The Office of the Child's Representative (OCR) billing and case management system, CARES (Court Appointed Reimbursement Electronic System), is an online application which allows attorneys, case consultants, and their staff to record all case-related activity.
When the court appoints an attorney in your office to an OCR case, that "appointment" needs to be entered into CARES, then each member of your office enters their own activities on that appointment over the course of each month. On or before the 15th of the following month, a Managing Attorney in your office uses CARES to submit an invoice with all case activities to OCR for review and payment (i.e. January's activities need to be submitted on an invoice by February 15th). This is the core functionality of CARES; there are many additional case and practice management features to explore over time.
This Quick Start Guide will walk you through how to:
Note that all blue text in these help articles, such as in the bullets above, indicates you can click on that text to move to that specific information or to find more help on that topic.
Log In to CARES
Important: CARES will only run properly in Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. To avoid errors and data loss, do not access CARES through other web browsers such as Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge. Help remind yourself to do this by creating a bookmark for CARES only in Chrome, Firefox, and/or Safari.
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Download Chrome, Firefox, or Safari to use when accessing CARES. To avoid data loss, never access CARES through other web browsers such as Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge. More on this
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Navigate to https://cares.coloradochildrep.org/#!/forgot. Carefully type your email address that is on file with OCR and click Submit. You will receive an automated email within a few minutes. Note your CARES user name at the beginning of that email. No email?
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Follow the hyperlink in the email from Step 2. Create any secure password you would like to use for the CARES application. Click the blue Reset Password button to save it.
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Click the blue Login button.
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Enter your user name (it was at the beginning of the email from Step 2—not your email address).
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Enter the password you made up in Step 3.
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Click Login.
- Last, you may see a pop-up message asking you to secure your CARES account with "two-factor authentication," a very important security feature enabling CARES to occasionally text you information to access to your account (message and data rates may apply). Click "Quick Setup Now" to jump to User Settings > General Settings. First check the box beside Use Two Factor Authentication, then enter your mobile phone number as shown below. Click Save in the upper right of the screen. Follow the prompts to verify your device based on a text sent to your phone. More on this
- Welcome to CARES! Bookmark cares.coloradochildrep.org and visit that address any time from now on to log into CARES.
Important Information for Office Members:
- Each CARES account is linked only to one "Office" which shares communal payment information and automatic access to all its own attorney appointments. Be sure to check out My Office’s Accounts and Permissions for more context as you learn CARES. (Case consultants may also find it helpful to read the information in OCR-Contracted Case Consultants.)
- The next Quick Start articles (link at bottom) will explain how to set up new cases and appointments. These are foundational and important to read, but OCR recommends checking with your office to learn what you are expected to enter in CARES before taking any of the upcoming steps. For example, many appointments may already exist in your office (see Cases > My Appointments), allowing you to skip creation of them.
- Contractors in your office, and therefore you by extension, are bound by OCR's Billing Policies and Procedures found at https://coloradochildrep.org/attorneys/billing-and-reimbursement/.
- You cannot use your own CARES account to enter activities or invoice on behalf of another office member. The activities each user enters via their own login will record their name and billing rate.
- Only a Managing Attorney (someone with a contract with OCR) may invoice OCR in CARES; you should discuss questions about payment for your activities with the OCR contractor in your office who submits monthly invoices.
- If you work for attorneys in multiple offices (meaning you have multiple CARES accounts/logins per the first bullet above), check out the support and streamlining tips in Support Staff Working in Multiple Offices.