Reimagining Public Defense with Modern Case Management

How One Quasi-Government Agency Streamlines Public Defense

1. Robust Reporting = Relevant Resources

   The Utah County Public Defender Association heavily focuses on the budget they receive from the county commission. They present to the commission on a quarterly basis for reporting purposes and also negotiate annually for a contract.

   Filevine reporting helps the association prepare for these quarterly updates and budget negotiations. The platform can report on multiple data points, and Josh believes, “Filevine has the most robust reporting, in terms of tools offered and customization features.”

   When we’ve been heavy on caseloads, Filevine shows us that. Filevine enables us to use that information to communicate with our funding sources about what our needs are, in an effort to obtain resources to address them.”

2. Saving Time With a Searchable System

   Filevine’s Docs+ feature has revolutionized the Utah County Public Defender Association’s document management system. Previously, Josh had to download individual PDFs, open them in Adobe, and then highlight to make notes. With Docs+ OCR (Optical Character Recognition), Josh can easily search every uploaded or scanned document within Filevine.

   The Docs+ feature and the OCR function are huge for me. The ability to highlight and annotate within the system itself and not go outside to another third-party application is a time-saving feature.”

3. Single Source of Truth

   The Utah County Public Defender Association leverages Filevine to build the custom solution they need. The association uses a single Filevine instance with different projects (or case types) for everything they handle, which includes:

   • Utah County cases
   • Appeals
   • Juvenile delinquency cases
   • Juvenile welfare cases
   • Grant-funded cases (also known as “outer-county” or cases sent from smaller counties)

   Through Filevine, team members can add notes to cases, assign tasks to colleagues, and link email communication right to the case file. Email integration is a game-changer for the team because attorneys and legal operators don’t have to dig through email chains to find critical information. This became a lifeline for Josh and his colleagues when the world pivoted to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic and attorneys could no longer meet with clients in person or at court.

   Rich text editing, like bold and italics, in the case file has also been a win for Josh. Whenever he prepares an argument for court, he pulls up the project in Filevine and makes a note of the statute to reference. The text formatting is a simple yet effective way for Josh to visualize information hierarchy and quickly scan notes while in court.

   I’ve relied heavily on being able to communicate with clients through email.”

4. Leveraging the Cloud’s Accessibility

   When Josh started practicing law, the industry survived on paper files. He went to court with a carry-on suitcase full of files for that particular court date. The digital transition, in conjunction with Filevine, placed the Utah County Public Defenders Association in a very prepared position when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

   Filevine can be accessed online anywhere, which made the association’s sudden transition to remote work not much of a transition at all. “We were already situated and were able to go remote with Filevine,” Josh says.