Since there are a lot of questions, you can use the Control (Ctrl)-F combination to search the page to find a question. This will search for keywords on the page.
So, if you pressed Ctrl-F keys simultaneously on a PC, and type “report” in the search box, it will find all instances of “report” on this page and take you to them.
Clicking the bullet will take you to that section.
- Person
- Case
- Old Data/Migration
- Security/login/Access
- Search
- Alerts
- Runsheets
- Documents
- Reports
- Miscellaneous
Person
Q: What is a Person? And do clients and non-clients both have “Person records?”
A: Person is a term for anyone interacting with CPCS through the legal system: SSA, Investigator, Client, Witness, DA, Judge, Sibling, Parent, etc.. So, everyone is a “Person.”
Person is a generic term for a human in the system, because a person could be a client on one case, a victim on another and a witness on a third. So all Persons (defendants or non-defendants) will have a “Person record” in Zelly.
Q:Can Person details be added later as we learn more about the client?
A: Yes
Q: If you have a client who has two or more names – like one which the police think is his/hers and one by which they refer to themselves – can we enter both and will they be linked somehow within the system – so both names might come up during a conflict check?
A: A person (client) in Zelly can have multiple names. If you search for an alternate name (one not tagged as Primary) it will find that person and show them by listing their primary name.
Q: In C&Ps, we have the same DCF social workers … we would still have to search for the social worker before adding … is there a button that that would autofill the same info or do we have to fill out contact info each time?
A: If the DCF social worker is already in the system, you just need to find them and add them to the case. You don’t need to fill out their contact information each time. You only need to edit their contact information when it changes, once a person is created.
Q: Is there a way to look at former addresses?
A: Yes. Zelly can store as many addresses as you wish with an indication of what is believed to be the most recent or active (Primary).
Q: What if you misspell a person so don’t find it, but after you add new person you realize the error?
A: Email [email protected] with the mistake (correct Person/Person in error) and we can either merge them (if you added information to the mistaken one) or delete them (if no information was added).
Q: What if a user (mistakenly or inadvertently) attempts to enter a new person when that person, in fact, already exists in the system? Will Zelly prevent the user from doing that? What, if any, other safeguards are there in Zelly to prevent the entry of duplicate persons?
A: No, but when discovered the duplicate may be merged with an existing user by sending a request to [email protected]
Q: It would be a big help if the age of the person is generated aside of the date of birth.
A: It is.
Q: Is there a way to restrict what information gets captured in ‘data collection’? For example, it is important for a lawyer to know the immigration information on a PDD client – but they may not want that information to be collected in a more broad manner.
A: If a member of staff has access to a person or case, they can see all populated fields.
Case
Q: Will an attorney in the adult division be able to see if a client had a case with YAD. Or a YAD attorney be able to see if there is a case with CAFL?
A: Yes. Visibility works as you describe. They WON’T be able to see the details (to protect against conflicts without permission), but they will be able to see the basics.
Q: The case number field, is this chronological or random? is the agency going to be using this number for tracking purposes (similar to the old Casey number)?
A: The case number field is sequential, not chronological or random. As each new case is created, a case gets the next sequential, free number. Cases also have a “Case Name” field that allows you to name a case similar to how it used to be named in CASEY. Using this field you can name something 2020-Worcester if you choose. Case IDs are not office specific, unless you use the “Case Name” field.
Q: Will Zelly work with AAA or is it intended to replace the AAA electronic files as well?
A: AAA is the automated case opening in CASEY. This creates key templates for cases. The Generate Documents function in Zelly now does this function and automatically attaches the files to the case in Zelly. You can learn more about this in the Power User Training or in the User Guide.
Q: CMS allowed closed cases to be cloned – very helpful if a case were reopened. Is this cloning feature available in Zelly?
A: In Zelly that is unnecessary, because the case may simply be re-opened.
Q: Can a case be reopened in another office? for example, sometimes a CAFL case gets transferred to another office?
A: Yes.
Q: Will last 4 digits of social security number be required to open a case?
A: No. Almost all fields are optional.
Q: Will investigators be able to have “my case list” in this system?
A: Yes. On the dashboard they can use the case filter to show only “my cases.” Of course the Investigator must be added to a case for this to occur.
Q: Will Zelly recognize more than one attorney being assigned to a case?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you delete a case?
A: If you have mistakenly created a case (for example, you created it but then we had to conflict out or you created one after forgetting your previously created it), you may Deactivate it from the Other Actions button (top-left) of a case. This hides it, but if it is ever necessary, IT can recovery it.
Q: If one attorney has cases in several offices, will we be able to see all of our cases on one screen, whether we are secondary or primary?
A: Yes.
Old Data/Data Migration
Q: What is the plan for migrating information from Casey or TRIS/CMS? Will all of the currently open cases by migrated to Zelly? Or will we potentially be using two or more systems to manage cases until the older cases are closed?
A: ALL data will be migrated from the old systems, including open cases. Once Zelly goes live, you would only update data in Zelly.
Security/Login/Access
Q: If someone has two logins on TRIS (i.e., from different offices), will they be combined in Zelly or will there be two logins again?
A: They will only have one login. We’ve revamped Zelly security, so a person will ONLY EVER need one login, even if they have access to cases in various offices or divisions.
Q: Do student interns have access to Zelly once IT set up their CPCS login credentials?
A: Yes. As long as their access is requested in the Intern onboarding form. If it isn’t, it may be requested at a later date.
Search
Q: Does search have a Soundex option
A: It does have the option to do a fuzzy search in the last name. The default is “contains.” To change to fuzzy, select from the Search Type drop-down in the advance search.
Q: Can one search just by docket # or is a name required for a case?
A: You can search by docket # or case number (case number from the old systems or from Zelly). Advanced case search gives you many other options as well like searching by attorney, person, date range, etc.
Q: If you misspell a name, will Zelly pull up something close to it?
A: It does depend on how you misspell it. Regular search should find it if it contains enough of the actual name or you can set search to Fuzzy to find names where you aren’t 100% on the spelling.
Q: How do you ID in Zelly that the person is a bail only?
A: When you do an advanced case search there is case type dropdown, which has bail only option to select.
Alerts
Q: Are the alerts for run sheets in replacement of emailing that could take place in CMS?
A: Alerts for runsheets or changes to a case/person can be emailed to the user or just shown in the dashboard or both. It is the users choice.
Runsheets
Q: Can you add more than one runsheet? ie the attorney’s, investigator, social workers?
A: Yes
Q: How many pages will there be for running sheets?
A: On a case or person you can have multiple runsheets. Each runsheet can hold up to 10,000 characters (or roughly 4 single-spaced pages). You can also upload files to a runsheet. So, you can write the next great American novel using multiple runsheets.
Q: Can you look at the original text of a runsheet that has been edited when looking in history?
A: Yes. By opening the latest version and an earlier version.
Q: Is there an efficient way to import emails into case run sheets?
A: Currently, you may do this through copy (from email) and paste (to a runsheet).
Documents
Q: It sounds as if we are meant to use Zelly to replace our electronic file/case folders. Is that correct? Will we only be able to update running sheets by going into Zelly?
A: Yes. Except for files over 26MB, which are too large for Zell, everything can be done in Zelly now. Runsheets should be kept in Zelly, not Word documents on the network. CAFL and YAD have had this practice for a number of years. Unfortunately, the runsheet function in CASEY was so poor, that it forced people to use Word.
Q: If you have a draft of a pleading you are working on, do you need do re-upload it every time you make a change?
A: The short answer is “no.” The intent of the system is to keep all documents with the case, but not to drive you nuts. You might like to keep major drafts up there if you want others to be able to easily review it, but the overall expectation is just have final documents (or ones you think are final or major revisions) up there.
Q: Can you delete the wrong docs uploaded to Zelly?
A: Yes. You must be in Edit mode for the respective Case or Person. You will see a trash can icon next to each file. Selecting the icon will delete the file.
Reports
Q: Can reports be exported to Excel?
A: Yes.
Miscellaneous
Q: Is there going to be specific trainings for specific divisions? Like CAFL vs YAD vs Criminal?
A: There won’t be specific training for each division. Currently, the system has the same functionality across divisions. Staff ignore the functionality that are not relevant to their division.
Q: How long can you leave your data open before it ‘times-out’, loses the data you didn’t save.
A: One-hour. If you enter data, but don’t save it, and and then do nothing on that page for one-hour (go out an grab lunch) and you don’t save it, you will lose that data.
Q: If it times out and you were in the middle of entering data, but have not saved, will you lose that data?
A: if you are actively entering data, it will not time-out. If you have left an unsaved page idle, after one-hour it will time-out.