ENHANCED LITIGATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR PANEL ATTORNEYS 2018

Transcription

1 ENHANCED LITIGATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR PANEL ATTORNEYS 2018 Disclaimer: This training manual was developed by the Learning and Development Department of the Road Accident Fund for internal training purposes and is not binding on the Road Accident Fund or any of its officials. The content of this training manual is under constant review and subject to change.reliance by any third party on any aspect covered in this training manual shall be at the sole and excusive risk of that third party. 1

2 Table of Content Learning Guide: Introduction... 3 Learning Programme Purpose and Description... 3 Use of the Learning Guide... 3 Learning Outcomes Introduction Summary of New Enhancements to LMS of At the RAF: The beginning of the process At the Attorney s office Log in Navigation Refresh Tasks The Documents Tab Escalation Reports Home Screen The Litigation Process on the LMS Acknowledge Receipt Notice to Defend Upload Notice to Defend Delivery of Plea to Plaintiff Pleadings Close Pleadings Creating Trials Adding a Trial Date and Uploading the Notice of Set Down Trial Documents Court Date and Trial Outcome Documents Closing the Trial Conclusion

3 Learning Guide: Introduction This learning programme is aimed to equip you with the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to utilise the Litigation Management System in a professional and competent manner. Learning Programme Purpose and Description At the end of this programme the learners will be able to log in, navigate and utilize the Litigation Management System in a professional and competent manner. Use of the Learning Guide Throughout the learning programme icons are used to focus your attention on important aspects. Workshop Activity You will be required to complete an activity on your own / in a group that is related to the outcomes covered in the module. Tip / Critical Note This information is critical to the rest of the concept under discussion make sure you grasp this well! Self Reflection Questions that allow the learner to draw comparisons with the workplace and personal experience should be answered by the learner on his own. Key Points You are asked to summarise your key learning points. 3

4 Learning Outcomes Learning Outcomes: Navigate to the Litigation Management System Log in to the Litigation Management System Navigate through the Litigation Management System Upload documents Search for documents Print documents Utilize the different templates on the system Create tasks Filter tasks Manage tasks Update trial details Close the trial 4

5 LMS FOR PANEL ATTORNEYS 1. Introduction The Road Accident Fund (RAF) has developed a Litigation Management System (LMS) to manage the whole litigation process in one unified process. The system will be used by RAF officials as well as its panel attorneys. Utilization of the LMS will bring about numerous advantages, like: Tracking of all communication sent and received by all parties involved resulting in improved communication; Tracking of communication resulting in the archival of all documents; Reduced legal costs; A reduction in possible fraud or inaccuracies resulting from a lack of a paper trial in litigation matters; and Time saving The system will cover the process from the time the summons is received by the RAF until the matter is settled between the parties involved. The system is specifically designed to be used by end users who have no technical expertise (user friendly). In this manual we will take a step by step look at the Litigation Management Process. 1

6 2. Summary of New Enhancements to LMS of The instruction needs to be acknowledged before a matter can be defended Manual Task 2. Proof of the Delivery of the Plea must be uploaded within 20 days after Notice to Defend task was completed Or Proof of the Delivery of the Plea must be uploaded, and reasons must be furnished why it was delivered late. 3. Pleadings cannot be closed on the system if the Proof of delivery of the plea was not uploaded. 4. Any Notice of Bar that was received by the Defendant attorney has to be uploaded with a Manual Task. 5. Add Expert (Under Documents) any experts that is instructed must be updated, the instruction letter and date of instruction must be uploaded to the system. 6. More than 1 trial can be added to link number; each trial is dealt with separately and can be closed independently. 7. Trial Documents and details can be added, before the Notice of Set Down is received or uploaded as soon as the trial date is updated on the system, the Notice of set Down must be uploaded. 8. Final Assessment Report and offers of settlement must be uploaded under Trial Documents. 9. The Trial Outcome Document must be uploaded before the trial can be closed, this can be a Judgement, Settlement, Dismissal etc. (Any document that proves the outcome of the trial) 2

7 3. At the RAF: The beginning of the process The process on the LMS starts with summons administrator at the RAF who registers the summons onto the system. The Summons Administrator does this by uploading a copy of the summons to LMS as well as capturing the details of the summons onto the system. After the information is saved, the LMS generates a task to the summons administrator to have the summons defended. 3

8 When the summons administrator actions the task, the system allocates the summons automatically to an RAF panel attorney. The allocation is based on a weighted rotational algorithm, and takes into account the jurisdiction that an attorney practices from, as well as linked files and summonses. At the same time, the system prompts the summons administrator to prepare an e- mail to the allocated firm, notifying them of the summons that must be defended. The summons administrator completes the notification , where after it is sent to the allocated firm. This initial is sent to a centralised account at the law firm. 4

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10 4. At the Attorney s office 4.1 Log in Access the remote RAF website and click on the icon to log in to the LMS. The Log In page will be displayed. A username and password are required as well as a unique verification code. 6

11 Enter the information and click on the Log In button at the bottom of the screen. This will open the Home screen on the LMS. If the incorrect information is entered, a warning message will be displayed and the user will not be logged in. RAF ICT Support can be reached on if necessary. The password can be reset by clicking on the Password Reset link at the top the screen. The user will be prompted to enter the username and the unique verification code. 7

12 An will be sent, containing the new password. It is also possible to change the password after logging in to the LMS. 4.2 Navigation Refresh Tasks After logging in, the Home screen will be displayed by default. 8

13 Click on Refresh Tasks to display the tasks that were generated since logging in The Documents Tab The Documents Tab contains the following options, that can be accessed hovering over the Documents Tab, and clicking on the relevant option; View Summons Documents Hover over Documents, and click View Summons Docs to view all documents that were uploaded to the LMS. Select either Link Number or Serial Number from the dropdown menu and click Search to search for a specific document. 9

14 A new field listing the available documents will open. Select the document and click the Download button. A hyperlink to the document will be displayed. Click on the hyperlink and a new window will open showing the requested document Upload Summons Documents Any document can be uploaded to LMS to become part of the file record, by utilizing the Upload Summons Documents Option. This function is especially useful if the user wants to upload file contents from a previous attorney, or omitted to upload a document during litigation. Documents can be upload with Upload Summons 10

15 Documents at any stage, even after the trial was closed, and there are no more tasks on the home page for the relevant file. To upload a document to a file record, click on Upload Summons Documents on under Documents. Complete the relevant detail in order to conduct a search under the link number, claim number, or Plaintiff Surname then click on the Search button; The LMS system will now display a list of results for the search, the relevant file needs to be selected from the list by clicking on Select, next to it; Complete all the relevant details on the Create New Task screen, click on Browse to locate the relevant document on your home drive, and Upload to upload to LMS. Click on Send to complete the action. 11

16 The LMS system will confirm that the document was uploaded, with the following message; The uploaded document now forms a part of the file record, and can be accessed under View Summons Documents by any user View Linked Summons Summonses issued from a specific court that is dealt with by a specific panel attorney, can be filtered by the court that it was issued from, by using the View Linked Summons function. To utilize this function click on View Linked Summons under the Documents Tab; Files can now be filtered for various courts, based on the court that the summons was issued from. Click on the dropdown to select the court, and the click on Search to filter the records. 12

17 By clicking on select, any linked files can be displayed for the link number and the details of those files will be displayed; Experts Instructed A new function of the Enhanced LMS system is to keep record of all experts that is instructed during litigation. This is a very useful function if a user has to confirm quickly which experts are on record, or contact an expert that was instructed previously; To update the expert register click on Experts Instructed; Complete the link number for the relevant matter and click on the Search button; If there is more than one summons linked to the link number, a list of summonses will be displayed, the relevant summons has to be selected from the list by clicking on Select next to it. 13

18 Complete the details of the expert instructed in the relevant fields, upload the instruction letter to the expert (from the office of the Defendant attorney) to the system, by clicking on Browse and Upload, click on Add Expert to complete the action; The expert will now form part of the list of experts and will be displayed on the list of experts when instructing new experts; 14

19 The expert will also be updated under the list of experts under View Summons Detail, as discussed below View Summons Detail The Detail of every summons can be checked by clicking on the Detail button, next to the claim, on the Home screen. The same function can also be performed under the tab for Documents at the top of the screen, and then selecting View Summons Detail The link number, or search value needs to be entered when using the View Summons Detail button (Note that this is not necessary when clicking on the Detail button from the home screen), then click on the Search button; 15

20 The system will display all the summonses linked to the relevant link number, and the user then needs to select the relevant summons from the list; Note: It is possible that a particular link number might have more than one summons issued against it at any given time, and it might even be possible that different Defendant attorneys will be instructed by the RAF if these summonses are issued from different jurisdictions. Every summons that is received by the RAF, on the same link number will be numbered with a Rec No (Summons number); when the RAF instructs an attorney to defend a matter it will be on a specific link number and Rec No (Summons number), if there is any uncertainty on which summons needs to be defended, by the Defendant attorney, it is imperative that the View Summons Detail button is utilized to view all the other summonses and attorneys on record for a particular link number, and then selecting the correct summons from the list to defend. 16

21 When the relevant summons from the list is selected, the detail of the summons will be displayed in a brief summary. The Task Log, Manual Task Log, Trial Data and Expert Data can be displayed by clicking on the relevant Tabs. The Task log tab displays the history of the Tasks on a particular summons, as well as the user that performed the task, and date it was performed. 17

22 The Manual Task log tab displays the list of manual tasks that were created on a particular summons. The Trial Data tab displays the trials that were created for the selected summons; The Expert Data tab displays the list of experts on record for a specific summons; Escalation Reports Click on Escalation Reports to display a list of tasks that were escalated. 18

23 Escalation Reports consists of Internal, External and 5 day Notice to Defend tasks. A search can be performed, under escalation reports to locate all the tasks that have been generated for a particular link Home Screen There are 4 tabs at the top of the Home screen: Current Tasks Outbound Task Manual Tasks 19

24 Completed Tasks Current Tasks are displayed by default after log in. Tasks can be filtered by using the filter at the bottom of the Home screen. Click on the dropdown menu and select Link No, Attorney Ref, ReAllocated, Court Name to filter under the particular value. 20

25 Enter a value in the next field and click on Search. Only the tasks associated with that Link number, Attorney Ref number, ReAllocated files, or files for the selected court will show. Outbound Tasks Outbound tasks is a record of tasks that was created for other users on a link number, for example if you are logged in as the attorney, the tasks under Outbound Tasks will be the tasks that must be performed by the summons administrator or 21

26 claims handler; thus the tasks under Outbound Tasks is simply for information purposes and cannot be performed by the user that is logged in. Manual Tasks The tab for Manual Tasks on the Home Screen displays the manual tasks that the logged in user is requested to perform, in other words a task created by the claims handler or summons administrator, that the attorney is requested to perform. There are also certain manual tasks that a user will be required to perform, by the system, at certain intervals during litigation, for example; An attorney will be required to upload a letter acknowledging receipt of instructions in order to defend a new summons, 22

27 Upload the proof of service of the plea to the plaintiff before the pleadings can be closed, Upload any notices of bar within 1 day of receipt. Any documents, reports or notices can be uploaded using Other Manual Task A manual task for another user (Claims Handler or Summons Administrator) can also be created using Other Manual Task Specific manual tasks that are required by the system, will be discussed in detail under the heading 3.3 Litigation Process on LMS below. In order to create a Manual Task under Other Manual Task, the following steps needs to be followed; Click on Add Manual Task to create a task for that particular Link number. Or the same function can also be performed by clicking on the Action button and then clicking on New Task (which has the same function as Manual Task) 23

28 The Create New Task page will open. On the dropdown next to Manual Task select Other Manual Task. The other options are used in specific instances where the system requires the user to upload specific documents that will be discussed under the heading 3.3 Litigation Process on LMS below; Enter the task name; 24

29 The document can now be uploaded by clicking on Browse to find the document where it is stored on your home drive, and then clicking upload to the document to LMS. The due date needs to be entered next (this can be the date that the user is uploading the document, but where the document uploaded has a due date in terms of the SLA, the SLA due date must be used e.g. Plea 20 days after Notice to Defend), also type the message that accompanies your document or manual task. Select the assignee from the dropdown, and click on Send to upload the document or to create the Manual Task 25

30 4.3 The Litigation Process on the LMS The attorney s office is notified of the summons by way of an containing the relevant Link number, and summons number. After logging in, the Home page will be displayed by default. The tasks on the Home page will automatically be sorted with the earliest due date at the top of the screen. The Task Description of the first task associated with a new summons received by the RAF attorney is Notice to Defend Acknowledge Receipt However before any summons can be defended the instruction must first be acknowledged by the Defended attorney. This is done by way of a manual task (see Manual Tasks above), and the attorney will be required to upload a letter on the company letterhead acknowledging that the instruction was received, and they are proceeding to defend with the relevant details (Link number, Attorney reference, Case 26

31 number, Claimant and Injured name etc.) on the matter that they received instruction on. Click on Add Manual Task next to the relevant link number; Select Acknowledgement of Instruction from the dropdown next to Manual Task; Follow the rest of the steps under Other Manual Task, above, to upload the acknowledgement letter to LMS Notice to Defend As soon as the instruction is acknowledged, the matter can be defended; click on the Action button to the right to open the task. 27

32 The Notice to Defend screen will open to display a template Notice to Defend. Some details will already be populated by the system. Note: The first four digits captured in the Defendant Attorney Ref No field will be used to filter the tasks on the Home page. Note: Defendant Address field determines which account the s related to this particular matter are sent to. 28

33 Check/tick the box next to Correspondent Attorney if applicable. This will add more fields where the correspondent attorney s details can be captured. Complete the template and then click the Generate Notice button at the bottom of the screen. A message will confirm that the Notice to Defend was generated. 29

34 The document is now available on the LMS to print, to serve on the plaintiff attorney and to file at court. In order to print the document it needs to be opened in Word, edited and printed. The document will open in Word, by clicking on the hyperlink that was created under Documents on right hand side of the screen; The Notice to Defend task on the Home page has now been replaced by two new tasks, namely Upload Notice to Defend and Pleadings Upload Notice to Defend To upload the Notice after it has been served and filed, click the Action button next to the Upload Notice to Defend task. 30

35 Note: When the Upload Notice to Defend is not closed on LMS, the pleadings cannot be closed on LMS. The reason for this is that the system will start calculating 20 days from the time that the Upload Notice to Defend Task was closed, up to the day that the Delivery of Plea to Plaintiff task is closed. In terms of the SLA a plea has to be filed within 20 days of the Notice to Defend. If this time period is less than 20 days, the system will not require reasons, but if it accedes 20 days the system will require reasons for the late filing of the plea. The system only makes provision for 4 possible reasons why a plea can be late, and the attorney will have to select the relevant reason in order to proceed with litigation on LMS, the 4 reasons are as follows; 1. Further Particulars Requested 2. File Content not Received 3. Dies Non Still in Terms of the Court Rules 4. Late Service and Filing of Plea by Panel Attorney To compete the Upload Notice to Defend Task, click on Action on the Home Screen, and then, Browse to search for the folder where the scanned Notice was saved. Highlight the document (Notice) and click on Upload. A hyperlink to the uploaded Notice will show. The Notice can be viewed/printed via this link. 31

36 The Notes field is compulsory, click the Submit button after completing the field. This will notify the Claims Handler via that the Notice was uploaded onto the system, and start the calculation of the 20 days in terms of the SLA. Note the calculation at the bottom of the Manual Task screen, starts on the day that the Upload notice to Defend task is closed; Delivery of Plea to Plaintiff The Proof of the Delivery of the Plea to the Plaintiff attorney, must be uploaded to LMS as soon as it becomes available, the reason for this is that LMS will calculate the 32

37 number of days between the closure of the tasks Upload Notice to Defend and the Manual task Delivery of Plea to Plaintiff see Note under Upload Notice to Defend above. In order to complete the manual task Plea to Plaintiff, open the manual task screen, by clicking on Manual task next to the link number; Or click Action, and then New Task; The steps above will open the Manual task screen. Select the Task Delivery Plea to Plaintiff from the dropdown, proceed to complete the rest of the fields on the screen and upload the signed and served plea; click the Send button at the bottom of the screen to complete the task. 33

38 Note that the system calculates the number of days between, the tasks Upload Notice to Defend and Delivery of Plea to Plaintiff as discussed above, on the Manual Task Screen; The Delay Reason field will only become active, and will need to be completed if more than 20 days elapsed between the tasks mentioned above see Note under Upload Notice to Defend above. Less than 20 days Delay Reason not active (see below) More than 20 days Delay Reason active (see below) When the number of days between closure of the Upload Notice to Defend task, and closure of the Delivery of Plea to Plaintiff task is more than 20 days, the user will first be prompted with the following message from LMS; The user then needs to select a Delay Reason from the dropdown, in order to upload the Plea. 34

39 3.3.5 Pleadings The LMS system assists the user with a number of pro-forma notices and special pleas that can be utilized during litigation. This can be accessed from the Pleadings screen. Click on the Action button to the right of the Pleadings task to open the screen below. On this screen a New Task can be created, which is exactly the same as Add Manual Task on the Home screen. A matter can be finalized on the LMS at any time throughout the process by selecting Finalize/Settlement. Note: Finalize/Settlement should only be used when you intend to settle/finalize the matter in totality; when this option is selected it will remove the file from the task list, and it is assumed all aspects of litigation has been settled or finalized i.e. Merits and all Heads of Damages relating to Quantum, The only way to retrieve a task of matter Finalized/Settled in error, would be to log a call with helpdesk at the RAF to re-open the file. 35

40 Pleading templates are available on the LMS. Using these templates will not only save time, but also ensure uniformity. Select the required template from the dropdown menu and click on Submit. The template for the required document will open. Complete all fields and click the Generate Document button at the bottom of the screen. 36

41 A message will confirm that the document has been saved successfully. Note: All the uploaded documents are available for viewing and printing under the Documents heading on the right of the screen. 37

42 3.3.6 Close Pleadings The next step in the litigation process on LMS is to close the pleadings, after the completion of the exchange of pleadings/notices. In order to close the pleadings, click Close Pleadings on the Pleadings screen; The system will require the Note field to be completed, click on the Submit button to complete the closure of pleadings; Note: Pleadings can only be closed on LMS once the following requirements are met; The Upload notice to Defend task must be closed/completed - see Note under Upload Notice to Defend above The Manual Task for Uploading Plea to Plaintiff must be completed on LMS see above If either of these requirements are not met, you will receive an error message from LMS, and you will not be able to close pleadings, or proceed with litigation on LMS. 38

43 Once the Pleadings is closed, the Task on the home screen will change to Add/Update Trial Details. Note: When the Pleadings are closed on a particular file, the word Closed will apear on the Pleadings screen, to indicate that the user is dealing with a matter at the stage of Pleadings Closed Creating Trials A major change from the previous version of LMS is that more than one trial can be created for every link number, or summons, there is no limit on the amount of trials that can be created, thus trials can be created for Merits, Quantum or Merits and Quantum. It is also possible to create separate trials for different Heads of Damages. These trials can all be litigated separately on LMS, and closed independently from the other trials on the same link number. To create trials Click on the Action button, and then on Add/Update Trial; Click Add Trial Details on the following screen; 39

44 The necessary trials can now be created, as required, by selecting the trial type on the dropdown (Merits, Quantum or Merits and Quantum), and clicking on the Save Trial button, to create the trial. Note: It is no longer a requirement to upload the Notice of Set Down immediately when the trial is created (the previous version of LMS, required the Notice of Set Down to be uploaded upon closure of the Pleadings), the Trial date field can be left blank for the creation of the trial. The system allows the user to upload trial documents, or make offers before the trial date is completed (or Notice of Set Down Uploaded). When the Notice of Set Down is received by the Defendant attorney, the Date of Trial field needs to completed, and the system will then require the immediate upload of the Notice of set Down. The first trial for Merits is now created, and can be seen in the trial list; 40

45 More trials can be created by clicking on Add Trial Details, and following the steps above; Subsequent trials will be added to the trial list, as they are created. There is no limit on the amount of trials that can be created per link/summons number; Adding a Trial Date and Uploading the Notice of Set Down The updated LMS system does not require the user to add the trial date immediately upon creation of the trial, but rather only at the time when the Notice of set down is received by the office of the defendant attorney, however once the Notice of set down 41

46 is received by the Defendant attorneys offices it should be handled urgently in order to upload this document to LMS, as the SLA only allows for 3 days to inform the RAF about the notice of set done. Note that the adding of the trial date and upload of the Notice of Set Down does not prevent the user from making offers, upload the final assessment report, or uploading further reports or documents (as the old version of LMS see Note under Creating Trials). To add a trial date to a trial, the relevant trial first needs to be selected from the trial list, click on Select next to the relevant trial; This will open the Trial Details page, where the trial date can be completed by clicking on the relevant field Trial Date, then click on Update to complete the action; The user will be prompted to upload the Notice of Set Down immediately after the completion of the trial date; 42

47 Note: All updates or changes to the relevant file will not be saved by the system before the Notice of Set Down is uploaded. In order to upload the Notice of set Down, the user will have to scroll to the bottom of the Trial Details screen, and click on Browse to find the document on the users home drive, then click on Upload to upload the document to LMS; After the upload of the Notice of Set Down, the user will have to scroll to the bottom of the screen again, and click on Save Document, to complete the action. 43

48 The LMS system will confirm that the Notice of Set Down was uploaded, with the message below; After the upload of the Notice of Set Down, click on Update again, to save and update the trial date and details; Trial Documents The Trial Documents Tab, will enable the user to upload offers and the Final Assessment Report. 44

49 Upload Offer of Settlement or Tender to Plaintiff Click on the Trial Documents Tab on the Trial Details screen; Next Click on Upload Document; This will allow the user to select Offers of Settlement/Tender to Plaintiff from the dropdown list; Browse and Upload the relevant file on the user s home drive, and finally click on Save Document to complete the action; 45

50 Upload the Final Assessment Report In order to upload the Final Assessment Report, repeat the steps above under Upload Offer of Settlement or Tender to Plaintiff, but select Final Assessment report from the Dropdown (instead of Offers of Settlement to Plaintiff). Browse and Upload the relevant file on the user s home drive, and finally click on Save Document to complete the action; Viewing Trial Documents The documents that were uploaded under Trial Documents, can be viewed by clicking on the Trial Documents Tab; And selecting the relevant document from the dropdown list, then click on Download; Click on the hyperlink that will be displayed to open the document; 46

51 Note: Multiple Offers of Settlement, Tenders to Plaintiff and the Final Assessment can be uploaded to LMS. They will be named, by LMS as follows; The first offer on trial number 1 Offer 1.1 The second offer on trial number 1 Offer 1.2 The first offer on trial number 2 Offer 2.1 etc. If there is more than 1 Final Assessment Report, they will be numbered in a similar way Court Date and Trial Outcome Documents To finalize a file on LMS, the system will require 2 things; Court Order Date Trial Outcome Documents Before the final Trial Outcome Documents can be uploaded, all the outstanding fields of the Trial needs to be completed including the court order date field. Note that some of the fields under Trial Outcome might not be compulsory, but it is very important to complete all the fields that the user can complete for the trial outcome, as this information might be of high importance for statistics, as well as any future disputes between the RAF and panel attorney, or plaintiff attorney. Complete the date field of the court order (the trial outcome documents cannot be uploaded without completing this field), note that the field for Court Order date is not always necessarily a Court Order, but can also be a removal, dismissal, settlement or any other outcome, thus this filed simply records the outcome date of the trial. When all the fields are updated, click on Update to save the information. 47

52 Any documents relating to the outcome of the trial should be uploaded under the Trial Outcome Documents Tab. This can be court orders, settlement agreements, documents relating to the removal of a matter form the court roll or any other document that relates to the proof of the outcome of the trial. To upload a document under Trial Outcome Documents, click on the Trial Outcome Documents Tab, then Click on Upload Document; Select Delivery of Court Order/Settlement agreement on the next screen, and Browse and Upload the document to LMS; 48

53 The Save Document button will move to the bottom of the screen, scroll down, and click on Save Document to upload Closing the Trial After updating the Court Order Date, and uploading the Trial Outcome Document, the Trial can be closed, by clicking on the Close Trial Button at the bottom of the screen; 49

54 The final outcome screen needs to be completed with all the required detail, select the outcome reason from the dropdown. Note that a further document can be uploaded, by clicking on Browse and Upload (if required), as the court order or settlement document would have been uploaded already on the previous step. When you have updated all the information on the screen click on Submit; The system will display a final message, that the trial was closed, and an sent to the claims Handler to confirm that the matter was closed; 50

55 Note that the user should only select Full and Final settlement, on closure of the trial, if all the heads of damages have been settled, including the Merits, if any trials are still open, the user should select Partly Settled. Home Screen after closure of Merits Trial (Partly Settled); On the Trial Details screen, the closed trial will be greyed out, and can no longer be accessed by the user, but the other trials will remain open and active, and the user can continue to work on them, the user will also be able to create further trials, if necessary; 5. Conclusion Utilisation of the Litigation Management System will be used by RAF officials as well as the RAF panel attorneys. The LMS has many advantages, including the tracking of all sent communication, the archiving of documents and saving time. 51

56 The system is user friendly and will cover the process from the time the summons is received by the RAF until the matter is settled between the parties involved. 52