LegalEdge Announces Release Plans for The American Prosecutor Product

LegalEdge Software, a 20 year old Case Management software manufacturer recently announced its plans to release the American Prosecutor Web based product. This Web version of the popular client server product of the same name will be released in the second quarter of 2009.

The American Prosecutor? Web Version is specifically designed for the needs of the Prosecuting Attorney. Specific procedures and screens are included to handle the kinds of cases that Prosecutors see. Felonies and Misdemeanors are classified easily through user definable lookup lists -Drugs, Prostitution, Homicide and Burglary are typical offenses handled here. Most items attendant to a case, the primary players, key dates, the defendant list, documents, etc. are shown on a one cover screen making it easy for Attorneys to find relevant data and to make navigation easy. Each defendant has a separate screen to track defendant specific things like appearances, charges and investigations.

Case types include;

Felonies and Misdemeanors - Original defense and appeals. Capital Trials, Juvenile Delinquency - Original defense and appeals, Child Abuse and Neglect - Original prosecution and appeals and Mental Health.

Other important functionality includes;

Diversion Programs

From a person's record I can see all the Programs in which they have participated. Programs from electronic anklets to Anger Management to Driver's Education can be monitored for effectiveness.


Gang Activity

You can define local gangs and link people to them. Prosecutors can track historical gang membership and activities over time.

Pleas

With The American Defender, each offer and counter can be recorded in the system. If you wish to record this information, you can get the reports that show all outstanding offers made and deals struck. The knowledge of what sentencing most often goes with a particular crime is invaluable in planning offers.

Clinical Tests

The software keeps track of all clinical tests done on defendants and other parties or on evidence. Ballistics, Breathalyzer, blood tests, DNA, autopsies, IQ tests, field sobriety tests and more can be linked to a case and to a defendant for review. This information stays with the person to give you a rich history on repeat offenders.

Scheduling

The system monitors all case scheduling and maintains a chronology of events, both past and future. The system also allows the user to define rule sets, or relationships between given events. These rules sets should be related to courts and/or venues and should allow for specification of how to handle a date that falls on a weekend or holiday. LegalEdge has a function called "Roadmapping" (Release 2); it lets you create trigger events and resulting events. These dependencies can be contingent on the type of case or the court in which the primary event is held. This lets you fine-tune the system to the handling of specific case types.

Notes

In LegalEdge, a note is like an object, which can be linked to persons and cases very easily. All note fields are rich text, which means that you have edit capability like a word processor for things such as bold, highlight, spell check, etc.

Identification

The system is capable of handling multiple identifiers for a given person or d/b/a's for a company. The system is capable of handling multiple identification numbers of various types for any person, including multiple Social Security Numbers, Jail ID's Driver's Licenses, etc.

Entity Management

The system tracks any type of entity like a person or a company. All identifying data is tracked. It allows for any number of addresses, telephone numbers, E-mail addresses, Aliases, etc. Entities are entered only once and they are linked to cases and other objects by identifiers like the relationship of a person to a case, for example, defendant.

Case Weighting

Each case is assigned a weight. Management reports show the number of cases each attorney is carrying and what percentage of the total that represents as well as the weight of all cases carried with the percentage of the total weight that represents for each attorney.

Charge Data Integration

LegalEdge focuses on specific charges against a defendant and co-defendants. The statute is associated with the charge object as well as a disposition, and whether or not a weapon was charged. You can easily see how many times you have prosecuted a specific statute, or category of statute.

Custody Tracking

This feature helps you organize and track evidence in the line of custody to help insure its creditability.


Victim/Witness

It is possible to link victims and witnesses with specific defendants on a case.
This allows Victim/Witness coordinators to protect the identity of these people and notify them of any important defendant activity.

Tracking of Services provided and reports for grants are also provided.

Sentencing

The system tracks all sentencing, parole and probation information.


Investigations

The investigations module allows an attorney to request an investigation and to specify the tasks to be performed. It allows assigning of the investigation and the reporting against the assigned tasks. Alerts are issued for close in investigations. The investigation carries the link to the original case and also has a unique identifier for use in managing investigations in general.

Searching

There are different types of searches in LegalEdge 1) Quick Search is used when a user knows what case/person he wants and uses this to look it up by using case number or name, 2) Ad-Hoc allows the user to filter the search for a case using many case or people related fields to narrow down the prospects.

Calendaring

LegalEdge uses Microsoft Exchange/Outlook as its Calendar.

Reports

The Web product supports XSLT, Report Mill and Pentaho, including the Pentaho Open Source Business Intelligence engine (Rel 2). This allows users to set up elaborate dashboards and present key performance indicators in varied fashions. Using the Report Writer Option, Users can write their own reports and call them from inside LegalEdge.

Document Assembly

Documents can be automatically generated using Word templates and pulling data from the database.

Document Management

The standard product comes with the ability to profile documents and link them to a case or an entity.

Web product users can additionally add full Document Management in Release 2. This release will provide an interface to the open source document management system called Alfresco, and provide; tree categorization, versioning, check in check out, full text search and discovery bundling which allows attorneys to bundle discoverable documents into an electronic package to send via CD or email.

For more information about case management software, matter management software , and country software go the company Web site LegalEdge.com

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