Every lead (potential client) in eLuminate, our online client management system, purchased from eGenerationMarketing or derived from one’s own legal marketing effort contains information pertaining to the claimant with a potential case. However, legal cases, as opposed to leads, will likely have more individuals associated with them than just claimants (e.g. medical contacts, judges, insurance companies, etc.). Within our client management software, individuals associated with a particular legal case are called contacts, and each individual has his or her own contact page.

When you receive a signed retainer agreement, it is time to convert the related legal lead into a matter, a case file, transferring the leads information from the lead management to the case management side of the system. At that time, eLuminate creates a new “matter” page that contains information about the case, while also giving users the ability to connect separate “contact” pages for each individual associated with the matter.

A contact page is automatically made for a claimant who has been converted from a “lead” to a “matter”. For other types of contacts associated with a particular case, users can create a new contact page within the “Contacts” module. Moving forward, a contact’s page, and all others associated with the case, will be listed within the contacts section on the matter’s page. Conversely, users will find all matters associated with a particular contacts within the matters section on the contact’s page. This will help facilitate your firm’s case management efforts.

Akin to the lead management and case management side of the system, each contact page contains contact and personal information, customizable fields to keep track of additional information, an area to leave time-stamped notes, links to associated matters, documents on file that you have sent to the contact or received, and tasks and events which are all related to the contact. As a case progresses, it is helpful to associate “contacts” as more parties get involved with a particular case so that anyone with access to your eLuminate account can quickly get up to speed on a contact’s status and history. If needed, our team can set up your eLuminate account so that documents are on file and ready to be auto-populated and sent (this is particularly useful to send forms like residual functional capacity forms to medical providers).

When keeping track of multiple open cases, it is easy to forget when you need to follow-up with a contact. With our CRM software you can schedule tasks for specific contacts so you get reminders that lead up to the time of the event or task due date.

Using Custom Fields and Custom Views, eLuminate users can achieve the same level of customization and flexibility with contacts as they do with lead and matter pages. If there is certain information regarding claimants, doctors, judges, or employers that you want to track, you can create a custom field to record that information so it show up on a contact’s page. Then, using a Custom View, you can organize your contacts to see only the ones that have specified data in the custom field you created. For example, you can set up a custom view such that all SSD claimants with an open case that have scoliosis as their disabling condition are visible. This way, you’re able to organize contacts based on any specific qualities of the case or claim.

There also might be multiple doctors to keep track of for a single case. With custom fields you can organize all doctors by how he or she is associated with the case, eliminating the guesswork or document-digging to find out which contact is the claimant’s primary care physician (PCP) and which is the specialist. This is a common example of how eLuminate’s lead management and client management capabilities can make any firm run more efficiently with a simple organizational upgrade.

If you would like to learn more about the various features of eLuminate, our web-based client management software, feel free to reach us at 617.800.0089.