TX Lawsuits

The lawsuit tracking module allows the user to track all aspects of lawsuits that are brought against the appraisal district.  The most common lawsuits are those that are filed by property owners who have gone through the ARB and arbitration process but still want to file to lower their value.

Process

The user must create codes in order to properly track items in the lawsuit module

Prerequisite

User must have the appropriate user rights Lawsuit – Manage Codes

Procedure

Browse to Tools>Lawsuit Tracking

All codes have the ability to allow the user to click:

• New
  • Code – identify the code
  • Description – inforation to describe the contact
• Detail – review existing codes by highlighting and clicking Details
• Remove – remove codes by highlighting and Remove
  • Note:  if the code is associated to an existing case, the system will not allow you to remove
• Refresh – refreshes the screen for user to review newly added or removed codes.

The following are available to create codes for the in the lawsuit.

• Contacts – contacts codes associated with lawsuit. 
  • Examples of this are Attorney for Plantiff (AFP), Attorney for Defendant (AFD), Court (C).
• Costs – cost codes that are associated with the lawsuit. 
  • Examples – C Copy Cost, F – Misc Fee
• Event Type – this will track certain event types
  • Examples of this include:   ASO (Agreed Scheduling Order), Comm(Communication), DDL (Defendent Decline Letter), DNOEV(Defendent No Evidence), DCO (Defendent Counter Offer), PDL (Plantiff Decline Letter), PCO (Plantiff Counteroffer)
• Status – status codes to show the status of the lawsuite
  • Examples of this include:  ACTIVE (Active Lawsuit), AJ (Agreed Judgement), DISMISS (Case Dismissed), FSJ (Final Summary Judgement), NS (Non Suit)

NOTE:  All codes created in this are are based on the customer workflow. 

Process

Form Letters can be created through the Letter processing module and be associated with the lawsuit module. 

Note:  The letter processing procedure is largely the same as what is documented in the Letter Processing User Guide other than the Type. The Type is associated specifically to lawsuits.

Procedure

• Browse to Tools>Lawsuite Tracking>Letter Maintenance
• Click Add to create a new form letter
  • Choose Type
    • The letter types are associated with lawsuits
      • Answer
      • Discovery
      • Motion
      • Order
      • Other 
      • Resolution
      • Trial
    • Click Enable Event – this allows the letter to be associated with the Event tab
      • Choose the Event type to be associated
    • Flex Fields – these are flexible fields that are similar to the Letter processing flex fields.  These can be found in the Letter Processing User Guide.
    • Click Edit Word Document – this allows user to build the letter.  Creating Letters are documented in the Letter Processing User Guide.

Process

Adding Lawsuit in PACS

Procedure

• Browse to File>New>Lawsuit Tracking
• In General Screen, enter data below and click Apply to activate lawsuit
  • Enter Cause #
  • Attorney Lawsuit #

Note:  This will populate the Event Code, Lawsuite Created

• Under Add Properties, Click Add and enter Property ID with appropriate year>Select Property

Note:  User will be guided to choose market value that will be used for loss reporting.  In most cases, the user will see one line item for the year chosen.  However, if this property has been supplemented and has open ARB cases, the user may review the value and select the value desired.

Process

Once the lawsuit is created, several tabs will become activated.  The user may enter data in the Information tab to track ore information on the lawsuit

Procedure

Open the lawsuit and browse to the Information tab.  User can enter data related to:

• Court – open text to describe the court
• Judge – open text to describe the judge
• Reason for Suit – open text to describe the suit
• Date Filed – date field
• Certified Date – date field
• Trial Date – date field
  • By Judge radial box
  • By Jury radial box
• Status – this requires codes to be created in the Tools>Lawsuit tracking.
  • Status are very important so that user can identify the process of the lawsuite throughout the course of the lawsuit
• Appraisers assigned to lawsuit
  • Note:  This will automatically populate to the appraiser associated to the property.  User may change by click the Add/Remove button
• Comments – open text

Process

Enter contact and costs associated with the lawsuit

Procedure

Browse to the Contact/Cost tab

• To add Contact, click Add
  • The user may choose an existing account in the system or simply enter a new contact

• To Add Costs, click Add
  • The user may insert Cost associated to the lawsuit in this section

Process

User may track lawsuit loss by using the value summary

Procedure

• Browse to Value Summary Tab.

Note:  The value of the property at the time of the lawsuit creation wil be populated in the Certified Market Value.

• User may set
  • Opinion of Values.  User may enter value by clicking the Opintion of Value
  • Adjudged Value by clicking the Adjudge value button.  The user may enter value. 
    • This will result in the lawsuite loss/gain

Process

Process letters through Letter History

Procedure

• Browse to the Letter History tab
  • Letter Types – user can filter letter by lawsuite letter type
  • Letter – choose letter > click Print
• The letter history that is created will populate in chart

Process

User may attach images and/or scans to the lawsuit

Procedure

The image processing is documented in the Image and Document Processing User Guide

Process

Search for lawsuits in PACS

Procedure

• Browse to File>Open>Lawsuit
• The user has the ability to lawsuit by:
  • Cause #
  • Lawsuit status
  • Property id
  • GEO
  • Owner
  • Agent
  • Appraiser
  • Entity
  • State Code
  • List all lawsuits (Checkbox to all of them)

Process

The user has reports to track Lawsuits

Procedure

Browse to Reports > Lawsuit

• Cost Report – reports on cost identified on the lawsuite
  • Search by
    • Cause Number
    • Attorney Lawsuit Number
    • Status
• Entity Report – give breakdown on lawsuits by entity
  • Search by
    • Year
    • Owner
    • Status
    • Property id
    • Geo ID
    • Cause #
    • Entity
• Gain/Loss Report – lists gain/loss value on all lawsuits
  • Search by
    • Year
    • Entity
    • Status
    • Type:  Report can be summary of value by entity or have lawsuit detail
• Listing Report – lawsuit listing by year
  • Search by
    • Year
    • Owner
    • Status
    • Property id
    • Geo id
    • Cause #