Free Electronic Filing Tutorial - New Jersey

COURTS on-line Electronic Filing of Claim Petitions and Answers Procedures Guide
revision date 9/27/07

Thank you for your interest in the NJ Division of Workers' Compensation's Electronic Filing of Legal Pleadings program. A PowerPoint tutorial on CD-ROM is also available. If your firm has not received one already, please contact the Division at (609) 984-2555. Before you begin electronic filing, we encourage you to read this document and preview the tutorial as it gives you step-by-step procedures on how to use the e-filing system. The procedures guide is broken into 3 sections addressing the different processing functions for petitioner's law firms, insurance carriers and respondent law firms. We encourage you to also review the E-Filing Frequently Asked Questions document, which is available at the following website link: http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/forms_pdfs/wc/pdf/efiling_FAQ.pdf . If at any time during the process you need assistance, please feel free to contact us at (609) 777-1926, (609) 984-2566 or (609) 777-4921 or you can e-mail us at [email protected].

INDEX: Requirements for participation: New System Features: Sample workflow: Filing and Answering a Claim Petition - Step-by-Step Tutorial: Petitioner Attorney View Carrier View Respondent Attorney View Additional Procedures for filing Re-openers and Amendments HELP

Requirements for Participation:
Who Can E-File? You must be an active COURTS on-line subscriber to use the Electronic Filing system. Your employer must designate you as an approved "E-Filer" for your firm.

Technical/System Requirements: The COURTS on-line website has been optimized for Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.5 or higher. Netscape version 4.5 or higher is also acceptable but some of the document templates and images on the site may not appear correctly. You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed (version 5.0 or higher). If you are using Adobe Acrobat version 6.0, you should check to make sure that you have version 6.0.1. This software is available as a free download off the Internet (www.adobe.com).

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You must be able to open and download documents from the Internet. Your screen resolution should be set to at least 800 x 600. If the setting is anything less than this, you may have to scroll left - right to see the full document template. To check your screen resolution (also called desktop area), right-click from your main desktop, select properties and then settings. You must routinely check your e-mail to receive important notices or alerts from the Division. Please note that e-mail filters used by some Internet Service Providers may classify messages from the COURTS on-line staff as Bulk Mail or Junk Mail, while others may completely prevent the delivery of our messages to you. To ensure that messages are delivered correctly to your Inbox, please add [email protected] to your address book. We encourage law firms to obtain TI, cable or DSL service to avoid response time issues.

Important Note: As long as your firm is an active participant in the electronic filing program, electronically filed legal pleadings will be sent to your firm only through the COURTS on-line website. Manually filed documents will continue to be sent to your firm through US Mail. Therefore, you should frequently check your Message Box in COURTS on-line to download the e-filed documents sent to your firm.

New System Features:
Attorneys that are activated for e-filing will see the addition of five new buttons on the left navigation menu in COURTS online.

This button appears for law firms only.

This function allows you to select the type of document you wish to file electronically. The following documents are currently available from this menu:
Claim Petition (CP) Dependency Claim Petition (DCP) Application/Review or Modification of Formal Award (ARM) Amendments to CP Amendments to DCP Amendments to ARM Answer to Claim Petition Answer to Dependency Claim Petition Answer to ARM Amendments to Answer to CP Amendments to Answer to DCP Amendments to Answer to ARM

This will link to your Message Box, which is similar to an e-mail "inbox". All efiled documents sent to your firm will appear here. From this box, you can view and print individual documents. You can also delete documents that do not require a follow-up response (any type of Answer document). If you are an attorney, you can launch the Answer document template from this view. You can also Filter (sort) your messages based upon the following criteria: For Attorneys: Filing Date, CP #, Case Title, District Office, Insurance Carrier, and Document Type. For Carriers: Filing Date, CP #, Case Title, District Office, designated Respondent Attorney, Petitioner Attorney and Document Type.

This feature will allow you to batch print documents. This function is useful for carriers or law firms that receive a large volume of documents.
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You can select the documents to be printed with the following criteria: For Attorneys - Filing Date, Petitioner's SSN and Type of Document For Carriers: Filing Date, Petitioner's SSN, Type of Document and the Designated Respondent Attorney

You can download Claim Petition and Answer data through this function. The data, which is available as a text file, can be imported into your own company's database.

This button appears for law firms only.

This is a temporary workspace where documents that have not been submitted to the Division can be saved and viewed later. Once the document has been submitted with the Division, it will be automatically deleted from the File Cabinet.

Sample Workflow The following workflow occurs when all the parties are electronic filing participants:
Electronic Filing of a Claim Petition Petitioner's Attorney (P/A) hits the E-Filing button on the left menu and then selects "Employee Claim Petition". A CP template appears on the screen, which the P/A completes. The document is Saved and Printed at least once and then signed by the petitioner The document is then electronically submitted and P/A receives confirmation of filing. District Office and CP # are assigned automatically by the system CP is electronically received in the assigned WC district office and they create file.

Electronic Notice to Carrier and Respondent Attorney COURTS on-line serves an electronic copy of CP to Carrier. Notice of filing appears in the Carrier Message Box. Carrier can print, individually or in batch mode, all electronically filed documents. If specific Respondent Attorneys have been pre-designated by carrier, they will also receive electronic notice of CP. If the carrier has not pre-designated an attorney, they can assign an attorney to the case from within the Message Box. The respondent attorney will then immediately receive an electronic copy of the CP.

Electronic Answer to Claim Petition To file an Answer, respondent attorney can click on "Respondent's Answer to Claim Petition" from the case listed in Message Box or they can click on the E-Filing button on the left main menu and then select "Respondent's Answer to Claim Petition". An Answer to Claim Petition template will appear on the screen pre-filled with data. After data entry is complete, the document is Saved and Printed and then signed by the respondent attorney The document can then be electronically submitted. R/A receives confirmation of the filing and will also be advised if the petitioner's attorney and carrier are electronic filing participants The petitioner's attorney and carrier will receive the Answer in their COURTS on-line Message Box. The WC district office also receives the Answer electronically. The case information is updated accordingly.

Please note that the above scenario is the optimal scenario. A petitioner attorney may e-file even though the carrier and their respondent attorney are not e-filers. A carrier can receive e-filed documents through COURTS on-line even if their legal counsel is not e-filing. Similarly, a respondent attorney can e-file an Answer even if it was manually filed by the petitioner.

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Step by Step Tutorial
A. Petitioner Attorney View Completing the on-line CP template Saving, Printing and Submitting to the DWC Managing your Message Box and printing your messages Batch Printing e-filed documents Carrier View Managing your Message Box and printing your messages Designating or Pre-Designating Respondent Counsel Batch Printing e-filed documents Respondent Attorney View Completing the on-line Answer template Saving, Printing and Submitting to the DWC Managing your Message Box and printing messages Batch Printing e-filed documents

B.

C.

A.

How to File an Electronic Claim Petition - Petitioner Attorney access:

Sign-on to COURTS on-line. As an authorized e-filer for an attorney firm, you will have access to the five additional buttons on the left menu. Any messages in the message box for your company will appear on the screen when you sign on. Messages are listed with the most recent appearing at the top of the list. If your firm does purely petitioner's work, the only messages you will receive are those that relate to newly filed Answers to Claim Petitions (or similar) documents. If your firm does both petitioner and respondent work, you will see both Claim Petition and Answer to Claim Petition documents in your message box.

How to File a Claim Petition electronically:
To file an electronic Claim Petition, select the E-filing button. Then select Employee's Claim Petition from the list of available documents for electronic filing. A screen appears for the entry of the Petitioner's Social Security Number. If the Petitioner does not have a Social Security Number, check the appropriate box and an identifier will be assigned when the claim is submitted and accepted. Select Continue. A Claim Petition template will appear on the screen. Your name and address will appear in the Petitioner's Attorney block in the template. You cannot change your name on the template but you can modify your address. If you would like to change the address, simply write over the existing text. Please note that changing the address on this screen will only change the way the address is printed on the document. It will not update the address in the Division's records. To update the Division's records, you will need to advise us in writing. If your firm is listed in our system as an active attorney on any other case for this petitioner, the current name, address, date of birth and sex for your petitioner will be pre-filled in the template. You can make any corrections and/or updates to this information. Complete the carrier section by either searching for a carrier from the list of carriers (by clicking on "uninsured" if the respondent is uninsured. See additional notes below. ) or selecting

Complete the rest of the Claim Petition as you would normally. Hit Save while working on the document and when you are done. Hit Save & Print, when you are done and are ready to have the document signed by your client.

Things to keep in mind when data entering into the Claim Petition form:

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1.

City, state and zip code fields. There is a look-up feature for city and zip code. You can get to this search feature by clicking on . If you enter a city name, you will see a list of all zip codes we have in our system for that city. If you enter a zip code, you will see the name of the city we have in our system for that zip code. Your selection will prefill the city and zip code fields on the form. There are edits that will tell you if you have entered a city/zip code combination for New Jersey that is not in our table. There are some city/zip code combinations for municipalities not in New Jersey. If you are entering a city not in New Jersey and the correct city/zip code combination is not in our table, simply type in the city and zip code you have. There are no edits for out-of-state city/zip codes. **Note ­ In either the petitioner or respondent section, if you cannot find the zip code ­ municipality combination from our table or if you get an error upon saving the CP form, please confirm your zip code by going to the US Postal service website. (http://www.usps.gov) and then clicking on the "Find the Zip Code" link at the top left. You can type in the full address on this page and the USPS will provide you with all the valid zip codes for that address. If the zip code-combination you were searching for is found at the US Postal Service website, you will need to contact the Division at (609) 984-2566, (609) 777-1926 or you can e-mail [email protected]. Please provide us with the complete mailing address. Save the document you are working on. We will confirm the data and make the updates to our city/zip code table if warranted. Someone from the Division will contact you after the entry has been added to the table so that you can continue with the filing.

2.

Insurance carrier name and address There is a look-up feature allowing you to find the carrier/self-insurer/governmental entity in our tables and select it for your Claim Petition. You must select a company that is listed in our system. All of the insurance carriers listed with the Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau are in our insurance carrier table with addresses that the carriers have given to us for delivery of claim petitions. Our table also contains the names and addresses of the authorized self-insured employers, municipalities, counties and governmental entities. If you know the name of the insurance carrier/self-insurer on your case: The carrier search box will appear. Select the "Select from Table" button and then hit the search button. Here you can type in the name of the insurance company or self-insured employer that you are searching for (full or partial). You can search for the name by using any of the following search options: "starts with", "contains" or "ends with". The system defaults to "contains". If you cannot find the name of the company, please search again by modifying your search query. For example, instead of searching for the "Bureau of Risk Management", you may want to just search for "Bureau"; instead of searching for "A.B.C. Insurance", try searching for "ABC Insurance" or "A B C Insurance" or just simply "ABC". If you find the company you were looking for, click on the hyper-linked text and you will be brought back to the main CP template. You will see the selected Carrier Name and Address pre-filled in the document. You can change the way the address appears on the document by simply overwriting the address text in the form. If you still cannot find the insurance carrier or a self-insured employer/govt. entity within the Carrier Search screen, and you have exhausted all the various search options, there is an option to select "Unlisted". If you click on "Unlisted", you will be brought back to the insurance carrier section in the CP document template where you will be able to enter the name and address of the carrier/self-insurer directly into the template. ** Note - If the respondent is a self-insured company, you should enter the name of the self-insurer in the carrier field. Please do not type in "self" or "serve directly" in the Name field as our system does not recognize this. When this Claim Petition is submitted and accepted, Division staff will do a further review of the name and address of the carrier/self-insurer and determine whether it should be added to the Division's carrier listing.

If the respondent is uninsured: Select the "Unknown" button. This will cause the Claim Petition to be sent to the respondent. Additionally, that Claim Petition will be referred to the Uninsured Employers Fund office for further processing. Please note that prior to filing the claim as an "Uninsured", you must confirm coverage for the respondent at the Compensation Rating & Inspection Bureau website. They maintain an updated database of all workers' compensation policies (www.njcrib.com).

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3.

Accident date This is a required field. Enter all dates in "mm/dd/yyyy" format (eg. 01/01/2004). You must enter the "/" as part of the dates. If the claim is for an occupational exposure case, there is an option to enter the accident date as just the year (yyyy) or month/year (mm/yyyy). In order for this type of an entry to be accepted by the system, you must check off the occupational exposure box. If you wish to clarify the exposure by putting in a range of dates or some other textual description, you can enter this information in the field called "Dates of Occupational Exposure".

4.

Date Stopped Work / Date Returned to Work These are not required fields. If you wish to enter information in these fields, they must be formatted as "mm/dd/yyyy". Note: You cannot enter in text, such as "NCLT", "TBS", "To Be Supplied", "Never Returned to Work", etc. If you wish to provide such information, you can enter this additional text in the free form space called "Other Pertinent Information".

5.

Date of birth This is also a required field. The system will check the SSN/date of birth combination you have entered against our database. If we do not have the same date of birth for that SSN, we will present a warning/error message telling you there is a mismatch. If you get this message, please check with your client to insure that you have the correct SSN and date of birth. If you submit your Claim Petition with this type of data mismatch, the case will be reviewed by DWC staff. They will look at the documents for both your case and the other cases that exist for that SSN. They may telephone or write to the involved attorneys to resolve the conflict.

6.

Monetary amounts--gross wages, rate of compensation, temporary disability paid, permanent disability paid The maximum amount that can be entered in any of these fields is 999999999.99. It is not necessary to enter any cents. If these amounts are whole dollars, just enter the dollar figure. For example, if the gross weekly wages are $700.00, enter 700. Do not enter a dollar sign. Aside from the maximum number of characters, the system is not doing any editing or calculations of amounts. Note ­ these fields only accept numerical values. You cannot enter in text, such as "NCLT", "Maximum Rate", "TBS", "To Be Supplied". If you wish to provide such information, you can enter this additional text in the free form space called "Other Pertinent Information". If nothing has been paid, you should enter in 0. You can leave these fields blank, but by doing so, an assumption will be made that the data will be provided at a later date.

7.

Describe extent and character of injury You can enter up to 340 characters in this field. Spaces between words and punctuation marks count as characters. Due to certain programming constraints, there is no stopping point or warning message as you are data entering in this box. However, if you have exceeded 340 characters, you will get an error message when you tab or click into the next field on the screen. When the description prints on the form, there are variations in the number of words that appear because of the lengths of words at the end of a print line and combinations of capital letters and punctuation marks. You should check how the form looks through "Save and Print" before finally submitting the claim petition.

8.

Names and addresses of physicians and hospitals You can enter as many as necessary. If you need more than 4 entries, select the "Add Additional Physicians" button. Up to 3 physician/hospital names will print on the front page of the printed claim petition. If you enter more than 3, all will print on a supplemental page.

9.

Check Box for Standard Occupational Disease Interrogatories If you check the box demanding standard occupational disease interrogatories, the standard DWC OD interrogatory form will be attached to the filed document.
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10. What other facts are there that you believe important? This is a text block similar to the injury description block. It is limited to 320 characters. If you enter more than that, you will get an error message when you tab to another field. 11. Additional Carriers Button Selecting this button opens a new page, which looks like the supplemental claim petition page for entering additional carriers on a claim. You can add additional carriers to the case by going through the same process as #2 above. After you have selected the additional carriers, you can click on the "Save and Return to Main Page" button.

Saving, Printing and Submitting the Document
Save - Allows you to save the form to your file cabinet if you are not ready to finalize and submit the form. You can save the document at any time. We recommend that you frequently Save the document while you are actively data entering so that you do not lose any data should your session time out or if the system goes down. Save and Print--Use this button when you are ready to print the form for the Petitioner's signature and your notarization. You are required to retain the signed and notarized copy of the Claim Petition in your files as you may be asked to present the document in court. After clicking on the Save & Print button, the Claim Petition will come up as an Adobe pdf document in a new Internet window. Depending upon your Internet settings, the new web page may come up in the minimized view. If that's the case, to open the new window, just click on the page from the task bar at the bottom of your PC window. You can then select the "print" button available on your Internet Browser to print the document.

Problems with Saving a document: If the document is incomplete, you will get a pop up dialogue box that will tell you that the form is incomplete and it will ask whether you want to save anyway. You should select Yes. If there are certain data formatting errors with the form, the errors will be listed at the very top of the document template (in red). You will not be able to save the document unless you either correct those errors or delete the incorrect entry all together. For example, if you get an error message saying the date of accident is formatted incorrectly, you should go to the date of accident field and either correct it to the proper format or delete it altogether. You should then hit Save again. You can always update the information before you submit the final version of the document. Submit--After the claim petition has been printed, signed and notarized, you may submit the claim. You will be asked to acknowledge that you have printed the document and had it properly signed and notarized. When the claim has been accepted, a message is returned to you stating the case number and assigned district office. As confirmation of the filing, you can do a screen print of this message and keep it in your file or you can click on "View Document" and the actual filed CP will appear as a pdf document in a new Browser window. You can print and retain the document in your file. After you have submitted the CP electronically, you can look up that case and the e-filed document at any time through the COURTS on-line Full Background Search function.

Managing your Message Box
The Message Box available in COURTS on-line is a multi-functional tool that if used effectively, can help firms monitor electronically filed cases. The Message Box is similar to an e-mail in-box. When a document is electronically sent to your firm, a message relating to that document will appear in the Message Box. Your company's Message Box will always appear by default as the first screen after you sign on to COURTS on-line. Messages are listed with the most recent appearing at the top of the list. If your firm does purely petitioner's work, the only messages you will receive are those that relate to electronically filed Answers to Claim Petitions (or similar) documents. If your firm does both petitioner and respondent work, you will see both Claim Petition and Answer to Claim Petition documents in your message box.
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From your Message Box, you have the option of printing individual e-filed documents, filtering your messages and printing your messages. You can also delete messages relating to e-filed Answer documents but not messages relating to newly filed CP's (i.e. claim petitions, dependency claim petitions, Re-openers, and Amendments to these documents). The messages for these documents will be automatically removed from your Message Box when the Answer document has been filed. Printing individual documents: To view and print a single e-filed document, go to the related Message in the Message Box and click on the linked document under the column called "Document E-Filed". The document will come up as an Adobe pdf document in a new Internet window. Depending upon your Internet settings, the new web page may come up in the minimized view. If that's the case, to open the new window, just click on the page from the task bar at the bottom of your PC window. You can then select the "print" button available on your Internet Browser to print the document.

Filter Messages: By clicking on the Filter button, you will be presented with a search screen where you can select different criteria to search for specific messages. You can search for messages by the following: Date Range, Case Number, Case Title, District Office, Insurance Carrier and Document Type. You also have the option of having your messages sorted in a particular order: by Date Filed or by Document Type. Hit Continue and you will get the listing of messages that match your search criteria.

Print Messages: From here you can print the selected messages by hitting Print Messages. This will simply give you a print out of the messages themselves and not the actual e-filed documents.

Batch Printing:
For firms that have a larger volume of cases, we have also provided an option for you to batch print documents based upon certain search criteria. To batch print e-filed documents sent to your company, click on the "Print E-Filed Docs" button. From this screen, you can set your filtering criteria. You have the option, but you don't have to, of selecting the dates of filing (from and to), and/or petitioner's SSN. You must select either the type of document (i.e. ­ Claim Petition, Respondent's Answer to Claim Petition, etc.) or the "all docs" button, which will pull up all the document types. After you've selected your criteria, hit "Continue". The next screen will show all the documents that match. From here, you have the option of printing all the selected documents at one time by selecting the "Print All" function or going back to the prior filtering screen by hitting the Filter Documents button. < Back to Tutorial Menu < Back to Petitioner Attorney view > Down to Respondent Attorney View

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B.

How to download newly filed Claim Petitions - Carrier View:

By participating in this program, carriers will receive notice of electronically filed legal pleadings through the COURTS on-line website. Typically, a carrier will designate an individual and a back-up to have e-filing access. If documents have been efiled, a notice pertaining to the new CP filing will appear in the COURTS on-line Message Box. The carrier has to simply check the website and print the newly filed documents. The frequency of checking the website can be adjusted depending on the volume of cases filed against the carrier. Some carriers may opt to check every day whereas others feel comfortable checking once a week. The process of downloading and printing e-filed documents is actually quite simple. COURTS on-line has a batch print feature where you can print at one time all the documents e-filed over a certain period of time. These documents otherwise would be mailed to the carrier which would require someone in their mail processing center to open the envelopes and sort the documents. E-filing also provides some additional bonus features for insurance carriers and self-insurers: the ability to sort e-filed documents the ability to save a copy of the document A tickler system which assists you in tracking whether an Answer has been filed on a CP the ability to electronically forward an e-filed document to a specific respondent attorney for handling as well as the ability to pre-designate up to 21 respondent law firms to automatically receive notice of all e-filed cases sent to your company. This last feature is particularly helpful for carriers who use "house counsel" or refer cases to particular respondent attorneys based upon the county of the case.

PROCESS: Sign-on to COURTS on-line. As an authorized e-filer for a carrier, you will have access to four additional buttons on the left menu. Any messages in the message box for your company will appear on the screen when you sign on. Messages are listed with the most recent appearing at the top of the list. The messages in your Message Box will be electronically filed Claim Petitions (and similar documents) and electronically filed Answers to Claim Petitions (or similar) documents.

Managing your Message Box
The Message Box available in COURTS on-line is a multi-functional tool that if used effectively, can help carriers monitor electronically filed cases. The Message Box is similar to an e-mail in-box. When a document is electronically sent to your company, a message relating to that document will appear in the Message Box. Your company's Message Box will always appear by default as the first screen after you sign on to COURTS on-line. Messages are listed with the most recent appearing at the top of the list. From your Message Box, you have the option of printing individual e-filed documents, filtering your messages and printing your messages. You can also delete messages relating to e-filed Answer documents but not those that require an Answer to be filed (i.e. claim petitions, dependency claim petitions, Re-openers, and Amendments to these documents). The messages for these documents will be automatically removed from your Message Box when the Answer document has been filed. Retaining these documents in the Message Box is a way for you to track CP's that have not been answered by your respondent counsel. Lastly you have the option of designating a specific respondent law firm to answer the case on your behalf.

Printing individual documents: To view and print a single e-filed document, go to the related Message in the Message Box and click on the linked document under the column called "Document E-Filed". The document will come up as an Adobe pdf document in a new Internet window. Depending upon your Internet settings, the new web page may come up in the minimized view. If that's the case, to open the new window, just click on the page from the task bar at the bottom of your PC window. You can then select the "print" button available on your Internet Browser to print the document. Filter Messages: By clicking on the Filter button, you will be presented with a search screen where you can select different criteria to search for specific messages. You can search for messages by the following: Date Range, Case Number, Case Title, District Office, Insurance Carrier and Document Type.

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You also have the option of having your messages sorted in a particular order: by Date Filed or by Document Type. Hit Continue and you will get the listing of messages that match your search criteria. Print Messages: From here you can print the selected messages by hitting Print Messages. This will simply give you a print out of the messages themselves and not the actual e-filed documents.

Batch Printing:
For firms that have a larger volume of cases, we have also provided an option for you to batch print documents based upon certain search criteria. To batch print e-filed documents sent to your company, click on the "Print E-Filed Docs" button. From this screen, you can set your filtering criteria. You have the option, but you don't have to, of selecting the dates of filing (from and to), and/or petitioner's SSN. You must select the type of document (i.e. ­ Claim Petition, Respondent's Answer to Claim Petition, etc.) or the "all docs" field, which will pull up all the document types. After you've selected your criteria, hit "Continue". The next screen will show all the documents that match. From here, you have the option of printing all the selected documents at one time by selecting the "Print All" function or going back to the prior filtering screen by hitting the Filter Documents button.

Designating Respondent Attorney:
Individually Assigning Respondent Counsel: We are providing carriers the option of designating a respondent attorney on individual cases from within the Message Box. By designating a respondent attorney from within COURTS on-line, the attorney will receive an instant notice of the e-filed document in their firm's Message Box. They can begin processing the answer without any further delay. To assign a respondent attorney on a case, go to the specific message in your Message Box and click on the button with 3 dots under the column "Designate Attorney".

This will open up the Attorney Search box. From here you can search for the name of your respondent attorney. After you have found the name, simply click on the hyper-linked name and you will be brought back to the Message Box. The attorney you've just selected will be pre-filled in the Designate Attorney section. To forward the message to that attorney, you would click on the "Forward" button on the right side. If you cannot find the name of your attorney in the Attorney Search box, chances are they are not e-filers. You can select the "Manual" option, which will bring you back to your Message screen. You will then have to print the document and manually forward it to your respondent attorney as you do currently. Assigning Respondent Counsel for all your cases in advance (Pre-Designation): We have also provided an option for your company to pre-designate specific law firms to always receive notice of e-filed documents sent to your company. You may assign respondent counsel on your cases based upon the county of where the case is assigned. We can accept up to 21 different law firms, corresponding to all of the counties in New Jersey. If you are interested in this feature, you can contact the Division at [email protected] and request the application.

Changing Respondent Attorney after they have been designated: If for some reason you have to remove the assignment of a case from a particular attorney who has already been designated, you can do it in the following way: . Search for the name of Go to the Notice of CP message in the Message Box and click on the Attorney Search button the new attorney and then select it by clicking on the hyperlinked name. If the new attorney is not an e-filer select "Manual". You`ll be brought back to the Message Box. Hit the Forward button. Immediately, the new designated attorney, if one has been selected, will receive the notice of the CP filing in their Message Box and the original attorney will receive a notice that their designation has been withdrawn.

< Back to Tutorial Menu < Back to Petitioner Attorney view < Back to Carrier View

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C.

Respondent Attorney View:

Sign-on to COURTS on-line. As an authorized e-filer for an attorney firm, you will have access to the five additional buttons on the left menu. Any messages in the message box for your company will appear on the screen when you sign on. Messages are listed with the most recent appearing at the top of the list. If your firm does purely respondent work, the only messages you will receive are those that relate to newly filed electronic Claim Petition (or similar) documents, where the insurance carrier has designated you as their respondent attorney. If your firm does both petitioner and respondent work, you may see both Claim Petition and Answer to Claim Petition documents in your message box. Filing an Answer electronically: To file an Answer to a claim petition electronically, you can do it in one of 2 ways. 1. Click on the E-Filing button from the main menu on the left side. Select "RESPONDENT'S ANSWER TO CLAIM PETITION" from the list of documents. You will then be asked to enter the CP# of the case and the petitioner's social security number. If the numbers match what we have in the database, you will get a pre-filled Answer template. You can also file an Answer on a specific case from within the message box: The notice of a claim petition will appear in your message box if that CP was filed electronically, if the insurance carrier is also an e-filer and if they have designated you as their respondent attorney for this case. This message will stay in this box until your firm files an Answer. To file an Answer from within the Message Box, go to the case you want to file an Answer for and click on "RESPONDENT'S ANSWER TO CLAIM PETITION" listed under the response column. The Answer template will appear, pre-filled with data from the e-filed claim petition.

2.

Once the Answer document template comes up on your screen, you can fill in the fields as you would normally.

Things to keep in mind when data entering into the Answer form:

1.

Changing the Insurance carrier/self-insurer If you pull up the Answer template directly from the CP Filing message in your Message box, you cannot change the name of the carrier/self-insurer. If you go through the main E-Filing menu to file the Answer, you have the option of correcting the name of the carrier/self-insurer, as follows: If the original claim petition was filed against the wrong carrier/self insurer or if it was filed inaccurately as uninsured, you can add the correct carrier/self-insurer to the case by clicking on "Select another carrier", located right underneath the carrier section. This will get you to a new screen that lists all the carriers/self-insurers on the case. If you don't see the carrier you wish to file an Answer for, click on the button "Add New Carrier" and you will be provided the Carrier Search box. Here you can type in the name of the company you are searching for (full or partial). You can search for the name by using any of the following search options: "starts with", "contains" or "ends with". The system defaults to "contains". If you cannot find the name of the company, please search again by modifying your search query. For example, instead of searching for the "Bureau of Risk Management", you may want to just search for "Bureau"; instead of searching for "A.B.C. Insurance", try searching for "ABC Insurance" or "A B C Insurance" or just simply "ABC". If you still cannot find the insurance carrier or a self-insured employer/govt. entity within the Carrier Search screen, and you have exhausted all the various search options, there is an option to select "Unlisted".

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After you've selected the correct carrier (or the unlisted selection), you will be returned back to the page that lists all the carriers for that case. Place a check in the "Select to Continue" column next to the carrier/self insurer you want to file an Answer for. The new carrier name/address will now be pre-filled in the Answer template. If you had selected "Unlisted", you will have to type in the name and address of the new carrier in the Insurance Carrier section. ** Note - If the respondent is a self-insured company, please do not type in "Self" in the Name field as our system will not recognize this. 2. Changing the Insurance Carrier address If the carrier name is correct but you just want to change the way the address appears on the printed Answer, do not use the "unlisted" option noted above. You can simply overwrite the address as it appears on the Answer template. Doing this will not change the address in the Division's records for that carrier. It will simply change the way the address appears on the form. A change of address request for the carrier must be submitted to the Division in writing if you are aware that the carrier address has officially changed. Correct Name of Respondent if incorrect If the respondent name was misspelled on the original claim petition, you can indicate the correct name in this field. The field can accommodate up to 40 characters (includes spaces and any punctuation). 4. Correct Date Accident If the accident date in the original CP was incorrect, you can indicate the correction in this field. Enter all dates in "mm/dd/yyyy" format. You must enter the "/" as part of the dates.

3.

4.

Date Respondent had Knowledge & Notice / Date Stopped Work / Date Returned to Work If you wish to enter information in these fields, it must be formatted as "mm/dd/yyyy". Note: You cannot enter in text, such as "NCLT", "TBS", "To Be Supplied", "Never Returned to Work", etc. If you wish to provide such information, you can enter this additional text in the free form space called "Other Pertinent Information".

5.

Monetary amounts--gross wages, rate of compensation, temporary disability paid, permanent disability paid The maximum amount that can be entered in any of these fields is 999999999.99. It is not necessary to enter any cents. If these amounts are whole dollars, just enter the dollar figure. For example, if the gross weekly wages are $700.00, enter 700. Do not enter a dollar sign. Aside from the maximum number of characters, the system is not doing any editing or calculations of amounts. In the section for Permanent Disability paid, if you want to report a payment here, you can enter in the percent of disability, the body part, the # of weeks, the rate and the total dollar amount paid. Note ­ these fields only accept numerical values. You cannot enter in text, such as "NCLT", "Maximum Rate", "TBS", "To Be Supplied". If you wish to provide such information, you can enter this additional text in the free form space called "Other Pertinent Information". If nothing has been paid, you should enter in 0.

6.

Names and addresses of physicians and hospitals You can enter as many as necessary. If you need more than 4 entries, select the "Add Additional Physicians" button. Up to 3 physician/hospital names will print on the front page of the printed claim petition. If you enter more than 3, all will print on a supplemental page. Check Box for Standard Occupational Disease Interrogatories If you check the box demanding standard occupational disease interrogatories, the standard DWC OD interrogatory form will be attached to the filed document.

7.

8.

Other Pertinent Information? You can enter up to 340 characters in this field. Spaces between words and punctuation marks count as characters. Due to certain programming constraints, there is no stopping point or warning message as you are data
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entering in this box. However, if you have exceeded 340 characters, you will get an error message when you tab or click into the next field on the screen. When the description prints on the form, there are variations in the number of words that appear because of the lengths of words at the end of a print line and combinations of capital letters and punctuation marks. You should check how the form looks through "Save and Print" before finally submitting the document.

9.

Additional Page for free-form text If you need additional space for your Answer that cannot be accommodated in the "Other Pertinent Information" section, you can select this button, which will open up an additional page of free-form space. After you have completed typing on this page, you can click on Save and you will be returned back to main document. In the final printed version of the document, this page will be an attachment to the main document. Hint ­ if your firm uses standard language on Answer documents, you can have this text saved in another document, such as Word or WordPerfect. You can copy and paste this text into the additional page as long as the original text has no characters.

Saving, Printing and Submitting the Document
Save--Allows you to save the form to your file cabinet if you are not ready to finalize and submit the form. You can save the document at any time. We recommend that you frequently Save the document while you are actively data entering so that you do not lose any data should your session time out or if the system goes down. Save and Print--Use this button when you are ready to print the form. You are required to retain the signed and notarized copy of the Answer in your files as you may be asked to present the document in court. After clicking on this button, the Answer document will come up as an Adobe pdf document in a new Internet window. Depending upon your Internet settings, the new web page may come up in the minimized view. If that's the case, to open the new window, just click on the page from the task bar at the bottom of your PC window. You can then select the "print" button available on your Internet Browser to print the document.

Problems with Saving a document: If the document is incomplete, you may get a pop up dialogue box that will tell you that the form is incomplete and it will ask whether you want to save anyway. You should select Yes. If there are certain data formatting errors with the form, the errors will be listed at the very top of the document template (in red). In order to get the document saved, you should either correct those errors or delete the incorrect entry all together. For example, if you get an error message saying the date of accident is formatted incorrectly, you should go to the date of accident field and either correct it to the proper format or delete it altogether. You should then hit Save again. You can always update the information before you submit the final version of the document. Submit--After the Answer has been printed at least once, you may submit the claim. When the Division has accepted the Answer, a message is returned to you stating that the document has been successfully submitted. The message will also advise you on the e-filing status of the petitioner's attorney and the insurance carrier. If the petitioner's attorney and the carrier are e-filers, the Answer will be forwarded to them electronically and there is nothing further for you to do. If the petitioner's attorney and/or the carrier are not e-filers, you'll have to forward a copy of the Answer to them through US Mail.

Managing your Message Box The Message Box available in COURTS on-line is a multi-functional tool that if used effectively, can help firms monitor electronically filed cases. The Message Box is similar to an e-mail in-box. When a document is electronically sent to your firm, a message relating to that document will appear in the Message Box. Your company's Message Box will always appear by default as the first screen after you sign on to COURTS on-line. Messages are listed with the most recent appearing at the top of the list. If your firm does purely respondent's work, the only messages you will receive are those that relate to electronically filed Claim Petitions (or similar) documents. If your firm does both petitioner and respondent work, you will see both Claim Petition and Answer to Claim Petition documents in your message box.

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From your Message Box, you have the option of printing individual e-filed documents, filtering your messages and printing your messages. You can also delete messages relating to e-filed documents but only on those that do not require an Answer (i.e. claim petitions, dependency claim petitions, Re-openers, and Amendments to these documents). The messages for these documents will be automatically removed from your Message Box when the Answer document has been filed.

Printing individual documents: To view and print a single e-filed document, go to the related Message in the Message Box and click on the linked document under the column called "Document E-Filed". The document will come up as an Adobe pdf document in a new Internet window. Depending upon your Internet settings, the new web page may come up in the minimized view. If that's the case, to open the new window, just click on the page from the task bar at the bottom of your PC window. You can then select the "print" button available on your Internet Browser to print the document.

Filter Messages: By clicking on the Filter button, you will be presented with a search screen where you can select different criteria to search for specific messages. You can search for messages by the following: Date Range, Case Number, Case Title, District Office, Insurance Carrier and Document Type. You also have the option of having your messages sorted in a particular order: by Date Filed or by Document Type. Hit Continue and you will get the listing of messages that match your search criteria. Print Messages: From here you can print the selected messages by hitting Print Messages. This will simply give you a print out of the messages themselves and not the actual e-filed documents.

Batch Printing: For firms that have a large volume of cases sent to them, we have also provided an option for you to batch print documents based upon certain search criteria. To batch print e-filed documents sent to your company, click on the "Print E-Filed Docs" button. From this screen, you can set your filtering criteria. You have the option, but you don't have to, of selecting the dates of filing (from and to), and/or petitioner's SSN. You must select either the type of document (i.e. ­ Claim Petition, Respondent's Answer to Claim Petition, etc.) or the "all docs" button, which will pull up all the document types. After you've selected your criteria, hit "Continue". The next screen will show all the documents that match. From here, you have the option of printing all the selected documents at one time by selecting the "Print All" function or going back to the prior filtering screen by hitting the Filter Documents button. < Back to Tutorial Menu < Back to Petitioner Attorney view < Back to Carrier View < Back to Respondent Attorney View

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Additional Procedures for filing Re-openers and Amendments
The process of filing an Application for Review and/or Modification of Formal Award (ARM), Answer to ARM and an Amended document is similar to the process for creating and submitting claim petitions and answers. Please note the following specific instructions. Application for Review and/or Modification of Formal Award (ARM) Requirements for e-Filing: Any e-filing attorney can file an ARM. You do not need to be the original attorney for the case. If you are filing on behalf of the petitioner, you cannot be the active respondent attorney on that case. Conversely, if you are filing on behalf of the respondent, you cannot be the active petitioner attorney on that case. Process:
From the E-filing Menu, select Application for Review and/or Modification of Formal Award Enter the Social Security number for the petitioner and the case number. Hit CONTINUE. If you are an attorney that was not the original attorney on the case, you will be asked to also provide the petitioner's first and last name in addition to the CP # and SSN. The name must match the data that is in our system for that case. If the petitioner's name has changed since the original case, you will need to enter the old name in order to get into the data entry template. The next screen will be the ARM data entry template. The petitioner, respondent and carrier information will be prepopulated with the latest data from our database. You may choose to overwrite any of the petitioner information, except for the SSN. If you need to change the carrier on the case (e.g. if original carrier was taken over by a new carrier), you can click on the carrier search button and select a new carrier.

Cases involving multiple active carriers If the case has multiple carriers that remained active after the case was closed, all these carriers will be listed on the ARM document and will be made a part of this filing. You will be able to determine the existence of multiple carriers on the case from previewing the document (through a Save & Preview) or by clicking on the Additional Carriers button located at the top of the data entry screen and noting whether other carriers are listed for this case. Many times, it is appropriate to have multiple carriers remain active on a closed case as there can be multiple judgments awarded against different carriers. Other times, it is due to a data entry error where staff may have inadvertently forgotten to inactive a carrier after they were dismissed from the case. We realize that you may not want to involve all the active carriers on this particular filing, but due to programming and database constraints, we are unable to control this. You may consider filing the ARM manually if you do not wish to proceed electronically. Alternatively, you may contact our technical support staff ([email protected], 609-984-2555) and ask that they review the case to confirm if the carrier information on the case is correct. Staff may be able to correct the data within a short turn around time.
Complete the remaining fields in the ARM template. The following information is required:

The party filing this document (Petitioner or Respondent) The date the prior award made (mm/dd/yyyy format) The name of the Judge who made the earlier decision (select from drop-down list) The reason for filing (text description - i.e. injury worsened, etc.) The document number (i.e. this is the #1 ARM being filed, or #2, etc.) You can Save the document at any point. It will be available from your FileCabinet, identified by the case caption and CP #.

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If you are ready to Submit, you must do a SAVE & PREVIEW of the document and have your client sign the document before hitting the SUBMIT button. After submitting you will receive a confirmation message with a link to the filed document. POSSIBLE ERRORS You may receive errors or may be prevented from filing an ARM in the following instance(s): If the case is already open in our system. If there are multiple active respondents. You will have to file the ARM manually. If the case has an accident date older than1999. These errors are typically a result of data conflicts arising from earlier system conversions. You will need to file the ARM manually. If you need assistance, you can contact our helpdesk at 609-984-2555, [email protected] . For certain filings where the court reporting agency has changed from the original assignment, the assignment record noted on the printed form may indicate "Inquiry Only" instead of the actual office. There is no need to worry about this. The case will be assigned to the correct office. This is a result of a data conflict in the system and does not impact the processing of the case.

Answer to ARM Requirements for Filing: Any e-filing attorney can file an Answer to ARM. You do not need to be the original respondent attorney for the case. Process: From the E-filing Menu, select Answer to Application for Review and/or Modification of Formal Award. Enter the Social Security number for the petitioner and the case number. Hit CONTINUE. (Alternatively, if the ARM was e-filed and the related message appears in your Message Box, you can proceed directly to the template from clicking on the link provided in the Message Box) The next screen will be the Answer to ARM data entry template. The form will be pre-populated with the latest data from our database. You can modify the information including the carrier. Complete the remainder of the form. You can SAVE the document at any point. It will be available from your FileCabinet, identified by the case caption and CP #. If you are ready to Submit, you must do a SAVE & PREVIEW before hitting the SUBMIT button. After submitting you will receive a confirmation message with a link to the filed document. The Message will advise you of the e-filing status of the Petitioner's Attorney and the Insurance Carrier. If they are e-filers, the system will send them the filed document through the COURTS on-line system. Otherwise, it is your responsibility to print up and mail them a hard copy of the Answer. Amendments: You can file an Amendment on almost every case, whether it was manually or electronically filed. The following are some exceptions: - If the case has multiple active respondents - If you are not the active attorney on the case Process: From the E-filing Menu, select the Amendment document type (i.e. Amendment to Claim Petition, Amendment to Answer, etc.)
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Enter the Social Security number for the petitioner and the case number. Hit CONTINUE. The data entry template will appear, pre-populated with the latest information from our database. If the prior document was e-filed, the template will be completely pre-populated with the data from your last filing. If the prior document was manually filed, the system will only pre-populate certain data elements, such as Petitioner, Respondent and Carrier data and date of accident. You will have to enter in the remaining information. If you want to change any of the pre-populated data fields, simply overwrite it. Note: You will not be able to change an existing respondent through the e-filing of an Amendment. You also cannot delete an existing carrier through an Amendment, but you can add one or more. To add a carrier, click on the "Additional Carrier" button located at either the top or bottom of the data entry screen. Search for the new carrier(s) by hitting the search button and then hit Save when done. Upon submitting an Amended case, both the earlier carrier and the new carrier(s) will become active. The earlier carrier can only be removed from the case by order of the judge. You can Save the document at any point. It will be available from your FileCabinet, identified by the case caption and CP #. If you are ready to Submit, you must do a SAVE & PREVIEW before hitting the SUBMIT button. After submitting you will receive a confirmation message with a link to the filed document. Note: If the original document was e-filed, changed information on the e-filed Amended document will be highlighted in light grey. These highlights will not appear in the document printed from your FileCab, but only on the document after it has been submitted. If filing an Amended Answer document, the Confirmation Message will also advise you of the e-filing status of the Petitioner's Attorney and the Insurance Carrier. If they are e-filers, the system will send them the filed document through the COURTS on-line system. Otherwise, it is your responsibility to print up and mail them a hard copy of the Amended Answer.
Back to Tutorial Menu < Back to Petitioner Attorney view < Back to Carrier View < Back to Respondent Attorney View < Back to ARM/Amended Processing section

Help:
If you need assistance or have questions about electronic filing, we encourage you to take a look at the E-Filing Frequently Asked Questions document, which is available at the following website link: http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/forms_pdfs/wc/pdf/efiling_FAQ.pdf . You can also contact any of the following telephone numbers: (609) 984-2566 (609) 777-1926 (609) 777-4921 or you can e-mail us at [email protected].

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