Online Intake Application

I.  What applicants see when they are completing the online application…

1.  The Online Application (COLS OI) will look like this to applicants:

2.  There are a few more instruction-like screens – all of them are not copied here in these instructions for sake of keeping them shorter.

3.  The screens where the applicant has to enter information look like the below:

4.  The questions we can ask in the COLS OI application (online app) are limited to very basic questions. If we want to develop this out and ask more questions, we will have to first discuss then get a quote and timeframe from LegalServer support team. You must confirm the information provided anyway, so the fields asked about in the OI will be completed in the full intake. The process is to confirm the information that is prepopulated from the online intake form, and then complete the entire full intake application if you think the person might be eligible based on the information provided in the online application.

We won’t copy all of the screens w/ the questions here, but the questions / fields in the online application include the following ONLY:

  1. First, middle and last name
  2. Date of Birth
  3. County of Residence
  4. Is your legal problem located in your county?
  5. If yes, copies county of residence
  6. If no, applicant enters county of legal issue.
  7. Gender
  8. Do you need help with criminal charges, traffic tickets, misdemeanors, post-conviction, sentencing problems, personal injury or worker's compensation problems?
  9. If no continue th/ interview
  10. If yes, they are provided a website link and an Exit button
  11. Are you in jail or prison?
  12. Yes – we tell them our abilities to help incarcerated persons is limited, we provide a Continue or Exit button.
  13. No – continue button.
  14. Please select from:
  15. Are already a client for this problem – provided a phone number to call and Exit button.
  16. Have applied for help w/in 30 days - provided a phone number to call and Exit button.
  17. Have been a client for a different problem – provided Continue button
  18. Have never applied from help from CLS - provided Continue button
  19. Number of people 18 AND Over
  20. Number of people under 18
  21. Household Income
  22. Provided a Type of Income and Amount (monthly only)
  23. Can add more than one income, can select no income
  24. Asset Information – Is this needs based public assistance?
  25. If yes, continue w/out entering assets
  26. If no, enter assets
  27. Enter asset info (0s if no asset) – Cash on Hand, Checking, Savings, Household Goods (> 3000), Wearing Apparel ( > 1500), Farm/Ranch Equipment (> 25,000), Equity in Real Estate other than Residence, Vehicles not used for transport, CDs /Money Market, and Other. (Asset total is provided at bottom of page.)
  28. NOTE – the online application doesn’t reject based on income / assets.
  29. Which of the following best describes the type of legal problem you have?
  30. Choose from the options in the drop down
  31. Which of the following best describes your legal problem? (required)
  32. Select and Continue
  33. Social Security – can choose from Known, No SSN, Unknown or Refused.
  34. If select ‘Known’ have to enter entire #, but ONLY 4 digits appear in COLS LS
  35. Provide a safe number – can choose from home, mobile or other.
  36. How else can we contact you? Drop down options include email, mailing address, none are safe, I’m homeless.
  37. If none are safe or I am homeless, provided the option to call CLS.
  38. If Email or mailing address, enter accordingly
  39. What language do you want us to talk to you about your legal problem in?
  40. I’m consider myself (Race question).
  41. How would you describe your living arrangement?
  42. How did you hear about CLS?
  43. Marital Status?
  44. Application Summary – summary of the information, they can go back and click on a footprint link to change any of the information they entered before they submit it. Once they submit the information they can’t change anything.

II.  What will staff see / how will staff process the online applications?

1.  Go to the cols.legalserver.org site

2.  Click on Cases > Online Intake Transfers to see the online applications

3.  You can sort each column heading, for instance sort by County of Dispute (or County where legal problem is located) to find your offices online intake apps, or for CSI sort by Legal Problem Code to identify CSI-specific online applications. Here I sorted by date to find the example application I entered today.

  1. You can also Filter by several of the column labels – click on the funnel-like icon to filter by county, legal problem code, office, etc.

4.  Click on the Identification Number in the far left column to open the application summary.

5.  On the next page, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard, and click on Conflict Search link to run a conflict check on the applicant’s name. When you hold down the Ctrl key the Conflict search results will appear in a new tab – click on that tab to see and review the results.

6.  Do the same for the Adverse party name.

Scroll down on the same page, and

click on Conflict Search next to the Adverse party

Name while holding down the Ctrl key on your

keyboard. Go to the next tab and review the

search results.

7.  Similar to how online applications were handled in Kemps, you will need to verify all of the information submitted through the online application. If it’s obvious there is no conflict, or that there is a conflict, select the appropriate action based on that determination on the same screen as above instructions – scroll down to the bottom of the screen to see the Action options.

8.  Action Options:

  1. If you select Begin Intake and click on Continue, the next screen will be the Full Intake form you normally use to conduct a complete Intake. Confirm the information provided by the online applicant w/ the applicant. Accept /reject the case per usual based on the applicant’s responses to questions in the Full Intake form.
  1. If you select Save Note and Continue, you will have just added a Note in the actual online application (see below), and the online application will not be accepted or rejected if you click on Continue, but will still be available for review under Cases > Online Application Transfers.
  1. If you select ‘Reject this Case’, you will see a list of reasons to Reject the case – the only reason here would be conflict of interest – select Conflict of Interest, click on Continue. You’ll see ‘Transfer Rejected’ on the next screen (which means the transfer of the application into the full intake form was ‘rejected’.

9.  Be sure to use the Notes section liberally to note

things such as you tried to contact the online applicant

but could not reach them, the conflict check

results – anything that would help process the application

and let those who are monitoring the apps know where the application is in the process.

10.  Important note about Assets!

  1. When the applicant enters assets, only those assets where the applicant entered an actual dollar amount will transfer into COLS LegalServer.
  2. If the applicant answered ‘0’ (zero) to any of the asset fields, that ‘0’ will NOT transfer into COLS LegalServer.
  3. When you go to review the assets, if an asset field is not listed, or is listed w/ a 0 (zero), you can assume that the applicant put ‘0’ for that asset field, as the applicant cannot continue through the online application without entering either a 0 or another dollar amount into each asset field or type.

11.  If you review an online application summary and decide the Action is to Begin Full Intake, that person needs to be on the phone w/ you and able to complete the application w/ you. Otherwise, you will follow the instructions on how to use ‘Save as Note’ action above.

12.  Once you begin the Full Intake or Application w/ the applicant, you will see the fields they responded to in the online application are prepopulated into the Full Intake form. You will need to verify that information, instead of asking those questions again.

Thank you and good luck!