter into the filing system. A case # would be assigned at this point
  3. Temporary Order:  Judge reviews the case for the first time, and then do these operations
    • Grant or Deny Temporary Order  with optional hearing
    • Deny with 14 Day Resubmission option. In this case, the flow is reset to step 1, and new copies of item 2, and 3 are created on re-submission which appear as new tiles on the LegalAtoms Case details screen.
  4. Set Hearing Time
    • Clerk then sets the hearing time and creates the final paperwork
  5. Servicing via Law Enforcement
    • Clerk can electronically request a law enforcement agency to serve the documents
  6. Law Enforcement Serves and files Proof of Service
    • The law enforcement can serve via text, email, social media, or in person.  Electronic servicing also automatically documents the times, the pages viewed by the respondent and the respondent’s IP address and other forensic proof.
    • Completes the Proof of Service
    • Notifies the Clerk and the Petitioner that the service is complete
  7. At this point the clerk has the following options
    1. Set Another Hearing: in case the previous one couldn’t be held, and in effect repeat item 4, 5
    2. Move the case forward to the full order

 

Problems

If a motion is filed, or if a atypical situation arises, its unclear how the case documents and state can be kept in LegalAtoms.

Examples:

  • A motion is filed by a party to the case
  • A case may need to be dismissed at any stage

 

Solution: Flexibility for Clerks and Judges

Clerks and Judges will be able to add any number of these sections. These can also be added an *any* point since that is the original problem that we are trying to solve.

Misc. Orders or Documents

This provides a catch all for anything not covered by a well defined flow. Example would be a dismissal request. This would have A Documents section. A Judge or Clerk can add using a few clicks official forms. They can also upload scanned PDF or WORD files.

 

Step 1: User Clicks on the Add button 

 

Step 2: If the user clicks on “Misc Order and Documents” this section would appear

 

Step 3: Then the user can select any set of documents from the list in LegalAtoms

 

Step 4: The selected document(s) will appear in the documents section, which can be then edited from within the browser

 

Rules

  • Adding misc section would disable LegalAtoms based built in transitions defined in the workflow
  • A notification section is added as well automatically (in future), which will allow the documents to be shared with other parties. The notification section will be generalized to allow the judge to cover clerk, client, respondent, law enforcement
  • Allow the clerk/judge to also specify the status from a list of dropdown to which more values can be added

Removal of Documents

The clerk or judge can remove the documents added.  This could be for various reasons such as the situation changed or an incorrect document was added accidentally.

Limitations: 

The documents addition / removal can only be done until another subsequent section is added. This will maintain the integrity of the case state i.e.