Yes. But first we know that there are real limits to what an intake/case management program can do to help supervisors of legal work. For example, intake programs can't really help much in the supervision substantive work. That's what we have experienced supervisors for. TIME can, however, help make sure that cases are processed correctly.

How does TIME do that?

Like all intake programs, TIME has many reports that generate information on the work of a program and/or particular advocate. But in our experience, supervisors of day-to-day legal work don't want to have to generate reports. They want information at their fingertips. TIME has two functions that we think supervisors will find very useful: a tickler system and a View Case function to see what cases are being handled by a particular advocate.

How does the tickler system help?

One of the most common mistakes made by advocates are missed deadlines. Advocates handles many cases with many deadlines so missing a date is always a possibility. TIME has a tickler system to render missed deadlines a thing of the past. We have prepared a separate information sheet on tickling important dates. Put simply however, once a date is tickled, it will "pop up" when the advocate logs onto TIME on the tickled date.

So how does the tickler system help supervisors?

First, it gives supervisors some peace of mind that the office has an effective deadline control system. But even more important, TIME allows supervisors to be "courtesy copied" on all tickled dates for the advocates they supervise How does this help?

TIME allows the supervisor to be alerted of the dates that an advocate has a hearing, a court date and a particular deadline looming for example a deadline to appeal. As a result, supervisors will then have a "better handle" on the processing of cases for the advocates they supervise. If the supervisor is copied, the same tickler that pops up for the advocate will pop up when the supervisor logs onto TIME. The supervisor can make sure that the date is not missed and the matter handled appropriately.

It doesn't guarantee that deadlines will be met. TIME does, however, create a supervisory structure to minimize that possibility.

What about viewing cases?

The View Case function is a very powerful report that will allow supervisors, with the click of a mouse button, to view on their computer, all of the open cases of an advocate including the following information on each case:

Case name

Case number

Case type (case, matter, support activity)

LSC problem number

Intake date

Date of last activity on the case

Total number of hours booked to the case.

The supervisor will not have to run a printed report. View Cases will display all of the information on the supervisor's monitor.

How does this help?

The supervisor can determine instantly the number of open cases that an advocate has.

The supervisor can prevent cases from languishing by reviewing the date of the last activity on the case.

The supervisor, by reviewing the date of last activity, can separate active from inactive cases.

The supervisor, by reviewing the date of last activity, will be better able to determine what open cases should be closed.

The supervisor will be able to determine instantly the amount of time logged to a particular case.

Can anyone use the View Case Report?

No. Only staff that have been given special permission through the TIME Maintenance Program have access to this Report. Advocates cannot get reports on other advocates.