Judgment Module Overview

Case to debt to responsible party relationship options

Basic Process Overview

1. A case is started from the sidebar of an account and multiple bundled accounts and/or responsible party account defendants associated with the debts can be party to the case.
   1. The summary section shows “IN LEGAL” green pill
2. The case goes through several process steps and each process may be tied to action path workflow.
3. A judgment is returned from the court and a process is followed resulting in the creation of a judgment account attached to a separate judgment client; the new judgment account is still connected to the original accounts that were party to the case.
   1. The summary section of the accounts party to the judgment show “ACTIVE JUDGMENT” purple pill
   2. The summary section of the judgment account shows “JUDGMENT” yellow pill
4. All collection activity with the consumer moving forward is handled using the judgment account.
5. All payments for the judgment are posted/entered to the judgment account and spread to the judgment account; the amount of the payment is simultaneously spread to the original accounts that were party to the judgment.
6. All invoicing, accounting, and reporting activity associated with the client is handled with the clients in ACE associated with the original accounts that were party to the judgment (NOT the judgment client).

Setup

1. Setup status codes, courts, attorneys, process servers and triggers as appropriate for your use of the ACE judgment module
   1. Setup -> Accounts -> Status Codes
   2. Setup -> Legal -> Courts
   3. Setup -> Legal -> Attorneys
   4. Setup -> Legal -> Process Servers
2. Setup -> Transactions -> Spreaders (only if unique spreaders are needed for Judgment accounts and/or original accounts that are party to the judgment)
3. Add a new “judgment” client profile
   1. Check the “Judgment” checkbox
   2. Set the “Transaction Spreader” that will apply to each payment spread to the judgment account 
   3. Set the Interest Buckets and a default judgment interest rate (or leave as zero if it will always be set at the account) 
   4. Apply or Save
   5. Agencies can have more than one judgment client if they wish to segregate information associated with judgment transactions for a large client or for specific case types/courts/etc.
   6. The original accounts that are party to the case also require a “Judgment Spreader” to be identified in the client profile for those accounts.
4. Setup triggers for letter scheduling, moving accounts to different worklists and any other workflow automation required in conjunction with the agency’s legal case and judgment processes. Each trigger is “fired” based on a specific action that occurs, data that is entered and/or a button that is selected. For automation, an action path will need to be created with actions to produce the desired behavior and the associated trigger will need to be associated with each action path. Setup -> Workflow -> Triggers & Action Paths. A  Legal Case and Judgment Triggers map can be found via this link.
1. 
   
   1. onAfterCaseInsert
   2. onAfterJudgmentSpread
   3. onCaseClientAuthDate
   4. onCaseClientAuthRequestDate
   5. onCaseClientAuthorizationRequest
   6. onCaseCourtDate
   7. onCaseDismiss
   8. onCaseDismissedDate
   9. onCaseFile
   10. onCaseFileDate
   11. onCaseJudgment
   12. onCaseJudgmentDate
   13. onCaseMediationDate
   14. onCaseMediationResolutionDate
   15. onCaseServeRequest
   16. onCaseServeRequestDate
   17. onCaseServed
   18. onCaseServedDate
   19. onCaseSignedDate
   20. onCaseSummonsGrantDate
   21. onCaseSummonsRequest
   22. onCaseSummonsRequestDate

Step by Step 

1. Open a case
   1. Locate account and load account page
   2. From the left sidebar select “Cases”
   3. Click “New”
   4. Select a Status Code (a status code with the “legal” option will be available to select from the new case page)
   5. Enter fields known at this time (court, attorney, process server, etc. - only if known at this time) and “Apply”
   6. The case is “IN LEGAL” green pill in summary
   7. “Auto Spread” to spread the accounts balance to the “Proposed Judgment Spread” section
   8. Add other “Accounts” in the bundle that are party to the case and “Apply”
   9. Add other “Defendants” from accounts that are party to the case and “Apply”
      1. Accounts must first be Responsible Party (RP) accounts associated to any of the debts in the bundle that are party to the case
   10. “Auto Spread” again to include the balances from the other accounts
   11. “Upload New File” to attach documents to the case
2. Request Client Auth (button) - date auto populates
3. Enter Client Authorization Date when known
4. Enter Mediation Date and Mediation Resolution Date when/if those are received
5. Request Summons (button) - date auto populates
6. Enter Summons Date when known
7. Serve Defendants (button) - date auto populates
8. Enter Serve Response Period (unless triggered in action path) if applicable
9. Enter Served Date when known
10. Enter Court Date when known
11. File Case (button)
    1. If there are multiple accounts party to the case, each will need to be authorized separately by selecting the account and entering the authorize date before the case can be filed
12. Judgment Rendered (button)
    1. Select a judgment client
    2. Judgment Date is automatic but can be updated
    3. Select result
    4. Move (or don’t) payments posted after judgment date
    5. Enter interest rate
    6. Enter effective date and judgment amount
    7. Apply judgment spread (for judgment account)
       1. Next button
       2. Review (and modify as appropriate) the Spread of the Judgment to the accounts that were party to the case and are party to the judgment
       3. Spread (button)
    8. Apply
    9. Accounts party to the case will show “ACTIVE JUDGMENT” purple pill in summary
    10. Judgment account will show “JUDGMENT” yellow pill in summary

 Payment Demonstration

1. Payments for accounts in judgment must be entered from the JUDGMENT account. Each payment will spread SIMULTANEOUSLY to the judgment account AND the accounts that are party to the judgment so client invoicing and statements will not be interrupted to manage payments against judgment accounts.
2. Go to the judgment account
   1. Click that pill or “Cases” from the sidebar to see a list of cases.
   2. Click the case associated with the judgment to be paid.
   3. Click the Agency # and folder to the right of “Judgement Account” to open the Judgment Account.
   4. Confirm the pill shows “JUDGMENT” in yellow
   5. If you open an account that is party to a judgment, you will see the “ACTIVE JUDGMENT” in purple in the summary section.
3. Click “Post Transaction” from the left sidebar as you would for any payment being entered or posted
4. VA payments should not be entered/posted to judgment accounts
5. Enter the payment as would typically be done, but before applying scroll down to the Judgment Account Spread and confirm the amounts being spread to each account that is party to the payment.
   1. Click each account in this section to adjust the amount that will spread to each account.
   2. A different spreader can be selected, but the spread to the accounts that are party to the judgment cannot be manually manipulated.
   3. Accounts party to the judgment can be unspread and respread if necessary after the payment has been applied.
6. Review the payment transaction detail under the Judgment account and the accounts that are party to the judgment
   1. No invoice is required under the judgment client - however, you could generate one for the agency to use to access judgment detail