Occasionally, when appearing at court for a specific client, you may find there is an additional, unposted hearing on the docket for the same client. If you feel you should stand in, or are requested by the court to stand in, it becomes what we call an unscheduled hearing. This only applies to hearings for clients you are already representing at that court that day.
You are under no obligation from Docketly to stand in for these hearings, and it is entirely at the client’s discretion to authorize or decline payment for any unscheduled hearing.
Please note you should NEVER COVER and unscheduled hearing for a client you have not appeared for in the LAST 30 DAYS.
Submitting an Unscheduled Hearing
1) Through the FILE REPORT button
From the homepage, click the white "FILE REPORT" button.
On the Reports page, click the grey "Add Unscheduled Hearing" button in the upper left corner.
Select the client for whom you covered the unscheduled hearing and fill out the basic case information. This will generate the hearing and upon clicking SAVE at the bottom of the screen you will be taken to the full Hearing Report page.
Fill out all details on the Hearing Report page being as complete as possible. Your narrative will be reviewed by the client and is integral to the approval process. There is never a guarantee that the client will approve payment on an unscheduled hearing.
2) Through the Report Overview page directly after submission of the report
THIS IS ONLY APPLICABLE IF THE UNSCHEDULED HEARING IS FOR THE SAME CLIENT.
Submit the report for the hearing you were officially scheduled to cover, as you would normally do.
After hitting the orange submit button, there will be a new "Add Unscheduled Hearing" button above the hearing report summary
You will be taken to a form that will ask you to input the case details for the unscheduled hearing. Please fill out all fields and select the orange "Save" button.
If you are unable to input an unscheduled hearing:
There are a few reasons you may not be able to follow the above listed procedure, but, the response is going to be the same: Create a Support Ticket. In the ticket, you will need to clearly state why you need to go around the standard process for reporting an unscheduled hearing.
When you create a support ticket for an unscheduled hearing, you will need to include:
Who: Client name, Defendant name, Case number, etc.
What: What happened?
Where: Which court, building, room?
When: Date and time
How: How did you end up covering? Did the judge ask? Did the client ask?
Why: Why were you unable to submit the unscheduled hearing per process? Were you working for another client? Was the button missing? Please provide a screenshot if there is an issue with the button.
Important to note:
If you do not follow process and resort to sending a ticket there is only a 48 hour window for client approval and a greater chance the unscheduled hearing will be denied.
We recommend only taking hearings for clients you are representing THAT DAY.
You will not be paid for any of the hearings in the bundle until the unscheduled hearing is either approved or denied by the client.