An appointment in CARES is what links a case to the appointed OCR attorney. Appointments belong to the appointed office. Each appointment may include multiple child parties. All active CARES users who belong to the appointed attorney's office can always find all of that office's appointments in their Cases > My Appointments screen. CARES users may also request limited access to appointments outside of their own CARES office for the following reasons:
- I have been assigned as a Case Consultant on this appointment. (Note, this is only necessary for case consultants who contract directly with OCR because CC members of an attorney's office already have automatic access to the office's appointments.) More on this
- I am this attorney’s approved OCR Mentor.
- I am providing litigation support on this appointment (e.g., education or appellate support).
- I am second-chairing a contested hearing with pre-approval from OCR.
- I am providing coverage for the appointed attorney..
Requesting access to another office's appointment means tapping into the work the appointed office has already done to set up the appointment--you will not need to re-enter the child party, placement, etc.; CARES will not assign you the attorney of record's obligations such as the D&N 30-day visit or fee requests; and CARES will not count the youth toward your CJD cap.
Keep reading, or jump to:
- Finding another office's appointment
- How to request access to another office's appointment
- While You Have Access (finding your accessed appointments, etc.)
Finding another office's appointment
OCR-contracted Case Consultants, Mentors, Litigation Support, and attorneys providing coverage for another attorney must first locate the attorney of record's appointment in CARES. On the main left-side navigation menu, Cases > Search Cases lets you look up all cases in CARES (shown below). The fields at the top of the search screen allow you to refine your search by Attorney Bar Number, Year, County, and more. You must click Search Cases or type the Enter key to show any results or update your search:
A few search tips:
- Save search effort by entering minimal information such as only a county and year; usually this brings up a list short enough to skim for the case you need. Add additional criteria to filter the results more only if the list of results is still too long to be of use. Extra search specificity is not usually faster!
- If you are typing a word into a search field, you must type a whole word--CARES does not search based on partial words.
- If you select a Court (county) first, CARES will fill in the judicial district for you. (Please note, most options in the "Court" dropdown are counties, but "Court of Appeals" and "Supreme Court" are also available.)
- You can click Reset to remove all search criteria and start over. To clear just one dropdown menu, open that dropdown menu and select the blank top row from the options, then search again.
How to request access to the appointment
- Locate the open case you need to access: As detailed in the previous section, navigate to Cases > Search Cases, enter search criteria to locate the case, click Search Cases, then click on the blue case number for the case under Matching Cases. (Remember, this is to find the attorney of record's appointment; if you are the attorney of record, you should instead create your own appointment.)
- Find the appointed attorney's existing appointment: At the bottom of the case screen, find the name(s) of the appointed attorney(s) under the Appointments heading (pictured below). Click Request Access next to the attorney's name to request access to that appointment. Please note, there may be multiple attorneys appointed to a case, so be sure to click Request Access next to the correct attorney's name. Missing name or button?
- Clicking Request Access opens a pop-up box in which you can specify your request. Choose the appropriate Request Reason from the drop-down menu at the top, type an optional note for the appointed office, then click Submit Request. You and the appointed attorney will each receive an automatic email confirmation summarizing this request--it will include your name, the case number, the Request Reason, and any note you provide with the request:
You will see "Access Requested" next to the appointment while waiting for a response. If you need to cancel your request for any reason while waiting, locate the appointment again via Cases > Search Cases, then click the red trash can icon beside "Access Requested": - When the appointed attorney responds to your request, you will receive another email notification. The appointed attorney may approve or deny your request for access and may also grant extra access for you to view their entire office's activities on this appointment (instead of being able to see only your own office's activities on this appointment). They may enter a note for you about their decision. Find contact info for the appointed attorney if needed here (by district)
- If you are granted access to an appointment, it will now appear in your My Appointments list for easy access ("Other Offices' Appointments" tab). You and the appointed attorney will each receive additional email notifications if you cancel your request (pictured above) or if access is later revoked. Help with email notifications
While You Have Access
Find all appointments to which your office has received access in the "Other Offices' Appointments" tab of Cases > My Appointments. You can view (but not edit) this appointment's Profile tab with child parties, Involved Persons tab, and Associated Appointments tab. Your office can enter activities (next section) with optional notes and attachments; you and the appointed attorney's office can review these in the Activities tab unless the other office revokes access. Each office must generate independent invoices and each office's activities will appear only on their own invoice. Note for the future: When your work concludes, you may check the box beside the appointment and “Mark Inactive” to clean up your office’s My Appointments list without impacting the appointed office’s open/closed status. For more help, the following FAQs are relevant too: