CSI’s InfoShare is installed in North Carolina’s Department of Justice. October, 2010
RALEIGH – The North Carolina Department of Justice has implemented a new Case Management System to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Legal Services business process by providing a centralized case management system tailored to the legal profession. A phased approach to deployment for 26 sections was used with the last section deployed onto InfoShare in October, 2010.
During the first phase of the deployment – Tort Claims
An additional, but separate and important component was designed and deployed early on in the project that integrated Financial Services and Tort Claims sections to streamline the entire claims reporting, investigation, and check request processes. This deployment alone shortened the check request process significantly as every major phase of that process (the initial claim, electronic submission of supporting documents by the field agents located throughout North Carolina state, claims review and approval at the central office, electronic signatures, and check requests submission to Financial Services who process and return checks for payment to the claimants) is now all done electronically.
Background
The Legal Services component of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Offices functions as a large law firm with more than 500, that provides legal representation and advice to all state government departments, agencies, commissions, entities, officials, universities, and community colleges. Legal Services also provides legal opinions at the request of public officials and handles all criminal appeals from state trial courts.
NCDOJ employees are now users of the InfoShare Case Management System and integrated Document Management System. These staff are organized within seven divisions and then further organized into twenty-six sections. These users are located throughout the state in more than forty separate locations.
Legal Services Organization by Division
- Administrative Division provides legal advice and representation to various State agencies; includes litigation in state and federal court and in administrative, civil, and criminal proceedings. Sections within the Administrative Division include: Services to State Agencies; Elections; Health and Public Assistance; Human Services and Medical Facilities; Real Estate; and Tort Claims.
- Civil Division handles civil claims and litigation involving the State, its officials and employees. Sections include: Insurance; Labor; Property Control; Revenue; Transportation; and the Western Office located in Asheville.
- Criminal Division handles various criminal matters within the jurisdiction of the Attorney General. These include criminal appeals, death penalty cases, and federal and state civil litigation involving the Department of Correction. Sections include: Appellate; Capital Litigation/Federal Habeas; and Correction.
- Environmental Division advises and represents the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and various environmental commissions. The Division also investigates and prosecutes environmental crimes and civil actions. Sections include: Air and Natural Resources; Waste Management; and Water and Land.
- Law Enforcement and Prosecutions Division provides legal representation and advice related to law enforcement and assists in prosecuting certain criminal cases. Sections include: Crime Control and Motor Vehicles Section; Law Enforcement Liaison; Medicaid Investigations Unit; and Special Prosecutions.
- Special Litigation/Education Division is made up of two sections. Special Litigation handles complex litigation in which the public has a vital stake. The Division also includes the Education Section.
- Consumer Protection Division protects the public from unfair and deceptive business practices. Consumers who have been the victim of a fraud or scam can seek help from Consumer Protection specialists by filing written complaints. The Division is loosely organized into work groups as well as several units which include: Managed Care Patient Assistance Program; Victims & Citizens Services; Antitrust; and Utilities.
NCDOJ sought to implement a new Case Management System to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Legal Services business process by providing a centralized case management system tailored to the legal profession. Specific goals included:
- Case/matter/consultation management to provide a variety of functions including: tracking of case/matter assignment; historical development of a case; workflow tools; tickler/calendaring; email integration and association with relevant case/matter; and reporting.
- Contact management to provide a centralized source of contacts for department wide use.
- Practice management to provide a variety of functions to include the ability to store and identify skills, knowledge areas, expertise and workload in a centralized repository.
- Collaboration tools to provide the ability to maintain version control of legal documents across all legal sections within DOJ and provide announcements, legal memoranda and other discussion topics.
- Document management to provide the ability to link case documents to a case file, share documents across related or similar cases or use for research purposes.
- Document assembly to provide the ability to generate documents from templates from case specific data elements.
- Secured data and large file sharing within the DOJ network (with defined levels of access).
NCDOJ required a solution that satisfied the needs of all Divisions. At the conclusion of their RFP process, CSI’s InfoShare was identified as the best suited solution to satisfy all the stated needs. With the final section now deployed, Legal Services cases and documents for all 26 sections are on the same centralized database, and will help in meeting the demands on both the agency and the employees to provide more and ever expanding services to the clients (state agencies and the public), to provide those services more efficiently, and to provide statistics and reports regarding those services.
For more information, please contact:
CSI Technology Group
330 Mac Lane
Keasbey, NJ 08832
U.S.A
T: 732-346-0200
F: 732-346-0209
Email: sales@csitech.com