Welcome to the October 2018 Q&A.
The Q&A addresses questions and suggestions received through the online suggestion box (top menu bar on the intranet). We respond to questions with agency-wide relevance. We cannot answer questions that may affect client or staff/personnel confidentiality. If you have individual- or office-specific questions, please communicate that within your office or division.
Some questions/suggestions are summarized or simplified in the interest of clarity, brevity or to address tone.
Suggestions/Questions list
- FY2019 reimbursement schedule
- Westlaw appellate filings
- PDF staff directory
Suggestion/Question: FY2019 reimbursement schedule
Can someone post the travel reimbursement deadlines for FY 2019? Or point me to them? I cannot find them online, only the 2018 dates.
Response:
A FY19 schedule has been posted to the Finance website. It may be found at http://intranet.publiccounsel.net/cfo/travel-deadlines/
Division: CFO, Kevin Lucchetti
Suggestion/Question: Westlaw appellate filings
Having access to appellate filings on Westlaw would greatly enhance our advocacy for clients. What can be done to enhance our access to these valuable Westlaw tools?
Response:
We have been investigating this option. Unfortunately, we cannot add the appellate filings to our Westlaw contract due to prohibitive additional costs.
Division: Director of Administration & Operations, Debra Krupp
P.S. This update/suggestion is courtesy of Rebecca Kiley: “I think it might be helpful for attorneys looking for appellate pleadings on Westlaw to know that PDFs of briefs filed in the SJC, and sometimes in the Appeals Court, are available on the online dockets of those cases, which can be found with the defendant’s name at: http://ma-appellatecourts.org/index.php ” <Thank you, Rebecca – Daniel>
Suggestion/Question: PDF staff directory
I really like the Visual Directory but really miss the old staff [pdf] directory. There no easy way to “browse directory” in order to find a specific person who holds a specific position. For example: If I wanted to send an email to the AIC or a supervising attorney of an office and I did not know the name of that AIC or supervising attorney there is not a way to search the “browse directory” by job title. You can search by name or department but not by job title. With the old staff directory I would be able to go to that specific office and see who the AIC or supervising attorney is. Is there a way to search the “browse directory” of our new visual directory in the same manner?
Response:
HR will go back to uploading the PDF staff directory to the internal website, in addition to the Visual Directory updated by Finance. This allows for multiple ways to find staff. Due to current staffing constraints in HR, this won’t occur until January 2019.
Division: Human Resources, Lisa Bacon
P.S. There is currently no way to “browse” the Visual Directory in the same way the pdf could be browsed. You can search for any person across all offices at once (using the search function), but a similar sort of browsing cannot currently be done. Finance is looking into more options with the vendor. <Daniel Saroff – IT>