New Cases Tool
The New Cases tool can be used to post descriptions of pro bono opportunities for volunteers. You may post individual case descriptions, case lists or descriptions of volunteer programs.
This chapter is broken into three sections:
New Cases may be viewed by Location or by Topic. The selected view appears black and bolded in the navigation bar below the page title, while the unselected view remains blue and underlined as a link. Up to three listings display under the location and topic headings in each display view. To see all cases in a given view, click on the More link beneath each section, or click on any linked title to access the full description. See screen shots below of the two views.
Location View
Topic View
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How to Post a New Case
Click the add a case link at the top right of the New Cases page, and fill in the fields according to the directions below.
TIP: Fields with asterisks are required. If you overlook a required field, the system will stop you when you try to submit it. The missed /error field will appear at the top of the form, and you can click it to drop directly down to the field within the form. This is so you do not have to look for it.
General Case Information
Case Number: Enter any internal case number used for volunteer placement. If you do not use case numbers, you could use an alpha-numeric combination, including an acronym for your organization, plus 4 digits, e.g., PBN0001.)
Case Title: Enter a short, descriptive title for the case, such as "Uncontested Divorce" or "Removal Hearing - China Ethnic Minority". Remember this will be appear in search results for the site as well.
Description: When entering a description of the case here, please remove all identifying client information in order to protect client confidentiality.
Posting Date: Default is the current date.
Expiration Date: Default is one year from the posting date. On this date the case is automatically removed from the page. Expired cases can then be found in the Admin Inbox under Deleted items. To repost the case, simply change the expiration date to a current date.
Organization: Enter the name of the organization offering the case. This field has an auto-complete list of legal organizations that you can choose from if you prefer.
This organization is LSC funded: Check if the organization offering the case funded by the Legal Services Corporation. If so, LSC's logo will automatically appear next to the case.
City / State: Enter location of case. We strongly recommend careful consistency in how you enter city or state names, because the Location view of New Cases collects items under the same Location heading only if the headings are exactly the same.
Contact Information
Contact First Name: Enter the first name of the person whom users may contact for more information about the case.
Contact Last Name: Enter the last name of the person whom users may contact for more information about the case.
Contact Email: Enter the email address of the person whom users may contact for more information about the case.
Settings
Status: The default status is Awaiting Approval, which means that if you don't switch this to Approved, you will not see the case listed on the New Cases page--it will stay in your Admin Inbox. Remember to switch the status to Approved if you want to publish the item immediately.
- Deleted places the item in the Admin Inbox under Deleted items.
- More Information Requested and Rejected are useful internally as a way to mark items you're not ready to post or want someone else to review.
Selecting either of those puts the item in your Admin Inbox under the same category.
Shared: To tick the box next to "Share this content item with other probono.net sites" means you allow members in all practice and geographical areas to retrieve it in a search. Admins from other areas will also be able to add the item to their practice area news pages. Member type privileges set by you still apply to shared content.
Priority: Ticking the box next to "Mark this item as a priority item" places the case at the top of the Topic View of your New Cases page under a Priority Items heading. Priority Items appear only in the Topic display mode and display up to three items, after which you must click > More to view others. See screen shot below:
Access Restrictions
Select who will see a New Case by choosing from the options listed. Keep in mind the following:
If your New Cases tool is password-protected--meaning only logged in site members can see its content--a No Restriction item will be hidden from public users because they will not be able to access the New Cases page in the first place.
However: consider marking New Cases with No Restriction and checking the Share this item box. This allows them to be read by the public in other, public New Cases pages (e.g., a different PBN New Cases page), and frees them up to be returned in search results.
- Restricted to Members of this Site: All logged-in members of the site will see the item. Even if this item is published on a public New Cases page it will only display to logged-in members.
- Allow access by these members: Only the user type(s) you select from this list will see the item story. To select more than one, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard as you click.
Area Topics
You may assign a New Case with one or more top-level topics.
To assign Topics, take these steps:
- Topic: Select a topic from the drop down list and it will appear in the box below labeled Available Topics/Subtopics. (New Cases do not have Subtopics available for tagging; this is for Library items only.)
- Available Topics/Subtopics: Double-click the topic in this second box OR select it and hit the down arrow below the box. Note how the item appears in the 3rd box labeled Assigned.
- Assigned: Whatever appears in this box is what you are choosing to tag your New Case with. To remove an assigned topic, highlight it and either double-click, or hit the UP arrow above the box.
Repeat these steps for as many topics as you wish.
Click Submit to post the case and you will automatically return to the New Cases page.
TIP: If you do not see the item you just posted it's more than likely that the Status was not set to Approved. Look for it in your Admin Inbox > Awaiting Approval > New Cases list. If your item is there, click its title to open it. Scroll down to the Status box. Choose Approved. Then click Submit.
Updating or Deleting a New Case
To make changes to or delete a live New Case, click on the edit image
next to its title. Make any desired changes, then click the Submit button at the bottom of the screen. If you wish to delete the case, change its status to Deleted, and click Submit. (The item will only disappear from the New Cases' live pages. It will remain in your Admin Inbox New Cases section under Deleted Items.)
NOTE: If the case was shared in from another area, the fields you may edit are limited to Status, Priority, and Area Topics. In addition, you can click the Settings tab to send the item to one or more areas' Admin Inboxes for possible publication. Everything else is fixed. See Appendix C for more information on Shared Content.
Approving a User-Submitted Case
Non-admin users are permitted (and encouraged) to submit cases of their own. However, such cases are not automatically published to the site; they appear in the Awaiting Approval section of your Admin Inbox until an Area Administrator reviews and approves them. (See Admin Inbox chapter for more information about how the Admin Inbox works.)
To publish such a case go to your Admin Inbox. You'll already have all Awaiting Approval content displayed, so just click New Case and also the magnifying glass icon
beside it. Click on the case's title you want to review. Before approving, be sure to review or reformat the following:
- Expiration Date
- Description: Non-admin users do not have access to FCKeditor when submitting News items, so you should format accordingly.
- Status
- Shared
- Give Priority
- Access Restrictions
- Topic(s)
Now switch the item's status to "Approved" and click Submit at the bottom of the page.
- NOTE: The name and email address of content submitters displays at the bottom of each form. If you have any questions about the case, click on the email address to send a query.
- TIP: If the case submitted includes a link to another web site, make sure you copy and paste the URL into a new browser window to check the link.
