Tips & Tricks

Keep a Constant Eye on Case Activity & Business Development Potential

2012-06-06T20:36:00Z

Keep a constant eye on case activity-and business development potential-with the Alerts feature in LexisNexis® File & Serve.

LexisNexis® File & Serve

Opt for the Alerts feature to stay up to date on case activity and business development opportunities

LexisNexis® File & Serve Alerts is an optional feature that's a fast, effective way to monitor the system for notification of "surprise" lawsuits, client retention and new client prospecting. You specify the criteria and Alerts acts as your electronic assistant, working 24/7/365 monitoring the File & Serve system.

Learn From This Prosperous Firm
Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor, P.A. uses the Alerts feature in File & Serve to monitor briefs, pleadings and motions filed for cases by other attorneys using File & Serve. For example, the firm determined there was a potentially solid case and is now representing clients in a mass tort action. Download the complimentary Levin Papantonio case study to learn more.

With notifications emailed to you, you stay on top of new case activity involving current clients, opposing attorneys and cases in your area of expertise or individually selected information. Alerts lets you:

Learn of court-issued orders and rulings
Share Alerts notifications for no additional charge
Know about new lawsuits against your clients
Monitor cases in which you or your clients are interested
Secure business from existing or new clients
Track trends or new case types

Add Alerts as an efficient, inexpensive way to improve your client service, maximize resources and reduce costs. Follow the steps in this quick how-to guide.

File & Serve Convenience Services

2011-06-08T16:41:00Z

Manage documents and monitor case activity more effectively and efficiently using File & Serve Convenience Services! Click on the attachment below for a one-page overview of these valuable File & Serve features.

Additional Recipients – Would you like your attorney to be notified when you serve a document?

2011-04-19T19:19:00Z

After serving a document(s), the sender receives an email notification confirming that the transaction was successfully submitted. Both the sender and the authorizing attorney can access the served documents through their own Sent Items located at the File & Serve Home page. If you would like your attorney to receive an email notification when you serve a document, add him/her as an Additional Recipient.
Here are the steps:
1. At the Additional Recipients tab, enter your attorney’s first and last names and Click Find.
2. Your attorney’s name will be displayed.
3. Check the Document box and select Online as the delivery option.
4. Click the Review & Submit tab to complete your transaction or enter an additional name.
5. Your attorney will receive an email notification and a link to the document which will be sent to his File & Serve Inbox.
That’s it! See the Additional Recipients Quick Reference Guide with screen shots attached below.

Customizing lists of your firm's documents is a benefit of File & Serve

2011-01-20T19:27:00Z

Along with the obvious benefits of an electronic searchable docket, LexisNexis® File & Serve offers many monitoring and case management features. You may not realize that you can create customizable lists of the documents in your firm. This is a great feature to use for creating reproduced records for appeals, and for maintaining document banks. Click here for a Quick Guide on Creating Custom Documents.

If you would like more information on this or any other feature, or if you are interested in free registration for your firm, contact Angela Melton, Client Solutions Specialist, at angela.melton@lexisnexis.com.

E-Filing and E-Service, Court-Based vs. E-Service, Case-Based

2011-01-19T16:18:00Z

E-Filing is the process of filing pleadings and documents into a Court and is only available in certain jurisdictions. E-service is the exchange and management of pleadings and other documents using a secure, password-protected website (i.e. LexisNexis File & Serve).

In some jurisdictions E-Filing and E-Service are used in conjunction with one another and provide users with powerful solutions for delivering, storing, and accessing their documents. Many users of File & Serve may think that they are limited to using our E-Service options only when E-Filing is also available in their cases. However, in many jurisdictions, E-Service is used even when E-Filing is not available, and still provides users with the same convenience and service that they are used to receiving from LexisNexis. File & Serve offers litigation solutions for all phases of the litigation life-cycle including discovery!

File & Serve for Court-Based E-Filing & E-Service:

· Used to E-File pleadings and documents

· Used to E-Serve parties in the case

· Compiles searchable online repository of documents filed & served using the system

File & Serve for Case-Based E-Service

· Used to E-serve parties in the case

· Compiles searchable online repository of documents filed & served using the system

· Can be used in cases without E-Filing (e.g. the Federal CM/ECF system)

Regardless of the jurisdiction, lowering costs, improving efficiency, and improving access to important information can be made simple using LexisNexis File & Serve. Additional benefits include:

· No software to purchase, implement, or upgrade

· Single, online service list

· Improved document management

· Instant proof-of-service

· Online, searchable docket and repository

· 24/7 online access

· 24/7 customer support line

· Eliminated costs associated with paper (e.g. printing, copying, postage, storage, etc.)

Sign up for Electronic Invoices Today!

2010-06-14T18:19:00Z

If you are still receiving the paper version of your monthly File & Serve invoice you can quickly and easily switch to a complimentary electronic invoice. Your organization administrator can simply log into their File & Serve account, select File & Serve Preferences, choose My Organization and change your Invoice Options from paper to electronic invoices. This update should take just a few moments and will save your organization the $10 monthly paper invoice fee. If you need assistance with this process please don't hesitate to contact File & Serve customer support 24/7 at 1-888-529-7587.

File & Serve Optional Features Focus: READ STATUS

2010-06-09T19:55:00Z

One can pretty much "track" anything nowadays. We can track the whereabouts of our children using GPS enabled phones and implant our pets to find them when they are lost. We can track our fitness progress and consumed calories via fitness websites. We track orders from online vendors and the status of online services. And, we track mailing and delivery of important business documents to ensure proper delivery and receipt.

LexisNexis File & Serve also offers you the ability to "track" by giving you up-to-date information on the status of documents delivered via the File & Serve system- providing an automated way for you to track your service items. Whether you call it Read ("red") Status or Read ("reed") Status, Read Status is an effective File & Serve feature that enables you to monitor the current status of a served transaction and verify when a recipient has opened and viewed the transaction/documents. It provides an official record of proof of e-service and e-delivery.

Read Status works similar to US Mail, Certified Return Receipt and enables you to electronically verify when and if a recipient has opened a served transaction. You can purchase Read Status when submitting a filing or any time after the filing has been submitted. After the Read Status feature has been enabled for a one-time fee of $2.00 per transaction, you can repeatedly view and print the updated status of service at no additional charge regardless of the number of recipients. Never be in the dark about whether or not opposing counsel has viewed their service, try Read Status today!

Read Status will also distinguish whether the attorney or an "Other Firm Member" (e.g. a paralegal or a secretary) opened the service.

To learn more about Read Status contact Customer Service at 888.529.7587.

File & Serve Optional Features Focus: ALERTS

2010-06-04T16:50:00Z

In today's era of free-flowing information, a looming recession, and fear of depleting resources, saving time, money, and energy has become a necessity in every facet of our lives. The ability to be proactive, nimble, versatile, and expedient helps increase success in our organizational processes, our personal lives, and in the way we gather and distribute information. File & Serve recognizes that customers need a fast and effective way to monitor the system for many reasons including notification of "surprise" lawsuits, client retention, and new client prospecting. ALERTS are an optional feature designed to proactively deliver you the information you need via rapid email notification.

File & Serve ALERTS are an "electronic assistant" that continually monitors the File & Serve system for criteria that you specify. File & Serve ALERTS can notify you of new case activity involving current clients, opposing attorneys, and cases in your area of expertise or a myriad of individually selected information. The notification is emailed directly to your email inbox and works for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Using ALERTS can be a fast, efficient, and inexpensive way to improve client service, maximize resources, and reduce costs.

The process to set up Alerts is easy:

1. Log In to File & Serve.
2. Click on "Alerts" on the home page.

3. Click on the "Create New Alert" hyperlink.

4. Choose what you want your "assistant" to monitor for and click "Save".

Alerts are $15.00 per Alert to set up and $15.00 per month to maintain. There is no additional charge to "share" Alerts notifications within the same organization. Alerts can be disabled at any time. For more information on Alerts, contact Customer Service at 888-529-7587.

Reviewing Documents On Your Computer in Adobe Acrobat

2010-06-03T14:06:00Z

In today’s world documents are created electronically, edited electronically, sent to the court and other parties electronically, but often when they get to the receiving attorney’s or judge’s desk – they are printed out. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that, and that print button is always there for you, but attorneys and judges (yes, even judges I know) are increasingly doing their reading and reviewing on their computers. Saving trees by eFiling and eServing is great, but we can all save even more by continuing the process electronically.

In the past printing was necessary if you wanted to review your document away from your desk, but then came wi-fi and laptops to use around the house or office, and eventually the coffee shop and many other places. Now it’s getting even easier with “netbooks” where you can pull up your documents electronically almost wherever you can get a mobile phone signal. Attorneys can also download their documents to eBook readers like Amazon’s Kindle (I know some attorneys who don’t like to stare at the screen for hours reading documents, but the Kindle’s “e-Ink” screen can really change your mind and is very easy to read. Newer displays are also much easier on the eyes than some of the older CRTs.) Soon Apple’s iPad will make things even easier and more convenient to the road reader. It is essentially an iPhone with a 9.7” screen. You can’t talk on it, but you can get a data plan for it, just like netbooks (you may have heard it won’t do Adobe Flash, but don’t worry it still supports Adobe PDF).

Reading a document on your computer is easy, but let’s talk about reviewing that document, highlighting, and making notes. For most of the below, you will need the full version of Adobe Acrobat (Pro).

Obviously Adobe PDF is the format most documents are received in, but often you don’t know if they have been converted electronically or scanned in as an image. If they are fully electronic from start to PDF conversion, you can begin immediately with the below tools.

If not, it’s very easy to convert it to text so that you can highlight, copy/paste and more easily make notes. Click Document > OCR Text Recognition > Recognize Text Using OCR… > Make sure “All pages” is selected > Click OK. The process usually takes a couple seconds per page and then you are ready to use the text highlighting tool.

Next, right click on the toolbar at the top and click “Comments & Markup” and “Select & Zoom” Now the comment and markup tools will appear next to or below your other buttons.

In the middle row, click the select text button (the picture that looks like a capital “I” and a mouse arrow). Now you are ready to begin.

To Copy/Paste text, click and drag over the text you wish to copy, then right click and click copy (or press Ctrl-C), then go over to your word document or email and right click and click Paste (or Ctrl-V). You can also highlight the text you selected by right clicking and choosing “Highlight Text (Comment).” You will also see a number of other options including: Replace Text, Add Note to Text, Underline Text and Cross Out Text.

The “Add Note To Text (Comment)” option is very useful for adding comments and notes to the document to share with others. You can simply choose it and begin typing a note in a box.

To more quickly highlight text in your document, first click the highlight button that looks like a yellow pencil and a yellow “T” and drag over the text you wish to highlight. The text is then highlighted.

The “Text Edits” button on the Comment & Markup toolbar is also a great feature that allows you to click in the document and immediately add a note or select text and click delete or backspace to cross it out.

When you are finished editing just save your PDF (File > Save As) or to save time, click the envelope icon on the File toolbar and it will open a new email and attach the document to it!

Play around with these tools and post below to share any other tips and tricks for editing and reviewing PDFs.

--Dean E. Merritt, Esq.

Get Control of your email inbox! Opt for One Daily Email of New Service Notifications instead of individual emails all day long!

2010-05-13T16:11:00Z

Are you getting bombarded by email notices of new activity in File & Serve? Well, you must be busy!

Did you know you can elect to receive one daily summary notification of all transactions instead of notice on each transaction?

To change this setting: Log on, select File & Serve Preferences, My Notification Options, then select Daily Email Notification. Email notifications will be rolled up into one daily digest of all your service notifications and sent to your email inbox at 3:00 am ET so you can easily review all the prior day's notices at one time.

This setting is especially effective when used in conjunction with Alerts so you won’t miss important activity (Alert notifications will still be delivered "real time" even if you have opted for a daily digest of service notifications). Also helpful is the Daily Docket report - to see online all the transactions in a court or case on a specific date.

Access the a "Daily Docket report" under "Search"